Elizabeth Beck Rehling Papers (MS-593)

Series I: Personal Papers contains a small amount of correspondence and research notes about the Wright Brothers and Katharine Wright. One item of significance is a handwritten invitation from Katharine Wright to Louise Osborn inviting her to a party at Hawthorne St. in 1899. There is also a Christmas card that was sent to Mrs. Beck (Agnes Osborn Beck) with a personal note from journalist Anne O’Hare McCormick discussing the fountain that Harry Haskell plans to build at Oberlin in Katharine’s memory. It was likely written in December 1929. Other materials are copies of Milton Wright diary entries and an original program from the dedication of the 1903 Wright Flyer at the Smithsonian in 1948.

Series II: Photographs includes Osborn and Beck Family photographs, duplicates of images from the Wright Brothers Collection in Special Collections and Archives, reprints and a few originals of photos from Oberlin College and The Rain in Face Gang, the group of young people that Katharine Wright, Agnes Osborn, and others had social outings with in Dayton. There are also some snapshots of Rock Hill Terrace, Harry Haskell’s home in Kansas City, likely taken when Agnes Osborn Beck visited Katharine sometime after Katharine’s marriage.