This collection consists of the corporate records of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Included in the collection are technical and engineering reports of Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division's operations in St. Louis (Robertson), MO (1935-1945) and Buffalo, NY, (1932-1945), as well as AAS Material Division and AAF Air Technical Services Command memorandum reports collected by Curtiss-Wright's St. Louis and Buffalo technical reference libraries. The collection also contains the files of Curtiss-Wright's Patent Department, which hold records of patents filed by Curtiss-Wright and patent-infringement cases involving Curtiss-Wright. Also included in the collection are specifications issued by and photos commissioned by the Keystone Aircraft Corporation (Huff-Daland Airplanes, Inc. until March 1927), which had been acquired by Wright in 1928 along with Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corp., and formed the Keystone Division of Curtiss-Wright until 1932 when Keystone's Bristol, PA factory closed its doors. The collection also contains financial records of the Curtiss-Wright Airports Corporation, which was liquidated in 1936, as well as an extensive negative collection featuring Curtiss-Wright aircraft from the 1930s and 1940s, concentrated especially on the war years.
Scope and Contents:
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation Records collection contains approximately 212 cubic feet of material. The collection contains the following material:
Army Air Service Material Division & Army Air Force Technical Services Command Memo
Reports & Technical Reports which include testing of various Curtiss-Wright models of aircraft and/or various parts of aircraft
Technical & Engineering Reports from the St. Louis, MO plant [Robertson] & Buffalo, NY plant
Patents, Patent Dockets, Patent Serial numbers, Suits, License Agreements, Patents filed by Curtiss-Wright & Patent Infringement Cases [1800s to 1940s]
Miscellaneous Research Files
Corporate & Financial Records [1923 to 1972]
Correspondence
Blueprint Drawings
Advertisements from Newspapers & Magazines in Scrapbooks
Engine Decals
Photographs
Negatives & Glass Plates
Arrangement:
This collection was arranged into Series and Subseries:
Subseries I: Air Corps Materiel Division, Reports [ACMR]
Subseries II: Buffalo Reports
Subseries III: St. Louis
Series III: Glass Format Photography
Series IV: 1969 Accretion - Listing of Archival Material
Series V: Master Print Books [this part of the collection has not been processed]
Historical note:
An historic event in aviation occurred on June 26, 1929 when two major aircraft companies: the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company merged with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. After this merger, the former Wright organization took over all of the engine and propeller manufacture while Curtiss concentrated on airplanes. This merger was completed by organizing two major divisions under their original names, but under the direction of a corporate headquarters located in New York City. However, there was a recognized separation of spirit as well as specialized facilities that was never completely resolved in succeeding years. The election of former Wright personnel to key corporate positions soon led to Wright becoming the dominant division. At the height of the Lindbergh Boom during the 1920s and 1930s, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation was made up of the following identified organizations: The Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company; The Curtiss-Caproni Corporation; The Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Manufacturing Company; The Keystone Aircraft Corporation; The Moth Aircraft Corporation; The Travel Air Manufacturing Company; The Wright Aeronautical Corporation; Curtiss-Wright Flying Service; The Curtiss-Wright Sales
Corporation; The Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation. Curtiss-Wright was quickly becoming the 'General Motors of the Air' until the great depression in October 1929. Sales dropped and Curtiss-Wright was forced to close certain satellite plants and transfer some of their product lines to the St. Louis facility. It looked like even the Buffalo plants would also have to close when Curtiss-Wright received an order from Colombia, South America for Hawks and Falcons. This was the largest military order to Curtiss since the war. The Colombia sale saved the Curtiss-Wright organization at this low point in its history. This order kept the production lines going until new military and civil markets began to open up as the depression waned and the build-up for World War II began. During the U.S. military build-up prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, all existing Curtiss-Wright plants were expanded and new aircraft factories were built at Columbus, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky. The dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan resulted in an unexpected early end to World War II. All of the major U.S. airplane builders including Curtiss-Wright were hit by massive contract cancellations because of the Japanese surrender. In 1946 Curtiss-Wright had only two experimental military models at hand for postwar delivery and no assurance of production orders. Curtiss-Wright was forced to shut down all airplane plants and transfer all units of the Aeroplane Division to their Columbus Plant. The eventual sale of the Airplane Division to North American included design rights to the former Curtiss-Wright airplanes. The Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, which manufactured airframes, finally closed down in 1951.
