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Collection: Wright Brothers Collection: 1897-1928

Among the materials the Wright Brothers estate gave the Library of Congress in 1948 were 300 glass plate negatives and two nitrate negatives, most taken by the Wright brothers themselves between 1897 and 1928. About 200 views from 1900 to 1911 document their successes and failures with their new flying machines. The collection provides an excellent pictorial record of the Wright brothers laboratory, engines, models, experimental planes, runways, flights, and even their accidents. The collection also contains individual portraits and group pictures of the Wright brothers and their family and friends, as well as photos of their homes, other buildings, towns, and landscapes.

135 photos

Mr. and Mrs. Lindemuth, farmers, at Shoup's Mill, near Dayton, Ohio

Dr. McClean, Helen Emmins, and Agnes Osborn, camping at Shoup's Mill, near Dayton, Ohio

Camp at Shoup's Mill, near Dayton, Ohio

Path leading to camp at Shoup's Mill, near Dayton, Ohio

Camping party at the Wright home, 7 Hawthorn Street, Dayton, Ohio

Katharine Wright and Harriet Silliman, seated near the fireplace

Katharine Wright and Harriet Silliman, busy in the kitchen

Harriet Silliman, head and shoulders

Orville Wright before he grew a mustache, side view facing right, half length

Wilbur Wright, age 30, seated facing right, half-length side view

Edwin H. Sines, neighbor of the Wright brothers and partner in their early printing business, in printing office

Parlor of the Wright home, 7 Hawthorn Street, Dayton, Ohio, occupied by the Wright family from 1871 through 1879 and October 1885 through April 1914

Wilbur Wright working in the bicycle shop

Orville Wright and Edwin H. Sines, neighbor and boyhood friend, filing frames in the back of the Wright bicycle shop

Surf at Kitty Hawk

Crumpled glider wrecked by the wind on Hill of the Wreck (named after a shipwreck)

Tom Tate, son of Captain Tate's half-brother Daniel Tate, posing with a drum fish in front of 1900 Wright glider

Captain William J. Tate, the Wrights' first host in Kitty Hawk, and family on porch of their home, the Kitty Hawk Post Office

Captain Tate and wife standing in front of the Kitty Hawk Post Office

The Wright brothers' camp near Kitty Hawk, taken from the north, two groups of trees to the left, side view of their tent to the right

Kitty Hawk lifesaving crew: Captain Joseph Payne, Oliver T...ford, Jos. Best, Ben Toler, Tom Suerling, and Tom Heintz

Surf at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Left side view of the 1900 Wright glider before installation of forward horizontal control surface, flying as a kite, tipped forward; Kitty Hawk Lifesaving Station and Weather Bureau buildings in background to the left

Kitty Hawk Bay viewed from the Wright brothers' 1900 camp