Amelia Earhart in the Archives

This week marks the anniversary of the flight of Amelia Earhart as the first woman to fly as a passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight. On June 17, 1928, Earhart departed Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named Friendship with pilot Wilmer “Bill” Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. “Slim” Gordon. Approximately 21 hours later, they arrived at Burry Port, Wales. When they returned to the United States, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade and a reception at the White House with President Calvin Coolidge.

Here are a few Amelia Earhart items from our aviation collections:

ms1_25-1-22_sm

Above, Amelia Earhart and Orville Wright examining a 4-cylinder vertical Wright engine on display at the Franklin Institute, December 17, 1933. (MS-1 Wright Brothers Collection, photo # 25-1-22)

ms210_1_6_Amelia_sm

Above, photo of Amelia Earhart autographed to journalist Robert Ball, Pan Pacific Press Bureau. Taken at Burbank, California, 1937.  (MS-210 Robert Ball Collection, Box 1, File 6)

The images below show a draft of Amelia Earhart’s entry for the International Cyclopedia of Aviation Biography, corrected and signed by Earhart, 1929 (MS-167, Box 9, File 1) (click on an image to enlarge and read it):

From MS-167, The International Cyclopedia of Aviation Biography Collection, which consists of materials collected by W. L. Hamberger in the 1920s and 1930s in preparation to publish his International Cyclopedia of Aviation Biography. Included are files on over 3,000 individuals prominent in the field of aviation in the early twentieth century. Files contain a variety of materials including news clippings, photographs, correspondence, questionnaires, and drafts of biographies. The Cyclopedia was never completed or published.

You can also see additional photographs of Amelia Earhart in this January 2012 post on our Dayton Daily News Archive blog.

This entry was posted in Aviation, Collections and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.