The tale behind how the priceless papers went missing and the ultimate rediscovery of the documents is a story worth telling, especially when the historical value of the patent papers are taken into account.
The patent for the Wright brothers’ “flying machine” was found amid 15-foot high stacks of patent files in a limestone special records storage cave in Lenexa, Kansas, 1,000 miles from Washington, D.C.
U.S. Patent no. 821,393 should have been stored in a “treasure” vault in the National Archives, along with other priceless documents said National Archives and Records Administration Chief Operating Officer William J. Bosanko. But in 2000, while preparing for a special commemoration, officials discovered the papers were missing. The search was on.
Then, two weeks ago, on March 22, according to the Washington Post, Kansas archivist Bob Beebe, in a three-word message sent an email to a colleague at the archives complex in Maryland. The message said: “We found it.” Conservator Lauren Varga, along with a security escort, was sent from Maryland to fetch the documents and bring them home.
Varga had to check the contents of the beat-up manila envelope first before bringing it back. When she examined one of the folders inside, the words on the cover of the folder stood out loud and clear: U.S. Patent No. 821,393. And there on the same cover were the names, Orville Wright, and Wilbur Wright. Next to the word invention was the description, “flying machine.”
The most likely explanation for the documents going missing was that they were misfiled, somehow. Bosanko says, “Unfortunately, with billions of pieces of paper, things sometimes go where they shouldn’t be.”
He added, “If somebody puts something back in the wrong place, it’s essentially lost. In this case, we didn’t know. We had to ask ourselves, ‘Is it something that could have been stolen?’ ” The archives has a lot of missing and possibly stolen documents, from letters written by Civil War generals to telegrams from Abraham Lincoln.
But thankfully the patent is back where it should be and parts of the file will be on exhibit in the National Archives Museum’s West Rotunda Gallery in Washington, D.C. starting May 20.
