From Special Collections & Archives

Climb Into the Passenger Seat: Newly Digitized Videos Bring History to Life

January 29, 2026

A woman in a red blouse talking to camera.
Ivonette Wright Miller remembers taking her first flight with her uncle, Orville Wright, at age 15.

Wright State University's Special Collections and Archives is excited to announce that selected videos from the Ivonette Wright Miller Papers (MS-216) are now fully digitized and available to view on CORE Scholar.

In one of the videos from 1987, Ivonette Wright Miller—the niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright—recounts a special memory of her first flight, piloted by Orville:

“I climbed into the passenger seat when the propeller and engine were still going and sat down next to Uncle Orv. He smiled. When he was ready to take off, he gave the signal and away we went. I looked out over the wings that were carrying us up and the ground that was falling away… we went up over the telegraph poles and the trees.… and that was my first flight. The year was 1911. I was 15 years old.”

A black and white image of an early Wright Brothers airplane flying.
Orville Wright and Ralph Johnstone flying in a Wright Model B Flyer over Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio in June, 1912, a year after Ivonette's flight. This photograph is part of the MS-355 Charles Wald Collection. 

In another video from this collection, recorded in 1991, Ivonnette's husband Harold S. Miller reflects on his military service and early flying experiences on Nieuport aircraft in France during World War I.

A man in a blue dress and a man in a tan suite sitting on a couch for an interview.
Ivonette Wright Miller and her husband, Harold Stuart Miller, recounting the Wright family's experiences during the 1913 Dayton Flood. 

The couple also appear together in a 1988 oral history recalling the 1913 Dayton Flood. This interview captures the couple’s memories of life in Dayton before the flood, the rescue and cleanup efforts, and personal stories such as Ivonette’s grandfather, Bishop Milton Wright, escaping the rising waters in a canoe.

A fourth video documents the 1978 dedication of the Wright Brothers Room at Wright State University. The ceremony features members of the Wright family and community leaders marking Dayton's central role in aviation history.

These videos blend together the importance of personal memory, the historical record, and preservation. By offering a rare opportunity to hear firsthand accounts from those who witnessed history, we are able to experience the human side of Orville and Wilbur Wright's world-changing work.

All four videos are now available on CORE Scholar, ready to be viewed by anyone interested in the Wright family, early aviation, and Dayton history.