What class ticket would the Wright Brothers have purchased?

September 9, 2014 11:14 AM

Descriptions of pre-War transatlantic ocean liners make it clear that wealthy passengers traveled first class, and poor immigrants traveled third class, but I'm fuzzy on who exactly would be traveling second class. In particular, I'm not sure what class tickets Wilbur and Orville Wright would have bought on their various crossings, particularly the earlier ones before their first public flights.

They lived in West Dayton, Ohio, and were successful enough with their bicycle business to support their hobby of building aircraft without outside investors. However, they seem to have been pretty solidly middle class, with a nice but modest home that they shared with their father and sister.

Would they have traveled as first class or second class passengers on an ocean liner?

Alternatively: are there any resources I could read that would tell me more about who, in general, traveled with first vs second class tickets?

If it matters, they seem to have generally departed from New York.

posted by Narrative Priorities to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Well, here's a bit on Second Class passengers on the Titanic from Wikipedia that seems to address this.

"Second class passengers were predominantly leisure tourists, academics, members of the clergy and middle class English and American families. The ship's musicians travelled in second class accommodations; they were not counted as members of the crew but were employed by an agency under contract to the White Star Line. The average ticket price for an adult second class passenger was £13, the equivalent of £1,123 today. and for many of these passengers, their travel experience on the Titanic was akin to travelling first class on smaller liners. Second class passengers had their own library and the men had access to a private smoking room. Second class children could read the children's books provided in the library or play deck quoits and shuffleboard on the second class promenade."

I would guess that the Wright Bros. would have fallen into this broad description. I think of first class as being the Vanderbilts and the Astors, not a couple bicycle mechanics with odd hobbies.
posted by Naberius at 11:33 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: (In case it's useful, what started me wondering about this was looking through the first class (Saloon) passenger list from the Lusitania's final voyage. Some fabulously wealthy folks, but also many people who sound like normal-ish businessmen and their families. I was leaning toward their being second class passengers, but that link is what gave me pause.)
posted by Narrative Priorities at 11:39 AM on September 9, 2014

Best answer: My grandfather and his brothers and sister came over to NYC on a Red Star Line ship from Antwerp via Warsaw in 1912, and they traveled second class. They were from a family of moderately well-off ladies' garment manufacturers in Lodz.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:08 PM on September 9, 2014

Best answer: I don't have the time to research it, but the LOC has Wright family correspondence available online.

You might strike gold if you focus on Katharine Wright's letters - she managed most of their affairs.
posted by plinth at 12:38 PM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When Orville and Wilbur sailed from Southampton to New York in 1909 (lines 15 and 16 here and here), their names were listed on a manifest sheet "FOR SALOON AND FIRST-CABIN PASSENGERS."
posted by Knappster at 5:46 PM on September 9, 2014