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Amelia Mary Earhart was a celebrated American female aviator whose mysterious disappearance in flight remains unexplained to this day. Born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897, to Amy Otis and Edwin Stanton Earhart, Amelia Earhart was a pioneer in the field of aviation and a strong advocate for women’s equality with men in the air as well as in the domestic arena. Intelligent, adventurous, and with a passion for life, yet sensible and straightforward, Amelia Earhart, a widely known celebrity during her lifetime for her groundbreaking achievements, continues to live on in people’s memories as a mythical person of courage and vision who dared to reach new heights and dreamed of freedom for all. Dubbed by the media “Lady Lindy” for her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, who was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927, Earhart became a legend in her own time.
One of the best known female aviators during late 1920s and 1930s America, Amelia Earhart played an important role in the development of aviation in America. She was the first woman to make solo flights across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and participated in and won numerous air races against men Along the way, she achieved a variety of speed and distance records and held various positions in commercial aviation. She sold airplanes, piloted aircraft on publicity tours for manufacturers, and did promotion for airlines. It was her transatlantic flight that made her the most famous female aviator in history, and her unexplained disappearance while attempting to circumnavigate the world made her a legend.
Though the mystery of her disappearance has overwhelmed her image, her actual life is notable for extraordinary accomplishments in her career as the most famous female aviator in the world. Such accomplishments include her multifarious achievements in promoting aviation and advocating women pilots; her bravery and perseverance; her unorthodox life choices; and her feminist perspective that made her shun the stereotypical image of women in society and work relentlessly for opening new avenues for women’s career choices. Epitomized as an emblem of power as well as an iconic role model for a new age, Earhart proved to be a creative impulse within the American aviation industry with her trail of achievement.
Amelia Earhart’s legacy documents the evolution of this exceptional woman from an ordinary, middle-class background to an outstanding female pilot of her time who went on to become one of the world’s most inspiring women in history. In her formative years, AE, as Amelia Earhart liked to be called, attended numerous schools and experimented with diverse areas of study and a variety of jobs till she found her vocation in the field of aviation, which was relatively new at the time. After taking flying lessons from a pioneer woman pilot named Neta Snook, Earhart made her first solo flight and bought her first airplane in 1921. She became an instant celebrity, capturing the imagination of the American public and the attention of the world in 1928 when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger accompanying Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on their transatlantic flight on the Fokker F7 airplane, named the Friendship, to England, an experience that she later documented in her first book, 20 Hrs. 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship (1928).
Earhart took part and finished in third place in the first cross-country race for women, the Women’s Air Derby race, nicknamed the Powder Puff Derby, from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1929. In 1932, Earhart gained acclaim as America’s premier woman in aviation and pioneering aviator as she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, flying from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Ireland, in her single-engine Lockheed Vega airplane. Earhart was the first woman ever to receive several prestigious awards, like the National Geographic Society’s prestigious gold medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross, for her transatlantic flight.
Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) in 1932, photographed after becoming the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight. One of the most famous Americans of the 1930s, as well as one of the most notable American women of the first half of the twentieth century, Earhart vanished in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, while completing an around-the-world flight along the equator with her navigator, Fred Noonan. Earhart’s mysterious disappearance at the height of her fame secured her a lasting place in American mythology, legend, and folklore. (The Illustrated London News Picture Library)
Among her other renowned feats of piloting, Earhart’s first solo flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California, in 1935 established her as the first woman, as well as the first person, to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1937, Earhart made two attempts to circumnavigate the world in her “Flying Laboratory”—a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane financed by Purdue University, where she served as a part-time career counselor for women and an adviser in aeronautics. The first attempt in March failed, and in June 1937, Earhart embarked upon her historic around-the-world flight along the equator with her navigator, Fred Noonan. Flying east to west, Earhart completed nearly two-thirds of her projected flight and reached New Guinea.
Earhart disappeared with Noonan on July 2, 1937, over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island while flying one of the last legs of her journey, and was declared dead on January 5, 1939. A massive naval, air, and land search, organized first by the U.S. government and then carried on privately by Earhart’s husband, George Putnam, failed to locate Earhart, Noonan, and their airplane. The mystery of her disappearance remains unsolved to this day, with no concrete evidence or definitive knowledge of the fate of the two aviators or the airplane. Since then, several theories have cropped up about the disappearance and the ultimate fate of Amelia Earhart, which remains a subject of unending speculation.
Amelia Earhart had an interesting and varied life in which she had tried her hand at different professions while excelling at her vocation as an aviator. A mentor for other women pilots, Earhart helped found the Ninety Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots that worked for the equality of women pilots in the predominantly male field of aviation in 1929, and she served as its president until 1933. Working to inspire women to pursue nontraditional roles, Earhart served as women’s career counselor at Purdue University as well as the aviation editor for Cosmopolitan magazine. She wrote books and numerous articles on women and aviation, and went on nationwide lecture tours promoting aviation among women and sharing her own experiences as a female aviator. Earhart designed sportswear and flying clothes for women, and also luggage and stationery suitable for air travel.
The legendary status and personality of Amelia Earhart endures in the American consciousness, not only as one of the world’s most celebrated aviators, but also as a woman of exemplary qualities. Regarded as one of the first truly liberated women in America, Earhart has served as a role model for generations of young women who came after her, and her life has often been retold as a motivational tale for younger generations of Americans. Many facets of Earhart’s character have propelled her to lasting fame in popular culture, including her radical independence, diligence, courage to challenge and replace social norms, and determination to pursue and excel in a career of her own choice. Her endeavor to open up the new field of aviation to women, as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, have also elevated Earhart to the level of a mythical being.
