Dayton now home to Wright Brothers National Museum

Dayton History, the owner and operator of Carillon Historical Park and eight other Southwest Ohio historic properties and museums, announced today that federal legislation has designated the re-imagined aviation center at Carillon Historical Park as the John W Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers National Museum.

 

Congressman Michael Turner (OH-10), who spearheaded the bi-partisan designation effort alongside Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, unveiled the Wright Brothers National Museum to a large crowd of aviation enthusiasts.

 

“It is fitting this be a National Museum,” said Congressman Turner. “The building itself was partially designed by Orville Wright himself, and it displays the first plane that was able to sustain flight.” Turner was referring to the 1905 Wright Flyer III, located inside Wright Hall at Carillon Historical Park. Gifted to the Park by Orville Wright, the 1905 Wright Flyer III is the only airplane designated a National Historic Landmark.

 

“The 1903 Wright Flyer I had proven powered flight possible—on a distant stretch of land where the wind could help,” said the Wright brothers’ great grandnephew Stephen Wright. “But it took another two years and two more flying machines … and powered flight was practical. There’s no question that Wilbur and Orville Wright had achieved synergy as a team long before 1905. But it wasn’t until the 1905 Flyer III that the Wright brothers were able to achieve a synergy with their invention.”

 

Carillon Historical Park, a privately owned 65-acre museum complex featuring 30 exhibit buildings, has more three-dimensional Wright family artifacts on display than any place in the world. The museum is also the owner of and gateway to Orville Wright’s success mansion, Hawthorn Hill, another National Historic Landmark.

 

Over recent years, through gifts and acquisitions, Dayton History has brought together Wright Brothers artifacts previously owned by numerous historical societies and private collectors. These large groupings of Wright belongings are now reunited with artifacts gifted by Orville Wright in the 1940s to Carillon Park Founder Edward Deeds, former Board Chairman of National Cash Register Company.

 

“These acquisitions have enabled us to create a most complete understanding of how the Wright family lived, experimented, and changed the world,” said Dayton History President & CEO Brady Kress. “We are thrilled and honored that both Congress and the President have recognized the importance of this story and these exhibits with this designation.”

 

The new exhibits bring to life the dedication, struggles, and cast of personalities in the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright—Dayton's most famous sons. In step-by-step fashion, the museum highlights the development of the world’s first heavier-than-air, self-propelled, controllable, piloted flying machine, offering detailed explanation as to why the Wright brothers are justifiably hailed as inventors of the airplane.

 

Carillon Historical Park is a popular destination for travelers and history researchers from around the world. Among its thousands of visitors, the Park recently welcomed Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson; Congressman Tom Cole; Author David McCullough; and Director, Producer, and Actor Tom Hanks.

 

The Wright Brothers National Museum was privately funded through generous gifts from the family of John W Berry, Sr., founder of The Yellow Pages, and the Harry A. Toulmin, Jr., and Virginia B. Toulmin Fund of The Dayton Foundation, descendants of the Wright brothers’ patent attorney.