Amelia Earhart had already established herself as an American icon 87 years ago, at the height of her fame, when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean attempting to circumnavigate the world.
While her disappearance remains an unsolved mystery, a potentially groundbreaking sonar image of a hazy, planar mass in the Pacific Ocean has sparked controversy among both experts and the public: a small town in Kansas. The pioneering girl who soared to new heights from her early childhood is drawing a lot of attention. House.
“We have people calling…someone called yesterday and said they wanted to come and see the news,” said assistant director Mika Schroeder. Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum He spoke to the Post in Atchison.
“We’re also hearing back from people who wrote books about her. It’s interesting. It’s fun to talk about her legacy and everything she did,” added museum director Heather Roesch. I did.
“There’s a connection to Amelia here,” she said of the museum. It was the home of Earhart’s maternal grandparents and where she was born to Edwin Stanton Earhart and Amy Otis Earhart on July 24, 1897. Before the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
“but” [we have people] We also want to know about her legacy, career, and disappearance. There really is something for everyone here. ”
Discovering Earhart’s plane would solve one of the 20th century’s most enduring problems, but it would do little to affect her legendary status.
“It will definitely solve a mystery that has been here for over 87 years. Her disappearance has confused people for generations,” Schrader said.
“But I think what we want to emphasize is that there is more to her life than that. The disappearance is a very important part of her history, but Amelia also We did a lot of great things.”
young amelia earhart
Earhart and her sister Muriel showed a keen sense of adventure from an early age, always playing outside, climbing trees, exploring caves, and sledding.
“Amelia was very much a tomboy and kind of broke the mold of what was expected of girls at the time. She certainly came from a long line of women who broke the mold,” Schroeder said. , noted that Earhart’s mother was one of the first women to climb Pikes Peak in Colorado.
She considered Atchison her true home, but her father, who worked for the railroad, found work and the family moved around the Midwest. Earhart eventually graduated from Chicago’s Hyde Park High School in 1916.
After the outbreak of World War I, she developed an interest in aviation.
“(Earhart) said that as soon as she left the earth, she knew she had to fly.” She continued to try to fly and incorporate it into her life. ”
Mika Schrader
After visiting her sister in Toronto, Earhart became a nurse at the airfield hospital, where she met injured pilots and told them stories about flying in the war.
“It was definitely a pivotal moment in her life. Around the time of World War I, she was about 20 or 21 years old. She got into that position and thought she was going to become a doctor,” Shu said. Rader said.
“She was able to use her time off to see for the first time an airplane pilot actually performing training maneuvers,” she continued. “There’s a story she told in her book that she wrote.” [the pilots] He tried to scare her by flying low over her and another nursing assistant.
“The other girl was a little scared, but Amelia took it in stride and was in awe of what an airplane could do,” Sharder said.
“I didn’t understand it at the time, but I think that little red plane said something to me as it passed by.” Earhart you’ll remember it later.
After the war, she returned to her parents, who had moved to California. At the State Fair held in Long Beach in 1920, she finally made her first appearance above ground.
“Her father encouraged her to fly at the fair and paid her $10 for a ticket,” Schroeder said, noting that the ticket now costs about $140.
“As soon as she left the ground, she said she knew she had to fly. She kept trying to fly and trying to incorporate it into her life,” Schroeder said. Told.
“My own name”
Earhart began taking flying lessons from fellow female aviation pioneer Nita Snook for about $1,000 per lesson. Nita Snook was only about a year older than her. She worked odd jobs as a truck driver and stenographer to pay for her flight training, becoming the 16th woman to fly in the United States. receive her pilot’s license.
After Earhart fell into financial difficulties and was forced to sell her first airplane, she moved to Boston and worked at the women-run Denison House, helping immigrants.
Information about this budding female pilot reached publicist George P. Putnam, who was planning another trip with women on board after Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic in 1927.
Earhart was thrust into the spotlight in 1928 when she accompanied pilot Wilmer Stoltz as a passenger on the Transatlantic Friendship Flight from Newfoundland to Wales.
“She became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, which in itself skyrocketed her fame, but I don’t think anyone was fully prepared, especially Amelia. “But after that, she never left the spotlight,” Schrader said.
In 1931 she married Putnam, who became her lifelong promoter.
She cemented her place in history in 1934 by becoming the first woman, and only the second woman in history, to fly a single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
“At the same time, there were many other women striving for the same feat,” Schrader said.
“One of the things that particularly motivated her was because Charles Lindbergh was the first person to do it in 1927. She was often called ‘Lady Lindy’ because of her similar height to him. But she wanted to show that she was her. She could make a name for herself,” she added.
Upon her return to the United States, Earhart won numerous awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross Award, where she became famous and an inspiration to young women.
“I think that made her feel so good that she was able to do it on her own as a woman. I think that’s the goal after that. [being a passenger on the 1928 flight] “I was going to say, ‘I can fly,’ because I didn’t have that opportunity at the time,” Roche said.
As a new celebrity, Earhart became close friends with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The two women were among the most photographed women of their time.
Earhart went on to break aviation records for speed and altitude, becoming the first person to fly all parts of the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu to Oakland.
She toured the United States speaking and later became a visiting professor at Purdue University, teaching women interested in careers in aviation and science.
“She was very well known for her speaking ability, her ability to engage with audiences and individuals, and she was really lucky that she was alive at a time when that was being recorded,” Schroeder said. said.
flight of destiny
After months of press coverage and intensive organization, Earhart embarked on her infamous and ill-fated round-the-world flight in 1937. This is her second attempt.
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan departed Miami for the east on June 1 in a specially designed Lockheed 10-E Electra, making several stops along the way in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In the process, she sent her information back to her husband to compile into her next book.
On July 2, Earhart and Noonan departed from Lae, Papua New Guinea, planning to refuel at Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean before continuing their journey to Honolulu and their final destination in Oakland.
The two faced strong headwinds at Lae and headed toward Howland, but eventually Earhart’s radio communications went silent. The US Navy and Coast Guard 16 days search A search for the missing duo was unsuccessful, and Earhart was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939.
She was only 39 years old.
Her plane and body have never been found, sparking decades of speculation about what went wrong and where her plane crashed.
Sonar images released by Deep Sea Vision last month from an $11 million expedition in the Pacific Ocean show a large amount of what CEO Tony Romeo believes could be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra. was drawn, providing new clues. The aviator’s family says it’s “promising.”
The 16-person venture departed from Tarawa, a port near Howland Island in Kiribati, in September. Romeo and his brother Lloyd plan another expedition to take better pictures of the wreckage.
