Katharine Wright Haskell's 150th Birthday Party

Join us to celebrate Katharine’s 150th birthday!

This August marks the 150th birthday of Katharine Wright Haskell, the influential yet often overlooked sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright. In honor of the 150th anniversary of Katharine’s birth, Wright Memorial Public Library invites the community to celebrate and learn more about her life from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday August 18 at Wright Library. 

The drop-in event will feature crafts, cake and brownies provided by Ashley's Pastry Shop and Dorothy Lane Market, and a selfie station with a cardboard cutout of Katharine. Copies of an upcoming historical fiction book— Katherine, The Wright Sister by Tracey Enerson Wood — will be raffled during the event. 

About Katharine Wright Haskell

Born Aug. 19, 1874, Katharine was a suffragette, educator, and an essential player in her brothers’ lives and pursuit of flight. Katharine graduated from Oberlin College and taught at Steele High School in Dayton before devoting her life to her brothers’ work. “While she didn’t contribute to technical matters, she created the conditions that made the airplane possible,” said Richard Maurer, her biographer and author of The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and her Famous Brothers. “Beyond that, she was a pioneer in promoting women’s rights.” 

An activist in the women’s suffrage movement, Katharine was the president of the Dayton’s Young Women’s League and championed women’s voting rights. She was the second woman elected to Oberlin’s Board of Trustees, where she she advocated that women faculty should be paid the same as men. Maurer describes Katharine as Wilbur and Orville’s “confidante, domestic coordinator, secretary, and social facilitator.” She took over many family duties after the loss of their mother when Katharine was only 14. “She was the boss of the house, and you could say she was the executive assistant of the budding airplane enterprise,” he said. 

In 1929, the Oakwood Village Council voted to name the land adjacent to what is now E.D. Smith Elementary in Katharine’s honor. Wright Library was later constructed on a portion of that property. Last year, the city of Oakwood installed a new sign recognizing the park as Katharine Wright Park. A plaque on a stone behind the library also recognizes Katharine with the Oakwood Village Council’s 1929 proclamation: “The Members of the Park Committee think that we should, when we can, commemorate the lives and the work of those who have an honor and have rendered notable service to our village. We had in our midst a woman whose name is revered wherever the beginnings of aviation are known. She was interested in our village and in our schools. We therefore move that, in memory of her, The Park on Far Hills Ave., connected with the Elementary School, be called Katharine Wright Park.” 

Katharine left Oakwood in 1926 to marry Harry Haskell, a newspaperman from Kansas City, Missouri who she met years prior at Oberlin College and whom had become a close ally of the Wright family. All ages are invited to attend Wright Library’s celebration. Maurer said children can learn many lessons from Katharine’s life. “Be nice. Be loyal. Stand up for your convictions. Read widely. Be open to new experiences. Don’t be impressed by titles or positions, but respect authority (especially parental authority),” he said. “Never give up.”