Tracing the Wright Brothers through Europe

For our spring 2026 semester internship with the Special Collections & Archives, our task was to install an exhibit in four display cases in the reading room, located on the fourth floor of Dunbar Library. This exhibit provides a unique opportunity for visitors in the reading room to see original materials from the Wright Brothers collection—which, after all, is usually what people are hoping to see when they visit the Archives at Wright State. With such a large collection, we narrowed our parameters by keeping in mind what people in the reading room would want to see: the Wright Flyer. However, we also wanted to choose a topic that a guest might not expect to see in a Wright Brothers exhibit. That is how we landed on the topic: The Wright Brothers in Europe. 

Choosing Material

Having decided on our topic, we dove into boxes upon boxes of materials, searching for anything that caught our eye and seemed to scream, “Exhibit me!” The Archives have a large Wright family photograph collection, which include images of the brothers' travels in foreign countries, such as Germany, France, and Italy. When selecting photographs, we kept in mind the stability of the images, asking ourselves, “Will this material hold up to being on exhibit?” We also considered who was pictured in the images. “Is this picture just of the brothers, or does it include someone else of note? Perhaps their sister Katharine, or maybe even European royalty?”

With so many photos to choose from, we needed to make some hard decisions in terms of what to include and what not to include in the exhibit. We really loved the photo below, for example, but ended up removing it in order to give space to other images that better served our vision for the case.

We also wanted to showcase materials that weren’t just photographs. While much of the collection is indeed made up of photographs,  the Archives have so much more that doesn’t generally get as much of a spotlight. So, we also included maps, ship manifests, and post cards—which provided some color!

Research

As we went through the process of selecting the items that spoke to us, we were able to craft the narrative of the exhibit. We decided to trace the Wright Brothers from their beginnings at Huffman Prairie and Kittyhawk, through Europe, and end with the 1909 Homecoming celebrations the city of Dayton held when the brothers returned home. 

Initially, our plan was to split the work of writing and researching the narrative between the two of us, but in the end we each worked on all four of the cases equally— teamwork really does make the dream work! When researching, we used many great resources, some from Wright State’s Archives, and some from other institutions around the world that we accessed online. Here is a sneak peek of the narrative from our France case: 

After the patent was secured, the brothers had a meeting with Charles Flint, who had heard of their aerial adventures, and showed interest in trying to sell their planes in Europe. A few years later, on August 8, 1908, Wilbur successfully performed a flight demonstration in Le Mans, France, in front of large crowds who had gathered to see the spectacle. The flight lasted two minutes—long enough to excite the public and build a reputation. Word spread fast and demand for flight demonstrations steadily grew. Orville and their sister Katharine joined Wilbur in France in January 1909.They moved their operations to Pau, France, for a while thereafter, where Wilbur would train three French students to fly. 

Encapsulations

The next step was to encapsulate any material that did not already have support. This was quite a learning experience and the process took a lot longer than we had initially anticipated. Measuring the items and cutting the mat board went smoothly, but encapsulating the items with mylar to gently secure them to the board took several weeks. Despite the roadblock, we were able to successfully encapsulate everything with plenty of time left for the final step of the process: installation.

Installation

One of the things we debated for a while was which end of the display cases to use as our starting point. The cases we used in the reading room are all aligned in a row. We had considered starting our exhibit at the case furthest from the door and orient the exhibit from left to right. This would feel natural to most visitors, as English is read from left to right. But after we made some observations, we determined that due to the layout of the room, patrons overwhelmingly approached the case by the door—furthest to the right—first. So, in the end, we decided to start the exhibit in the right-most case. 

Finally, we placed our materials in the cases, trying to keep the display balanced and give each one its own unique feel. 

The complete exhibit is now out for display in the Special Collections & Archives reading room on the fourth floor. It is available to view whenever the doors are open. If you’re intrigued, come take a look!