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Octave Chanute

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Richard L. McCormack and Allan Teichroew
Revised and expanded by Karen Linn Femia

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1997

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, 1999 January; encoding completed by Manuscript Division, 1999

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms998005

Latest revision: 2004-12-01

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Electronic Format:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

The papers of Octave Chanute, civil engineer and aviation pioneer, were deposited in the Library of Congress in 1932 and converted to a gift by Elizabeth and Octavia Chanute in 1950. The collection, originally in the custody of the Science Division, was transferred to the Manuscript Division in the 1950s. Small additions were made to the collection by gift and purchase between 1957 and 1997.

Processing History:

The papers of Octave Chanute were arranged and described in 1962. Materials received between 1957 and 1997 were processed as additions in 1981 and 1997.

Copyright Status:

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Octave Chanute in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public, except that the literary rights are reserved in the case of “such family correspondence as may allude to purely personal and of no historical and scientific interest.” Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.

Microfilm:

A microfilm edition of the letterbook series is available on twenty-four reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Electronic Format:

Selected items from the papers of Octave Chanute are available on the Library of Congress Web site at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/.

Preferred Citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Octave Chanute Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Octave Chanute (1832-1910) span the years 1807-1965, with the vast bulk of the material dating from 1860 to 1910. Chanute spent most of his civil engineering career working on railroad construction. He turned his energies to aeronautical engineering and glider development relatively late in life. Although these papers are principally concerned with the latter part of Chanute's career, there is some material from his career as a builder of railroads, the Chicago stockyards, and a railroad bridge across the Missouri River as well as his contribution to the technique of preserving wooden railroad ties.

The collection centers largely on the period 1890 to 1910 when Chanute was actively involved in glider experiments. At this time, he corresponded with many of the other important pioneers in the development of the airplane. Chanute advised and helped to finance aeronautical experimenters and served as a conduit of information among them. His Progress in Flying Machines, published in 1894, was the first authoritative account of aviation history and established Chanute as an international authority on the history and theory of aeronautics.

The collection consists of correspondence, family papers, articles, patents, photographs, sketches, kite diagrams, plans for Chanute's railroad bridge across the Missouri River, and clippings. Addition I includes a microfilmed thesis on Jefferson College by Earl F. Niehaus. Chanute's father was vice president of the school beginning in 1838.

There are extensive files of correspondence with Louis-Pierre Mouillard, a French pioneer of glider theory, George A. Spratt, whom Chanute served as mentor for various aeronautical experiments and the development of wing pressure testing equipment (found primarily in Addition II ), and with Wilbur and Orville Wright. Additional correspondence between Chanute and the Wrightbrothers can be found in the Manuscript Division's collection of their papers. The Wright Brothers' papers also contain correspondence with George Spratt, who, by way of Chanute, helped the Wrights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Some of Chanute's other notable correspondents include Clément Ader, William A. Avery, Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell, Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel Cabot, Lawrence Hargrave, Augustus Moore Herring, Edward C. Huffaker, Wilhelm Kress, Samuel P. Langley, Otto Lilienthal, Hiram S. Maxim, Hermann W. L. Moedebeck, John J. Montgomery, Thomas Moy, Percy Pilcher, and Albert Francis Zahm.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in nine series:

• General Correspondence, 1890-1910
• Special Correspondence, 1890-1910
• Aeronautical Papers, 1875-1912
• Subject File, 1865-1928, n.d.
• Letterbooks, 1860-1910
• Transcripts of Aeronautical Papers
• Personal Correspondence, 1850-1924
• Additions, 1807-1965, n.d.
• Oversize, 1865-ca. 1928, n.d.

Container List