Dedication of the Wright Brothers Shop with first flight photo made fro m original negative

This 62-page book was created for the dedication on April 16, 1938 of the Wright Brothers' home and shop 25 years after their first flight. The book is very nicely done. With a label on the front, crisp type, and deckled edges.

These are rare, and the one we have tonight is very rare.

There is a photo of the first flight that's in the front of all of the books.  It is the famous photo we have all seen of their successful flight on December 17, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. The book we have tonight is one of the very rare books that has a photo made from the original negative tipped in. (See the text below the photo and the way some of the images show up in the photo that I took at an angle.)

Historical background

Henry Ford assembled a collection of all sorts of wonderful historic items for his museum, including buildings for his “Greenfield Village” in Dearborn, Michigan. 

Two of those were the Wright Brothers home and shop in Dayton, Ohio. Ford acquired these two buildings and had them disassembled, shipped, and reassembled in his Greenfield Village.

According to the museum:

"Wilbur and Orville Wright operated their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle business out of this building from 1897 to 1908. The brothers sold and repaired bikes, and even produced models under their own brands. It was also in this shop that the Wright brothers built their earliest flying machines, including the 1903 Flyer that became the first successful heavier-than-air, powered, controlled aircraft."

I highly recommend a visit. The entire huge museum and Greenfield Village are filled with wonderful things. (I’ve included photos from visit in 2023.)

A side note: As you probably know, many people died experimenting with craft that they hoped would fly. The Wright Brothers, intentionally or not, stared this in the face every day: There was an undertaker next door to them in their small building, and if that isn’t tempting fate, they chose Kill Devil Hills for the flight.

As you can see below the photograph, this print is from the original negative of the only picture taken of “man’s first flight, Kitty Hawk, N.C., December 17, 1903.” (Emphasis added.) They actually flew at Kill Devil Hills, about 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk. The airplane flew 852 ft on its fourth flight. It was damaged on landing and later blown over and damaged beyond what they could repair there.

Today the aircraft is on exhibit in the West Wing of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. My photo is from my visit there in 2023.

Shipping: $15. Please allow two weeks for shipping.