WRIGHT ORVILLE (1871-1948). Aviateur américain. - Lot 197

Lot 197
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WRIGHT ORVILLE (1871-1948). Aviateur américain. - Lot 197
WRIGHT ORVILLE (1871-1948). Aviateur américain. Signed letter, signed « Orville Wright », Dayton, Ohio 28 February 1928, to Senator Hiram BINGHAM III, in Washington D.C.; 1 page and a half, in-4 format, typed letter, on his name-imprinted letterhead; in English Letter concerning the projective commemorative museum dedicated to the first 1903 flight from Kitty Hawk and the exhibition of the first flyer, the “Kitty Hawk machine”. Senator BINGHAM was the political mastermind behind the project presented before Congress to build a memorial for the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk (North Carolina) to mark the 25th anniversary of their first flight. A few weeks earlier, Wright had sent the historical aircraft “First Flyer” of the 1903 flight for display at the Science Museum in London where it remained until the Second World War. Wright seizes the occasion in this letter to remind the Senator that the Smithsonian’s “propaganda” in favour of their rival Samuel LANGLEY did much to discredit the Wright Brothers’ reputation. “I have given your letter of the 22nd careful consideration. I have discussed with a number of my friends, in whose judgement I have confidence, the proposal of placing the Kitty Hawk machine in a museum at Kitty Hawk. Not one of them has thought Kitty Hawk the place for it. It is not my purpose to try to reach the tourist. I am trying to bring the facts to the university man; the man who writes history. The Smithsonian campaign of propaganda has been addressed almost altogether to these people. The influence on public opinion will be as great from the machine be it in the Science Museum of Great Britain as it would be from being in the Smithsonian; but of course from national pride I would much rather have had it in the latter." “America is not the only place the Smithsonian has spread its propaganda. Evidently you are not aware of the extent to which this has been broadcast. NATURE and DISCOVERY, supposed to be scientific publications, both published the interpo
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