Lindbergh, Charles (1902–1974) and the Lindbergh Kidnapping
Most Americans know Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart as heroes of aviation and American icons. “Lucky Lindy” made the first solo flight over the Atlantic in 1927, and it is hard to overestimate his popular appeal and abiding significance in the American mind. Earhart self-consciously followed in Lindbergh’s footsteps—or, rather, his flight plans—when she became the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic five years later. Unfortunately, Lindbergh and Earhart also will be forever linked in American legend because of the famous disappearances associated with their names. Earhart herself vanished over the Pacific in 1937, just five years after the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby became the sensation and obsession of Depression-era America. The boy’s body was found ten weeks later, and Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the crime, which resulted in the Federal Kidnapping Act, or the “Lindbergh Law.”
C. Fee
Amelia Earhart’s various pioneering accomplishments as a female aviator have proven to be both influential and inspiring for later aviators, and the lingering speculations about her mysterious disappearance have captured the public’s imagination. As a result, there exist numerous biographies, biographical sketches, novels, juvenile books, picture books, and films about Earhart that have gained immense popularity with the media and the masses. These include George Putnam’s Soaring Wings: A Biography of Amelia Earhart (1939) that he wrote after her death, Mary S. Lovell’s The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart (1989), Doris L. Rich’s Amelia Earhart: A Biography (1989), and Amelia Earhart’s sister Muriel Earhart Morrissey’s two biographies of Earhart, Courage Is the Price: The Biography of Amelia Earhart (1963) and Amelia, My Courageous Sister: Biography of Amelia Earhart, co-written with Carol L. Osborne (1987). Earhart’s own books are 20 Hrs., 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928); The Fun of It (New York: Brewer, Warren and Putnam, 1932); and Last Flight (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1937), edited by her husband.
Sutapa Chaudhuri
See also Barton, Clara; Oakley, Annie; Ross, Betsy; Sacagawea; Truth, Sojourner
Further Reading
Fleming, Candace. 2011. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.
Lovell, Mary S. 1989. The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rich, Doris L. 1989. Amelia Earhart: A Biography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
Ware, Susan. 1993. Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism. New York: W. W. Norton.
Wilson, Donald Moyer. 1994. Amelia Earhart: Lost Legend. Webster, NY: Enigma Press.
Earhart, Amelia—Primary Document
Amelia Earhart, Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1936)
In 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back again. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, a feat for which she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. She used her fame and influence to campaign for the advancement of women, a feminist commitment that is revealed in this letter to FDR asking for help in her attempt to fly around the world, when she remarked, “I feel that women now and then have to do things to show what women can do.”
2 West 45th Street,
New York City.
November 10, 1936
Dear Mr. President:
Some time ago I told you and Mrs. Roosevelt a little about my confidential plans for a world flight. As you perhaps know, through the cooperation of Purdue University I now have a magnificent twin-motor, all-metal plane, especially equipped for long distance flying.
For some months Mr. Putnam and I have been preparing for a flight which I hope to attempt probably in March. The route, compared with previous flights, will be unique. It is east to west, and approximates the equator. Roughly it is from San Francisco to Honolulu; from Honolulu to Tokio—or Honolulu to Brisbane; the regular Australia—England route as far west as Karachi; from Karachi to Aden; Aden via Kartoon across Central Africa to Dakar; Dakar to Natal, and thence to New York on the regular Pan American route.
Special survey work and map preparation is already under way on the less familiar portion of the route as, for instance, that in Africa.
The chief problem is the jump westward from Honolulu. The distance thence to Tokio is 3900 miles. I want to reduce as much as possible the hazard of the take-off at Honolulu with the excessive over-load. With that in view, I am discussing with the Navy a possible refueling in the air over Midway Island. If this can be arranged, I need to take much less gas from Honolulu, and with the Midway refueling will have ample gasoline to reach Tokio. As mine is a land plane, the seaplane facilities at Wake, Guam, etc. are useless.
This matter has been discussed in detail by Mr. Putnam with Admiral Cook, who was most interested and friendly. Subsequently a detailed description of the project, and request for this assistance, was prepared. It is now in the desk of Admiral Standley, by whom it is being considered.
Some new seaplanes are being completed at San Diego for the Navy. They will be ferried in January or February to Honolulu. It is my desire to practice actual refueling operations in the air over San Diego with one of these planes. That plane subsequently from Honolulu would be available for the Midway operation. I gather from Admiral Cook that technically there are no extraordinary difficulties. It is primarily a matter of policy and precedent.
In the past the Navy has been so progressive in its pioneering, and so broad-minded in what we might call its “public relations”, that I think a project such as this (even involving a mere woman!) may appeal to Navy personnel. Its successful attainment might, I think, win for the Service further popular friendship.
I should add the matter of international permissions etc. is being handled very helpfully by the State Department. The flight, by the way, has no commercial implications. The operation of my “flying laboratory” is under the auspices of Purdue University. Like previous flights, I am undertaking this one solely because I want to, and because I feel that women now and then have to do things to show what women can do.
Forgive the great length of this letter. I am just leaving for the west on a lecture tour and wanted to place my problem before you.
Knowing your own enthusiasm for voyaging, and your affectionate interest in Navy matter, I am asking you to help me secure Navy cooperation—that is, if you think well of the project. If any information is wanted as to purpose, plans, equipment, etc., Mr. Putnam can meet anyone you designate any time any where.
Very sincerely yours,
Amelia Earhart
Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
The White House,
Washington, D.C.
P.S.—My plans for the moment entirely confidential—no announcement has been made.
Source: Amelia Earhart, Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. November 10, 1936. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, PPF 960.