Beschreibung:

WRIGHT, Orville (1871-1948). 13 Typed letters signed (“Orville Wright”, “Orville”, and “Orv”), to Earl Findley (1878-1956), Dayton, November 1919 to December 1940. Together with outgoing carbons from Findley to Wright, telegrams, related correspondence including related letters from Mabel Beck and Fred Kelly, photographs, typed transcripts, and ephemera. Approximately 130 pages in all, 280 x 215mm (average size). An extensive correspondence between Wright and Findley spanning nearly twenty years . Topics range from the Wright Brothers’ legacy – and efforts to control it – to those of a more routine nature, including travel plans and the health of Findley’s wife. On 31 December 1935 Wright writes regarding researcher and biographer Stella Randolph, who championed the Wrights’ rival Gustave Whitehead and wrote a series of articles about Whitehead’s flights – to the chagrin of the Wrights. To Findley he writes, “I didn’t intend to have you take up a regular sleuthing job for me, [...] I merely wanted to know who this Miss Randolph is," adding, “I have a suspicion that this Randolph story may have been done through the Smithsonian.” Several letters relate to Harper's journalist Fred Kelly, whose articles on aviation – according to Wright – “stir up a lot of inquiries, and make a lot of work for me. A few days ago I had a letter from a brother of Charles M. Manly, raising a question as to the accuracy of Kelly’s statements concerning Charles M’s visit incognito to our flying field in 1905.” Wright’s letter of 9 February 1928 responds to a telegram from Findley and speedily forwards transcripts of published articles relating to his place in history.