Restaurant Menus, Postcards & Ephemera

By the 1930s, Edgar Miller had become widely known in Chicago as a true master craftsman and artist-designer of the modern age.  His ability to artfully (and quickly) design and execute interior spaces, and his exceptional ability to translate his ideas into graphic design work, propelled Miller’s career as he became a highly sought-after commercial artist.  Local establishments and companies tapped Miller to help them produce holistic experiences for their customers.

One such establishment was The Normandy House, a homey French restaurant located across the street from the historic Chicago Water Tower on Michigan Avenue at 800 Tower Court, which moved into the space in 1937.  Friends with the owners Grace Holverscheid, Helen Wing and Richard Tallman, Miller was hired to help renovate the space, which was redesigned like an French country inn, with exposed wooden beams, large stained glass windows, and a fireplace crown molding embedded with terracotta designs by Miller.  Miller’s brother, fellow artist-craftsman Frank Miller, moved into a vacant apartment upstairs from the restaurant and lived there for several years (Frank also tended bar downstairs at the Black Sheep Bar).  Later, Miller’s second wife, née Dale Holcomb, and their two sons, would continue to live above the Normandy House until the early 1950s.  While living there, Miller transformed the restaurant space into a magical artistic environment, similar to his work at the Handmade Homes artist colonies in Old Town, by executing everything from the stained glass windows, murals, carved wood fixtures and furniture, to menus, placemats, business cards, and even the servers’ uniforms.  Miller even produced numerous memento items for the restaurant down to the matchbooks and postcards, all with a uniform color palette, typography, and stylization.  

The popular Fred Harvey restaurant chain was another Chicago institution that would commission Miller to create a unique patron experience.  In 1940, Miller was hired by architect and interior designer Sam Marx to paint a mural for the Fred Harvey at Chicago’s Dearborn Station, depicting Chicago’s earliest years around a newly built Fort Dearborn on the Chicago River.  He would go on to design several menu covers and containers for Fred Harvey over the years, which would be used all along the national train routes where the restaurant chain set up shop.  Miller was also commissioned to produce other murals at Fred Harvey restaurants in Gallup, New Mexico and Hollywood, California, though these are not believed to have survived. What survives today from these restaurant design projects are scattered examples of the incredible printed memorabilia and menus that Miller poured his creativity into, improving the experience of hundreds of thousands of diners, commuters, and tourists in Chicago and across the United States.

Restaurant Menus, Postcards & Ephemera

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