Provenance:
Curtiss-Wright Corporation, gift, XXXX, 1969
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
East Patterson, New Jersey, Wright Aeronautical Corporation
Collection Creator:
Du Mont, Allen B. (Allen Balcom), 1901-1965 Search this
Container:
Box 24 (Series 13), Folder 6
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1943
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. Special arrangements required to view materials in cold storage. Using cold room materials requires a three hour waiting period. Only reference copies of audiovisual materials may be used. Contact the Archives Center for more information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Allen Balcom Du Mont Collection, 1929-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
This collection consists of 355 biographies written by Harold E. Morehouse and intended for publication. These biographies discuss Morehouse's fellow early aviation pioneers, many of whom belong to the Early Birds, an organization open to those who soloed before December 17, 1916. Each biography discusses the subject's life and the majority of biographies include a photograph of the individual.
Contents note:
The Harold E. Morehouse Flying Pioneers Biographies Collection (accession XXXX-0450) contains
approximately four cubic feet of material. It is also known as The Harold and Marvel Morehouse Aviation Pioneers
Collection. The collection includes photographs, negatives, and typewritten material.
Arrangement note:
Container List: Series I: Biographies of Flying Pioneers; Series II: Miscellaneous related materials; Series III: Oversized materials
Biographical note:
This collection consists of over 350 short biographies of early aviation's trailblazers written by Harold E. Morehouse (1894-1973). Conspicuous by its absence is a biography of the author, himself an innovator.
Born in Michigan, Morehouse channelled a youthful fascination with flight into training in the field of
mechanical engineering. He began work in 1915 for the Van Blerck Motor Company and assisted in their
development of aircraft engines. In 1917, Morehouse was working as a layout draftsman on the Standard J-1 Training Airplane for the Dayton-Wright Aeroplane Company. However, this assignment was quickly superseded by his placement on a secret project, supervised by C.F. Kettering and Orville Wright. Its aim was the production of a selfflying aerial torpedo which has since become known as the Kettering Bug. Morehouse contributed to all phases of this project, including its design, engine development and flight testing. The armistice arrived before the actual deployment of the Bug; Morehouse was to spend the next few years in engine design and development.
In 1925, Morehouse joined the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and both the Wright-Morehouse engine
and the Wright-Whirlwind J-5 (a re-design of the J-4) were developed here under Morehouse. The latter engine was later to serve as the powerplant for the historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight of the Spirit of St. Louis and this was a great source of satisfaction to Morehouse. He left Wright Aero in 1929 and in subsequent years designed the inverted Rover for the Michigan Aero Engine Company, the A-50 for the Continental Motors Corporation and the Engineering and Research Corporation's Erco engine.
About ten years prior to his retirement in 1965, Harold Morehouse began work on a personal project. His
aim was to gather information on significant contributors to early aviation and distill this data to produce a set of
brief biographies of these innovative men and women. He was assisted in this by his wife, Marvel Dyer. After
Harold's death, Marvel worked in concert with Paul E. Garber of the National Air Museum to procure publication of
the work. Sadly, the passing of Marvel Dyer and later of Paul Garber seemed to bring plans for publication to a halt.
This collection consists of hundreds of biographical narratives concerning the lives of the "Flying
Pioneers." Many of those featured were members of the Early Birds of Aviation, Inc., a group whose members had
the distinction of having soloed prior to 1916. Most of the biographies are accompanied by one or more photographs of their subject and comprise an invaluable resource on the accomplishments and sacrifices of those intrepid individuals who forged the history of American aviation. However, it should be borne in mind that the biographies are based in large measure on personal interviews and are concerned primarily with their subjects' careers in aviation.
Other sources should be consulted to obtain a complete portrait.
Provenance:
Mr. and Mrs. Harold E. Morehouse, gift, 1960-1972, XXXX-0450, NASM
