Original Program

The symposium will focus on sites critical to the accomplishments of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Examples include: Huffman Prairie Flying Field, Dayton, Ohio; Pau, France; Fort Myer, Virginia; and College Park, Maryland.

The following speakers and themes have been selected for the concurrent sessions. This list is subject to change while awaiting confirmation of participation.

8:15 am - 9:00 am
Registration/Coffee & Doughnuts

9:00 am - 10:00 am
Welcoming Remarks
Plenary address by NASA Historian Roger Launius

10:00 am - 10:15 am
Break

10:15 am - 11:45 am
Concurrent Sessions

Session 1 - Inventing the Aeroplane: Dayton & Kitty Hawk
Moderator Henry Narducci

• The Legacy of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, 1900-1903
  Darrell Collins from the National Park Service, Wright Brothers National Memorial
  

• Over a Herd of Cattle: The Wright Brothers and the Pursuit of Flight at Huffman Prairie Flying Field
  Elizabeth Fraterrigo from the Loyola University History Department
  

• The Wright Stuff: The Mathematics of the Wright Brothers
  Robert N. McCullough from Ferris State University
  

Session 2 - Military Aviation Takes Flight
Moderator Dawne Dewey

• Failure and Success at Ft. Myers, 1908-1909
  David Chenowith
  

• Lt. Foulois and Signal Corps No. 1 at Ft. Sam Houston
  Roger Miller
  

• The Wright Brothers Military Instruction at College Park, Maryland, 1909
  Catherine Allen from the College Park Aviation Museum
  

Session 3 -Witnessing Early Flight
Moderator Sheila Darrow

• Witnesses to Flight: Aviation Achievements Described in Recently Discovered Letters Written by Wright Contemporaries
  Stan Kandebo from Aviation Week and Space Technology
  

• Rumors of Flight: The Photographic Record of the Wright Brothers in Flight
  Jeffrey Alan John from the Wright State University Department of Communications
  

• The First Witness: Amos Root at Huffman Prairie
  James Tobin, Author
  

11:45 am - 1:00 pm
Lunch. Talk by Smithsonian Curator Thomas Crouch.

1:15 pm - 2:45 pm
Concurrent Sessions

Session 1 - Rediscovering the Wright Brothers: The Archaeological Evidence
Moderator Jan Ferguson

• Wright and Wrong: Archaeology at College Park Airport
  Paul Lagasse, Independent Scholar
  

• From Wright Flyers to Aerial Thermography: The 1910 Wright Brothers' Hangar at Huffman Prairie
  Michael Hargrave from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio
  

• The Wright Brothers' Print Shop, Hoover Block, Dayton, Ohio
  Mary Grassik from the National Park Service, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park
  

Session 2 - Home and Memory in Dayton
Moderator Nancy Horlacher

• Hawthorne Hill: A Video Tour
  Mary Oliver from the Montgomery County Historical Society, Dayton, Ohio
  

• Origins of the Designs and Architectural Semantics of Hawthorne Hill
  Bill Harlow from the National Park Service, Midwest Regional Office
  

• The Wright Memorial
  Ann Deines from the National Park Service, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
  

2:45 pm - 3:00 pm
Break

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Concurrent Sessions

Session 1 -Marketing the Aeroplane at Home and Abroad
Moderator Jeanne Palermo

• 1909-An Illustrious Year: Wilbur Wright in France
  Renald Fortier from the Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa
  

• Memory Strengthened or Forgotten? Wilbur Wright's Visits to Germany and the German Understanding of Aviation
  Guillaume de Syon from Albright College
  

• The First Aerial Canoe: Wilbur Wright and the Hudson-Fulton Flights, 1909
  John Sanford from Wright State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives

• The Wright Company's New York Operations
  Joe Gertler, owner of the Wright Company Records Collection
  

Session 2 -Establishing the Legacy in Dayton
Moderator Marjorie McLellan

• On the Aviation Trail in the Wright Brothers' Neighborhood
  Mary Ann Johnson from Aviation Trail, Inc., Dayton, Ohio
  

• Cultural Tourism and the Revitalization of the Wright Brothers' Neighborhood, Dayton, Ohio
  Laura Milsk from the Loyola University History Department
  

• The Case for National Significance: The Identification, Nomination, and Designation of Wright-Related Properties as National Historic Landmarks
  Jill O'Bright from the National Park Service, Midwest Regional Office