In this collection of colorized photos, we get a rare glimpse at the Wright Brothers and their lives before and after their famous plane ride. 

Wilbur and Orville Wright were two of the seven children born to Milton and Susan Wright. Wilbur is the older brother. He was born in 1867. Orville was born in 1871. They had two older siblings and three younger ones. The brothers were very close growing up, in part because they were both curious kids with a knack for mechanics. 

The Wright family moved often. In 1878, the Wrights were living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when something happened that would change the direction of Wilbur and Orville’s lives. Their father brought home a simple toy for his children. It was a toy flying machine that was derived from a design created by Aphonse Penaud, an early aeronautical engineer from France. The toy looked a bit like a helicopter that was made from cork, paper, and bamboo. It used a rubber band to power the craft and send it high in the air. All the Wright children enjoyed the toy flying machine, but for Wilbur and Orville, it was the source of their lifelong fascination with flying. 

Wilbur Wright was an excellent student. He was smart, creative, outgoing, and had a leadership personality. While in high school, he made plans to enroll at Yale University when he graduated. A random hockey accident put an end to that. In the winter before his high school graduation, he was struck in the face with a hockey stick and badly injured. He convalesced at home, but the incident plunged him into a dark depression. He dropped out of high school and canceled his Yale dreams. Although the Wright brothers became some of the best-known American inventors yet neither one of them attended college. 

Wilbur Wright and his brother, Orville, started a newspaper in Dayton, Ohio, in 1889. They were good partners. Orville was the newspaper’s publisher while Wilbur was the editor. Both young men were obsessed with bicycles, a new-fangled form of transportation that was taking the nation by storm. The brothers hopped on the bicycle bandwagon by opening a bike shop in Dayton. They repaired bikes but also built and sold bikes they designed themselves. With a workshop at their disposal, the brothers could tinker with their full-size version of the toy flying machines they made as kids. 

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright were ready for a test run with their airplane. They traveled to Kitty Hawk, a town in the Outer Banks of North Carolina where the high sand dunes and ocean winds would aid in their flight. In case you are wondering, it was Orville that piloted the plane on its historic 12-second flight. Wilbur and Orville were completely devoted to each other and insisted on sharing the credit for their groundbreaking first flight. 

After their historic flight in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright did not get the favorable press they expected. In 1908, Wilbur decided to go to Europe to gather public support for airplanes. Soon, Orville Wright and their younger sister, Katharine Wright, joined him. In Europe, the Wright brothers were treated like celebrities and their airplane was viewed as a marvel of modern technology. They met with royalty and top politicians across Europe and, more importantly, began selling contracts to build airplanes. The brothers grew quite wealthy. 

Neither Wilbur nor Orville Wright ever married. They devoted their lives to their airplane business and, as they did with their newspaper business, they split the workload so each one handled their area of strength. Orville was innovative and worked on new designs. His older brother, Wilbur, had a head for business and took over the day-to-day operations of the business. When Wilbur died in 1912 at the age of 45, Orville took over as president of their airplane company. Thirty-five years later, in January or 1948, Orville Wright had his second heart attack and died. He was 76 years old.