Archives News

Closed Week of August 18th

Special Collections and Archives will be closed August 18th-22nd for a staff project.

Tell Us What You Think of Our New Web Site

We have updated our web site to bring you more information about our holdings and services. The new site also allows us to keep you informed of news from the department. In the coming months we will be adding additional content to the site. We welcome your comments and suggestions. Take the survey by clicking here.

Take a Study Break!

When studying in the Dunbar Library, be sure to take a break and visit the archives. We have a display case featuring a rotating treasure from the archives. Walk in, and enjoy a respite from your worries. Recently featured items include pilot Bessie Coleman, 1930s era gangster John Dillinger, Civil War soldier Oscar Ladley, suffragist and temperance movement activist Martha McClellan Brown, and images from within the Wright Family's Hawthorn Hill home.

Current Feature: 1920 McCarthy Family Vacation Album: Road Trip from Ohio to Arizona

Huffman Prairie Aviation Historical Society Meeting

Join us on September 8th at 7:30 p.m. in Room 315 of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library for the Huffman Prairie Aviation Historical Society meeting. The meetings are free & open to the public. Each meeting features a speaker who presents on an aviation topic. The meetings are hosted by the Wright State University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives. Please call 937-775-2092 for more information about the coming meetings or to be added to the mailing list. View the current Newsletter.

Exhibits in the Libraries:

Dunbar Library 1st Floor:

International Flight
Experience international flight through photographs, aviation journals, documents and a stunning reproduction of a 1909 lithograph from France. The exhibit is located near the elevators on the first floor of Dunbar Library.

50th Anniversary of NASA
Journey through the history of NASA, from its beginnings through today. The exhibit is located in the Group Study Room in Dunbar Library.

Dayton's Aviation History
Learn about Dayton's early pilots and air fields in these exhibits featuring Wilbur and Orville Wright, the Korn Brothers, Neal Loving, and local airfields with international signigicance. The exhibits are located at both sets of entrance doors to Dunbar Library.

Charlie Taylor
A bronze bust of Charles E. Taylor is on display near the Dunbar Library entrance. Taylor built the engine for the Wright brothers' 1903 flyer and is recognized for his achievements as the world's first airplane mechanic. The bust was presented in honor of Taylor and all aircraft mechanics by the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians Association (AMTA) in June of 2007.

Dunbar 4th Floor:

Cleveland Air Races, 1929-1939
Learn about the significance of the Cleveland Air Races and view photographs spanning ten years.

Aviation Nose Art
Discover the history behind the art work and enjoy examples in photographs.

Fordham Health Sciences Library Lobby

Quacks, Cures and Home Remedies

The exhibit on the first floor of the Fordham Library highlights some of the products that were commonly used as medicines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Several books from the Fordham Health Sciences Libraries’ Thelma Fordham Pruett Rare Book Collection are featured, including The Confidential Physician, or, The Theory and Practice of Medicine Simplified by Samuel Brubaker Hartman, M.D. (1830-1918). Dr. Hartman was known for his patent medicine called Pe-ru-na, originally manufactured in Osborn, Ohio. Advertisements for other locally manufactured products are also exhibited.