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Image Credits
Every photograph on this site, with its archival identifier, its credit line and its rights position. Also what is deliberately not here, and why.
Naming convention
Files are named identifier-first, so the archive number stays attached to the image wherever it travels.
In use
Photographs on this site
80-G-408456 — studio portrait
Doris Miller in white summer service dress, the Navy Cross on his left breast, against a painted cloud backdrop. Taken in 1942, after the award of 27 May.
Credit: U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-408456, National Archives / Naval History and Heritage Command. Public domain as a work of the United States Government.
Where used: home page.
80-G-19930 — USS West Virginia afire
The battleship burning and settling at her moorings off Ford Island on the morning of 7 December 1941, with a motor launch working survivors out of the oil alongside.
Credit: U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-19930, National Archives / Naval History and Heritage Command. Public domain.
Where used: home page (as a background wash), December 7, The Machine Gun, The Ships.
80-G-294808 — on the bond tour
Miller at a microphone in dark winter service dress, the Navy Cross on his chest, naval officers watching. A speaking engagement on the war bond and recruiting tour, 1942.
Credit: U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-294808, National Archives / Naval History and Heritage Command. Public domain.
Where used: home page, Biography.
LC-DIG-ppmsca-40817 — the Navy Cross
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz pinning the Navy Cross on Miller, 27 May 1942.
Credit: Official U.S. Navy photograph, Office of Public Relations. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-40817. Public domain.
Caption note: the Naval History and Heritage Command places this ceremony aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6). The Library of Congress caption says only “on board a U.S. Navy warship in Pearl Harbor.” This site gives both.
Where used: home page.
Documents
Reproduced as images, because on this site a document is a photograph of a document.
Documents shown
Papers reproduced as images
NAID 74876313 — the Secretary of the Navy’s commendation
A typed letter on Secretary of the Navy letterhead, dated 30 March 1942, addressed to Miller as Mess Attendant First Class, quoting his citation and signed in ink by Frank Knox. Routed via the commanding officer of USS Indianapolis.
Credit: National Archives, NAID 74876313, Record Group 24 (Bureau of Naval Personnel). Public domain (CC0).
Where used: Navy Cross and Medal of Honor.
NPG.88.173 — Office of War Information Poster No. 68
David Stone Martin, “above and beyond the call of duty,” 1943. A painted portrait, not a photograph — and the government’s own poster gives the name as “Dorie Miller,” which is a large part of why the nickname stuck.
Credit: David Stone Martin, “Above and beyond the call of duty,” 1943. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.88.173. Public domain (CC0) — the Smithsonian states this rights position in writing, which is why this copy is used rather than others of the same poster.
Where used: Myths and Misconceptions.
Ships and ceremonies
One insignia, one modern Department of Defense photograph.
Also in use
Insignia and the naming ceremony
80-G-23588 — the ceremony, wide
Admiral Nimitz reading the citation aloud on a wooden flight deck, Miller standing at attention facing him, the ship’s officers and company drawn up. 27 May 1942.
Credit: U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-23588, National Archives / Naval History and Heritage Command. Public domain.
Where used: Navy Cross and Medal of Honor.
NH 79367-KN — ship’s insignia, USS Miller
A purple cross with gold lightning and the motto Courage · Devotion, for USS Miller (DE-1091). This is an insignia, not a photograph of the ship.
Credit: Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 79367-KN. Public domain.
Where used: The Ships.
200120-N-MH811-1001 — the CVN-81 naming ceremony
Members of the Miller family beside the artist’s rendering of the future USS Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, 20 January 2020.
Credit: Department of Defense photograph, released via DVIDS. Public domain, subject to the notice carried in the footer of every page: the appearance of U.S. Department of Defense visual information does not imply or constitute endorsement. That condition is also why this site carries no advertising or affiliate links.
Where used: The Ships.
Corrections to our own manifest
Three files in this project’s working set were catalogued under descriptions that did not match the images. Recorded here rather than quietly fixed.
Mislabelled
Where catalogue descriptions were wrong
Every image used on this site was opened and identified before use. Three did not show what their filenames claimed, and one archival identifier is commonly misdescribed. Publishing these corrections is cheaper than repeating them.
| Identifier | Commonly described as | What it actually shows |
|---|---|---|
| 80-G-408456 | Miller as Mess Attendant Second Class | The studio portrait — but he is wearing the Navy Cross, so it cannot predate 27 May 1942, by which time he was Mess Attendant First Class. |
| 80-G-23588 | A portrait of Miller | A wide shot of the Navy Cross ceremony, with Nimitz reading the citation. |
| 80-G-19934 | Battleship Row during the attack | Not the attack. A battleship alongside a pier in calm water, crowded with sailors, tugs made up, no damage and no smoke. Not used on this site. |
| NH 64477 | USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee | USS Tern (AM-31) fighting fires aboard the sunken West Virginia, 7 December 1941. The West Virginia-and-Tennessee photograph is NH 94378. |
Two further photographs of Miller from the same bond-tour period — 80-G-294804 and 80-G-294807, both showing him seated at indoor events wearing the Navy Cross — were examined and are public domain, but are not used, because 80-G-294808 covers the same ground better.
There is no photograph of Doris Miller as he was on 7 December 1941. Every image of him that this site has located shows him wearing the Navy Cross, and therefore postdates May 1942. Where a page needs him as a Mess Attendant Second Class, it says that no such picture exists rather than implying one does.
Rights, not taste
These are copyright decisions, not editorial ones.
Not reproduced
What this site will not show
- The Waco memorial sculpture (Eddie Dixon, 2017) — in copyright. United States law provides no freedom of panorama for sculpture; 17 U.S.C. §120 covers architectural works only. Photographing it yourself creates no right to publish. The memorial is described and linked instead.
- The 2010 USPS stamp design — postal designs have been under USPS copyright since 1978 and are not government works for this purpose. The stamp is described in words on the Memorials page.
- Material from the Baylor Doris Miller Archive — Baylor requires prior written consent for reproduction. Linked, never copied.
- Corporate press-kit imagery from the CVN-81 shipbuilder — no licence stated.
- Gwendolyn Brooks, “Negro Hero” (1945) — rights held by Brooks Permissions. A single line at most, then a link.
Rights summary
Works of the United States Government are in the public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. §105. CC0 material is dedicated to the public domain by its holder. Neither status is a licence to caption an image carelessly: identifiers, dates and credit lines are given in full above so that any reader can check an image against its source. If you believe an image here is misattributed or wrongly cleared, tell us and it will be taken down while it is checked.
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