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Collection Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress

1932 to 1948

Timeline

  1. November 19, 1932

    Orville attends dedication of Kill Devil Hill National Memorial honoring the Wright brothers in Kitty Hawk.

    [Letter from Herbert Hoover] General Correspondence: Hoover, Herbert, 1926, 1932 The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  2. April 16, 1938

    Wright brothers' home and bicycle shop, moved from Dayton to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, are dedicated as a memorial to the Wrights.

  3. December 1, 1939

    Wilbur and Orville's brother Lorin Wright dies in Dayton.

  4. July 1940

    1903 Wright airplane on exhibit at the Science Museum in London dismantled and packed away for safekeeping during World War II.

    [Letter from Smithsonian] General Correspondence: Smithsonian Institution, 1942-1947, undated The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  5. August 19, 1940

    Wilbur and Orville Wright Memorial in Dayton and near Huffman Prairie, is dedicated.

  6. October 24, 1942

    Smithsonian Institution publishes The 1914 Tests of the Langley "Aerodrome," a brochure that apologizes for and retracts former statements about the precedence of the Langley machine, marking end of the Smithsonian-Wright controversy.

  7. 1944

    Orville builds cypher machine for automatic selective coding of messages.

  8. January 30, 1948

    Orville dies of heart attack in Dayton.

    [Ticket, Presentation of the Wright Brothers' Aeroplane of 1903, 17 December 1948]. Subject File: Smithsonian Institution--Presentation Ceremony--17 December 1948, 1948-1949. The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  9. November 22, 1948

    1903 airplane arrives from the Science Museum in London and is delivered to Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Plane is formally presented to Smithsonian in a ceremony on December 17.