Doing the “Wright” Thing

For one day only, this Petoskey man’s Wright Brothers Museum showcases impressive memorabilia collection

By Eric Cox | Nov. 22, 2025

It was 1956. David Russell was a quiet, wide-eyed seventh grader at Petoskey Junior High, and he’d just been asked to stay after class by his history teacher, Miss Arlene Van Ness.

What had he done, he wondered, to warrant this apprehension? He searched his mind, but could recall no classroom mishap or lapse in good behavior. Yet, there he remained, at his desk, waiting to hear his fate.

“Do you like ice cream?” queried Miss Van Ness.

What happened next changed Russell’s life.

Of course he liked ice cream! Miss Van Ness occasionally took a student for ice cream in downtown Petoskey, engaging them in conversation while determining their interest in history and other school subjects.

On her outing with young Russell, she brought a small stack of books to pique his curiosity. One was about Wilbur and Orville Wright, and it captured the boy’s imagination, leading to a lifelong love of bicycles, aviation, and the symbiotic relationship between the two.

“I really credit Miss Van Ness with my early interest in the Wright Brothers,” Russell tells Northern Express. “Her kindness and interest in my studies had a big impact on me as a kid.”

The Collection Begins

Not long after his teacher’s fortuitous intervention, Russell and his father visited Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn. Russell’s reverence for the Wright brothers grew as he toured their turn-of-the-century bike shop, which Henry Ford had purchased and meticulously moved from Dayton, Ohio, to its new home at the sprawling Henry Ford Museum.

Though he admits that he wasn’t much of a cycling enthusiast as a kid, Russell says the Wright Brothers’ involvement with bicycles spurred his interest in vintage bikes and the significant role they played in the birth of aviation.

He began collecting late 19th and early 20th century bicycles and bike tools as a young man, the very items Wilbur and Orville used, sold, and fixed in the days leading up to their legendary day at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903—a day that Russell celebrates annually.

In 1957, his parents established Russell’s Shoe Store (now Dave’s Boot Shop) on Lake Street in Petoskey, a business Russell runs to this day. Working alongside his parents, Russell saved his money and in 1979 started his own replica Wright Brothers bicycle shop (“Wright Cycle Co.”) at 208 Park Ave. in beautiful Pennsylvania Park in downtown Petoskey.

He rented that building and continued growing his collection of vintage bikes and Wright Brothers memorabilia, working with a growing network of other like-minded collectors and auctioneers. His collection progressed and, over the years, he’s picked up a number of interesting items, including documents bearing the brothers’ original signatures and other ephemera.

Continuing the Cycle

His appreciation for the old bicycles led Russell to join The Wheelmen, an international club of vintage bike enthusiasts, many of them fans of high-wheelers or penny farthings.

At one annual Wheelmen meeting (this one in Dayton), he got a chance to meet Ivonette Wright Miller (1896-1995), a niece of the famous flying brothers. Miller took a shine to the good-natured Russell, who subsequently met with her several more times, discussing her memories and interactions with the brothers.

She even let him hold the original 1903 telegram her enterprising uncles had sent to Ohio announcing their revolutionary breakthrough at Kitty Hawk, something Russell described as “a real thrill.”

Meeting Miller deepened his interest in the fathers of aviation, and his collection grew. Through a connection at the Wright Brothers National Museum, Russell acquired a rare artifact: Orville Wright’s personal address book, which is loaded, he said, with the names of other would-be aviators and bicyclists of that era.

Eventually, Russell got tired of renting and wanted to own the building that housed his museum. In another act of historic preservation, he struck a deal with the City of Petoskey to make a one-dollar purchase of the old Emmet County Title and Abstract building just across the park. The city wanted to raze it, but Russell envisioned saving the structure and re-purposing it as his museum’s new home.

In 1996, with lots of community support and volunteer elbow grease, he moved the building—brick by brick—to its new location at 214 Park Ave, still in the park and just half a block from his boot shop.

Remembering the First Flight

This space is jammed with artifacts and memorabilia from another era. In one corner, a Commercial safety bike leans next to a potbelly stove. To the side, a vintage tandem bicycle nestles against an antique display case full of antique bike tools, old photographs, and faded yellow advertisements for bike sales and repair.

This is a sacred space for Russell, an anachronistic menagerie illuminated by period gas lamps and natural light. But, this museum—stuffed with the accumulation of an astute and discerning curator/collector, is open but once a year.

And just for an hour.

Yep, Russell opens annually, in the late morning for about an hour on the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Dec. 17. Just as he has since he first opened his original museum in 1979, he hosts the public (usually only 10-20 people) for a brief, but spirited celebration of the first human flight.

The event, now in its 46th year, includes a public reading of the famous telegram and a commemorative song about the famous brothers. Then everyone raises a cup of warm apple cider to a toast written by Russell and delivered by a man in period clothing.

“Everyone is invited to this year’s celebration,” Russell says, beaming with clear delight. “You know the date [Dec. 17], and the door will open at 10am!”

The Gift of Flight

Russell can speak at length and with great accuracy about the Wright Brothers and all they did, both in cycling and aviation. Like a seasoned museum docent, he can casually tick off obscure facts about the Wright Flyer, the scientific methods used by the brothers, and a laundry list of anecdotes, memorable occasions, and the historical background of the dozens of tiny Wright-related artifacts that populate the place.

A genuine student of the subject, he describes in great detail how the duo incorporated some of the principles of bicycling into their Wright Flyer design. He even has a few contraptions they developed to test aerodynamics and other characteristics.

But, in spite of all the museum’s homage to the Wrights’ winged exploits, Russell said it’s mostly cycling enthusiasts who want to visit.

“It seems there are a lot more people interested in these old bicycles,” he said, nudging against a stately old high wheeler. “But look how much the Wright Brothers gave us. They gave us the gift of flight, and that’s hard to top.”