In article <[log in to unmask]>,
   Katherine Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>There is a museum in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina dedicated to the
>Wright Brothers first flight.

I agree that this collection should not STAY in private hands. I agree with
many of the poins made by E. J. Pershey. But I will not apologize for RESCUING
these archives. I have been employed full-time or self-employed full-time for
the past twenty-five years as an aviation museum supplier, consultant, and/or
curator and executive director. My major accomplishment was establishing a
recognized tax-exempt public museum featuring one of the best
collections/exhibits of pre-WWII aero engines in the world. (THE RACEWAY
COLLECTION; 175 engines; 48 WWI and earlier and 19 being the only known
examples) I also collected the largest collection of WWI German and
Austro-Hungarian aircraft parts and instruments, along with a number of unique
or extremely rare aeroplanes over those twenty five years.They were all
publicly accessable and information was provided to all who needed it.
When I was contacted by the previous ownere of these archives, they had sat in
file cabinets for nearly forty years in his basement and he was on the verge
of breaking them up to sell the most historic documents to autograph dealers
and the photo collection at airshows for $5 per photo. His own words were,
"You wouldn't believe how many pick-up loads (of The Curtiss Wright Co
archives) I took to the dump." Fortunately, he was fascinated by the early
material and his basement was bone dry and his four file cabinets were full of
folders pressed tightly together. When major dealers such as those with full
page ads like Profiles In History, are selling single Lindbergh letters @
$25,000 and Sotheby auctions are fetching $7,000-$12,000 for signed Wright
letters in the Kallir auction and even a ten page report from cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin is hammered for over $100,000, What is a signed and personal wax
sealed contract forming The Wright Company by Wilbur and Orville worth? What
are 850  pages of unpublished Wright Co. letters worth? What are the executive
board minutes, ledgers, and ten crates of historic documents worth. Wealthy
collectors have been fighting over them, without let-up. The Cody Archive sale
in London brought some bids that were five to ten times the high estimates for
personal and business documents!

I am willing to negotiate and compromise my families stake in these archives
to see them go to a proper institution who will preserve them and provide
public access. They cost me a fortune and two years of exasperating and
frustrating negotiations. I can appreciate your concern. I appreciate, very
much the help I have received from subscribers to this list. Until recently I
was executive director at Ryder's Fighter Museum when the owner and wife and
son were killed in a plane crash. This association cost me several hundred
thousand dollars and the virtual destruction of my life-long collection.


Cheers,
      J.Gertler