Circa 1903

“A surprising and remarkable book . . . [It] gives the readers the opportunity to see what the Wright Brothers described in their diaries.”—Failure Magazine

“This blend of words and pictures recreating the look and feel of North Carolina’s storied Outer Banks as they were . . . when the Wright brothers came here for their 'scientific vacations' . . . . cuts through the mythology of the area as quaint backwater. . . . Tise offers readers . . . a visual overview of the North Carolina coast that illuminates life and society in the area at the time when Wilbur and Orville Wright were giving birth to the future.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“A remarkable volume that focuses on the people and places of the barrier islands . . . at the time of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s quest to achieve motorized air-flight on those broad sweeping sands. . . . Circa 1903 . . . contains two important features: Tise’s concise, illuminating and brilliant text, and the amazing and often not previously known photographs of the area and its people, also circa 1903.”—Virginia Gazette

“With powerful, telling archival photographs and maps and great reportage, noted historian Larry Tise opens the window high and wide on coastal and sound-country Carolina at the turn of the twentieth century, upon the natural and human world the Wrights found there. Fascinating, illuminating, and vivid!” — Bland Simpson, author of The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country

“This book will be of interest to those who want to learn more about the Wrights — and especially the Outer Banks and its rich history. In words and images, Tise shows how the environment, the people, and the events at the time impacted the Wrights and their flights.” — Alton Ballance, author of Ocracokers