Description:

Wright Orville

Orville Wright Beautiful Signed Check

 

Partly printed and partly manuscript check signed by pioneering aviator Orville Wright (1871-1947) as "Orville Wright" in the payee line. Endorsed verso by longtime Wright Brothers secretary Mabel Beck (c. 1891-1959) as "Mabel Beck" verso.

 

Check No. 810 in the amount of $20.00 was drawn from the City National Bank of Dayton, Ohio on June 25, 1921 and issued to Mabel Beck. The patterned cream and gray check is watermarked, and depicts a high-rise bank at center. Bearing punched-out cancellation marks at upper right, and other stamps and printing in purple and red. With perforated top and left edges. The "O" and "W" of Wright's signature are slightly smudged, else near fine. Measures 8.375" x 3".

 

Orville Wright (1871-1948), along with older brother Wilbur (1867-1912), are generally credited with flying the first manned and engine-powered airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. The brothers revolutionized aviation engineering with the development of new flexible wing technology.

 

The Wright Brothers began their Kitty Hawk trials in 1900, and after three years of conducting on-site and wind tunnel experiments, they took to the air in sustained flight in mid-December. The brothers continued their trials well into the 1910s, eventually incorporating their own company and flying school. Both brothers gradually transitioned from aviation to company management. Surviving brother Orville sold the company in 1915 and dedicated the rest of his lifetime to serving on various aeronautic boards.

 

Mabel Beck was a local Dayton, Ohio girl who became Wilbur Wright's secretary in early 1912. After Wilbur's unexpected death of typhoid fever later that year, Mabel Beck became younger brother Orville's steadfast office manager. Contemporaries complained that Beck was jealous, and hardly permitted anyone, including business associates, to access Orville. Some speculated that the two may have had a romantic, or at least emotionally intimate, relationship. Upon Orville's death in 1948, Mabel was not named executor of his estate but his "trusted secretary" was granted an annual $4,000 stipend.

 

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