Wright Bros: Printers, Publishers?
Wright Brothers: Printers and Publishers?
Seems we learn something new every day.
The following is from Wikipedia:
“Orville dropped out of high school after his junior year to start a printing business in 1889, having designed and built his own printing press with Wilbur’s help. Wilbur shook off the lingering depression caused by his accident and joined the print shop, serving as editor while Orville was publisher of the weekly newspaper the West Side News, followed for only a few months by the daily Evening Item. One of their clients for printing jobs was Orville’s friend and classmate in high school, Paul Laurence Dunbar, who rose to international acclaim as a ground-breaking African-American poet and writer. The Wrights printed the Dayton Tattler, a weekly newspaper that Dunbar edited for a brief period.”
Check the back issues of the APHA journal Printing History (I don’t remember the date but a number of years ago) for an article by August Brunsman about the Wright Brothers and their printing operation. It was fairly extensive, with a newspaper in West Dayton, Ohio and a number of books including those by Dunbar. I helped Gus with some of the research and we discovered some of the Wright types in storage at the Henry Ford Museum, from when Henry bought the Wright’s stuff and took it to Michigan.
(Or take a look here: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/wbh/brunsman/wright_printers.htm)
Bob
Fascinating! I can certainly see how the dogged determination it takes to get a print right might be useful in getting the first airplane off the ground.
Barbara