There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.
To view items in this collection, use the Online Finding Aid
This collection consists of approximately 1.78 cubic feet of material pertaining to Harry P. Moore and newspaper coverage of the Wright Brothers first flight on December 17, 1903.
The Wright brothers inaugurated the aerial age with the world's first successful flights of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wright 1903 Flyer was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. After building and testing three full-sized gliders, the Wrights' first powered airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, making a 12-second flight, traveling 36 m (120 ft), with Orville piloting. The best flight of the day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds. Harry P. Moore was a marine reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot who had been following the Wrights' work at Kitty Hawk based on a tip he overheard in a restaurant in September 1903. Moore asked several contacts in the U.S. Coast Guard to keep him apprised of any developments. Less than an hour after the Wrights' first successful flight on December 17, 1903, C. C. Grant, assistant weather observer at Norfolk, dispatched a message to Moore from a Coast Guardsman at Kitty Hawk about the flight. Moore worked with editor Keville Glennan on a draft of the story and began offering it to various news outlets, although only five ordered the story.
NASM.2018.0012
1903-2003
Steve Fritts, Gift, 2018, NASM.2018.0012
1.78 Cubic feet (3 boxes)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of approximately 1.78 cubic feet of material pertaining to Harry P. Moore and newspaper coverage of the Wright Brothers first flight on December 17, 1903. Materials include a handwritten draft of Moore's newspaper article on the flight; typewritten final version of the article and copies sent to various news outlets; letters about the event by telegraph operator C. C. Grant, Virginian-Pilot newsroom chief of staff C. G. Kizer, reporter Frank S. Wing, and managing editor T. H. Lamb; news coverage of the flight including the December 19, 1903 editions of the Norfolk Public Ledger and the New York Tribune and the January 2, 1904 issue of Harper's Weekly; later news clippings regarding Moore and the Wright Brothers flight story; a letter to Moore from Orville Wright written in 1928; and a First Flight Centennial program from 2003.
Collection is arranged by topic or sometimes type of material with items put in chronological order within folders when applicable.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
No restrictions on access
Wright Brothers First Flight Story Collection [Moore], NASM.2018.0012, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Wright (Brothers) 1903 Flyer
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Correspondence
Newspapers
Newspaper clippings