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Used from approximately October 1928 through December 1935, the pocket-size volume records the recurring expenses and activities of Wright’s household at Hawthorn Hill, his celebrated home in Oakwood, Ohio.
Page after page contains dated entries for groceries, automobile expenses, household repairs, newspapers, magazines, camera supplies, clothing and wages. Among the identifiable Dayton businesses and individuals are the Dayton Camera Shop, Rike’s department store, Carrie Grumbach, William Reeve and Lottie Jones. One particularly significant notation records “O. W. credit July 11/34.”
Carrie Kayler Grumbach had been associated with the Wright family for decades. Originally engaged by Katharine Wright to assist with the family household, Carrie and her husband Charles later occupied an apartment at Hawthorn Hill. The recurring entries for “Carrie Grumbach Sal.” place the book firmly within the day-to-day administration of Orville Wright’s home.
Although its contents concern ordinary expenses rather than aeronautical experiments, the volume offers an exceptionally intimate view of Wright’s private life. Here is the inventor not at Kitty Hawk or before the cameras, but managing employees, purchasing camera supplies, paying automobile expenses, subscribing to newspapers and maintaining the household in which he lived until his death in 1948.
The book contains extensive manuscript entries attributed to Orville Wright, with possible additional notations by members of his household staff. Its provenance links it to material dispersed from the Wright estate. The volume should remain intact as a single historical artifact, preserving the sequence and context of its entries.
Condition: Well used, with substantial rubbing and wear to the covers, creased corners, weakened interior hinges, loosened pages, small edge tears, toning and general handling wear. The manuscript entries remain generally clear and legible. No full Wright signature has been located in the pages examined. The condition reflects years of practical use as a working household account book.
An uncommon and highly personal Wright artifact containing years of manuscript records from the private world of the man who first piloted a powered airplane.
