Ruth Ellen Miller: Lighting treasures around the world

Tucked behind a white picket fence off Route 113 just north of Seaford is a company that sheds light on some of the world's most famous documents.

“The most high tech and sophisticated lighting in the world is made here,” said Ruth Ellen Miller, president of NoUVIR – short for no UV or infra-red lighting.

With over 100 patents, Jack Miller – father of Ruth Ellen, 53, and Matthew Miller, 61, who now run the company – perfected a method to remove the destructive properties of light. What is left is light with almost no heat or energy, which destroys documents and fades colors in paintings and ancient artifacts.

The Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address and Delaware's copy of the Bill of Rights are some of the priceless documents now viewed with NoUVIR lighting. And it doesn't end there. Countless museums throughout the country use NoUVIR lighting for exhibits: Dorothy's ruby slippers on display in Kansas, the first Superman comic book at the Geppi Museum in Baltimore and, along more macabre lines, a display of body parts at the Mütter Museum at the Philadelphia College of Surgeons.

“If it's rare or valuable, we probably light it,” Matthew said.

Born and raised near Pasadena, Calif., Ruth Ellen remembers going to aeronautical conferences with her father at age 9.

“I was going to be the flaky artist, but he was always taking me to these conferences with scientists who said, 'Isn't that cute, she knows quantum physics,'” Ruth Ellen said.

When she went to college – at age 16 and the youngest freshman to matriculate at Scripps College of Claremont – she studied art, but she had to take math classes at nearby Pomona College, which eventually offered her a full scholarship if she enrolled as a math major. Torn between art and math, Ruth Ellen conferred with her mentor and father on what to do. “I told Dad I want to work for you,” she said.

He in turn told her to get a business degree from California Polytechnic State University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a post-graduate teaching credential in art and design.

In the 1990s, after decades of using his quantum physics PhD for work in the military and aeronautical field, Jack Miller was ready for retirement. Among his many distinctions, Ruth Ellen said, Jack Miller invented laser tag, a form still used today to train U.S. troops; he helped launch the country's first satellite; and he designed optic steering used by generations of space vehicles – even the one that recently passed Pluto.

It was then Ruth Ellen and her father started a research and development company doing consulting work for the military and business world. After listening to a speaker from the Smithsonian tell a conference of lighting businessmen and CEOs that safe lighting is needed to preserve the world's artifacts, the proverbial light bulb went on over Ruth Ellen's head, especially when several large lighting companies told her they weren't interested in the museum market because it was too small for them.

“They said museums weren't important,” she said. “I looked at Dad and said someone has to do it; we're losing all our artifacts.”

Jack Miller told his daughter he would design the work if Ruth Ellen ran it, she said.

And design he did.

He went to work creating fiber optic lighting now used throughout the world. Still living in California, the two soon realized that starting a manufacturing business in the Golden State was cost prohibitive.

A search of business-friendly states landed them in Sussex County, Delaware.

Ruth Ellen and her parents moved to the Seaford area in 1995, setting up their NoUVIR business in a former antiques business on Route 113 and living in an adjoining home, which now serves as the business office. Profits jumped 20 percent with the move to Delaware. The company is small, with fewer than 10 employees and does well, said Ruth Ellen, politely declining to share profit information.

Her brother, Matthew, joined the business in 2000 after a career in law enforcement that involved countless death investigations as a crime scene investigator.

“I went from preserving evidence to preserving artifacts,” he said.

Ruth Ellen said she couldn't be happier working with her brother. The two share down-to-earth, easygoing personalities and a passion for what they do.

“I absolutely love this job,” she said, asking in what other job could she hold in her hands a musical score written by Schubert and see the original Monopoly game? By the way, the board was round, said Ruth Ellen, always ready to share quick trivia facts with a glint behind her bespectacled eyes.

The two enjoy bringing out for show their own small collection of artifacts, among them gold-plated earrings and a necklace and clay hand-held lantern dating back to Egyptian times.

Using more contemporary means, Matthew sometimes bakes cookies in an Easy Bake oven to show people the effects of a 100-watt light bulb: “If it takes only 12 minutes to bake cookies, how much damage do you think a painting would undergo after years of lighting?” he asks.

Another example of how light is destroying artifacts is the color of Ben Franklin's coat as shown in many surviving paintings.

“Ben Franklin has always been depicted as wearing a tan coat, but that would've been a faux pas back then,” Matthew said. “His coat was really chocolate brown, but it faded in the artwork.”

Ruth Ellen said they are working on a new product, but she is keeping tight-lipped on it for now.

“We don't know where it's going yet,” she said.

In August, Ruth Ellen and Matthew will head to Rochester, N.Y., to install lighting for the National Toy Hall of Fame – all part of the job.

But it's a job the child at heart said she wouldn't change for anything.

“I like my company. It's goofy, but I like it,” she said.