Nellie Miller Mann

Nellie Miller was born in Elkhart, Indiana in 1897 and first heard of the humanitarian crisis in the Near East while studying at Goshen College. Miller joined the Mennonite Relief Commission, accepting a two-year position as secretary to the treasurer of the NER headquarters in Beirut in 1921.

Her letters from the field to her fiancé, Cleo Mann, and to her family document daily activities in Beirut, including the increasingly desperate refugee situation. Miller visited the refugee camps and orphanages as part of her work and curated a collection of photographs, taken by herself and by others.

Nellie Miller was a frequent and beloved visitor at the Bird’s Nest Orphanage in Sidon, Syria, where Danish relief worker Maria Jacobsen lived with 400 young children in a beautiful Druze palace near the sea. Miller’s photos capture the essence of childhood in this busy household.

Nellie Miller and Cleo Mann were married in August, 1924. Nellie Miller Mann died in Indiana in 1997 at the age of 99. Her time in Beirut was formative. She saved her letters from the field for her entire life.