Archives News

Special Collections & Archives will be Closed December 1st-5th

Staff will be working off-site during the week of December 1st-5th. We will be answering e-mail and telephone calls periodically through the week. Please note we will also be closed for Veteran's Day on Nov. 11, Thanksgiving on Nov. 24-25, and Christmas on December 24-26th. Please check our hours online.

Huffman Prairie Aviation Historical Society Meeting

Join us on Monday, December 1st 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. At the December meeting Danny Schlegel, will present “Experiencing the 100th Anniversary of Wilbur Wright’s Flights in France”. 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 December Newsletter

Exhibits in the Libraries:

Dunbar Library 1st Floor:

The Wright Brothers 100 Years Ago
One hundred years ago was a momentous year for the world of aviation. Wilbur Wright was stunning crowds overseas with demonstration flights. Meanwhile, Orville Wright was in Ft. Myer, Virginia demonstrating the flyer to fulfill specifications required sell the first heavier-than-air-flying machine to the military. Learn more about the exciting year of 1908 in this exhibit located near the elevators on the first floor of Dunbar Library.

Forever Young: Childhood Captured
This exhibit features letters, artwork, and photographs of children represented in archival collections. Through these documents, childhood memories are captured forever. The exhibit is located in the Group Study Room in Dunbar Library.

Aviation and Hollywood
The romance and intrigue of flying is a classic pairing for the world of Hollywood. The exhibit is located at the entrance of Dunbar Library.

World War I: Stories from the Archives
Veteran's Day, 2008 marked the 90th anniversary of the end of WWI. This exhibit highlights stories of men who served in the war, and features original artifacts. The exhibit is located in the Dunbar Library lobby.

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 2nd Floor:

Ohio's Progressive Governor~James Middeton Cox
Ohio's first three-term governor first made his way as a reporter and owner of the Dayton Daily News. He took office as governor in 1913 where he championed enhancements to the human condition, including workmen's compensation, widow's pensions, child labor limitations, school consolidations, and prison reform. During his third term as Governor, Cox pursued the Presidency, but lost. The exhibit is near the Information Desk on the 2nd Floor of Dunbar Library, and is a project by Tim Binkley, Mary Kay Mabe and Jeff Landis funded in part by a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council.

Dunbar 3rd Floor:

What is Records Management:
Discover how records managment can transform an overrun office to one of order and efficiency. The University's Records Manager / University Archivist offers periodic faculty and staff training to help with increasing efficiency and mitigating risk in your office.

Dunbar 4th Floor:

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum
Woodland Cemetery is the final resting place for many famous Daytonians including Paul Laurence Dunbar, the Wright Brothers, John H. Patterson, Charles Kettering, and Erma Bombeck, to name a few.

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.

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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 Hawthorn Hill home.

Current Feature: Jack Savage: Veteran who served in the Pacific Theater during WWII. View scrapbook pages, map of his travels and photographs.