Six years after Orville and Wilbur Wright had taken to the air outside the tiny coastal fishing village of Kitty Hawk, N.C., eager spectators ventured out to a field near 79th and Floyd streets in what’s now Overland Park for their own first look at a heavier-than-air flying machine. It was a cold Christmas Eve 1909.

Unexpected discoveries found deep in the collections are one of the joys of working at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Gold Room, or more..