Miner was born to
Roy Waldo Miner, who was Curator of
Marine Life at the
American Museum of Natural History, and Anna Elizabeth Carroll. Miner was of
British and
Irish descent from her father's and mother's side, respectively. She was a
fraternal twin with her brother,
Dwight C. Miner, who became a history professor at
Columbia University. Born in
New York City, she graduated from the local
Horace Mann School in 1922. Miner then received a
Bachelor of Arts in
English and
Classics from
Barnard College in 1926, was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa, and became the first International Fellow, studying abroad at
Bedford College of the
University of London. Two years later, she began pursuing a
Doctor of Philosophy in
Art History at Columbia, under
Meyer Schapiro, but never completed the program. In 1931, Miner was hired to teach the subject at Barnard. In 1933, the
Morgan Library & Museum hired Miner to assist with the cataloging of the first exhibition in the United States devoted to illuminated manuscripts. In 1934, upon the recommendation of Morgan Library director
Belle da Costa Greene, Miner became the first Keeper of Manuscripts at the
Walters Art Museum, and eventually held the simultaneous position of Curator of Islamic and Near Eastern Art until her death from
cancer in 1973. Her main expertise was in Western medieval manuscripts, and she had interests in
Sasanian, Islamic, and Persian art as well. In 1955 she was the
Rosenbach Fellow in Bibliography at the
University of Pennsylvania. In 1981, Claire Richter Sherman published a retrospective on Miner's career. She was named an honorary member of the
Society of Scribes & Illuminators. ==References==