Robin S. Doak - Amelia Earhart

1897Amelia Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24.

1915Earhart graduates from high school in Chicago.

1917Earhart visits her sister, Muriel, in Toronto, Canada, and sees wounded World War I soldiers.

1918While working in a Toronto military hospital, Earhart begins visiting military airfields and watching pilots fly.

1920Earhart leaves Columbia University to go live with her parents in Los Angeles. In December she takes her first ride in a plane.

1921In January Earhart begins flying lessons with Anita Snook. At the end of the year, Earhart receives her pilots license and takes part in an air show.

1924Earhart and her mother drive across the country to settle near Muriel in Massachusetts.

1925Earhart takes a job in Boston teaching English to foreign students. Later in the year, she works at a hospital.

1926Earhart is hired as a social worker at Denison House in Boston.

1928Earhart becomes the first female passenger to make a cross-Atlantic flight on June 1718. She writes 20 Hrs., 40 Min., a book about the trip.

1928In September and October, Earhart makes the first round-trip, cross-country flight by a woman. In November she is named aviation editor at Cosmopolitan magazine.

1929Earhart participates in the Powder Puff Derby, a cross-country air race for women. After the race is over, Earhart helps found the Ninety-Nines, a pilots association for women.

1930In September Earharts father dies of stomach cancer.

1931Earhart marries G. P. Putnam on February 7.

1932In May Earhart becomes the first female pilot to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1934Earhart founds her own line of designer clothing and luggage.

1935Earhart accepts a position at Purdue University counseling female students. She also sets a number of flight records this year.

1936Earhart is given the flying laboratory, a brand-new plane that she will use to attempt a round-the-world flight.

1937On May 20 Earhart begins her second attempt to fly around the world. On July 2 her plane disappears somewhere around Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1939On January 5, Earhart is declared dead by a judge in California.

Family Tree

Find Out More

Books

Burleigh, Robert. Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2011.

Earhart, Amelia. The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation. Chicago: Academy Press, 1977.

Earhart, Amelia. Last Flight: Amelia Earharts Flying Adventures. Coventry, U.K.: Trotamundas Press, 2008.

Nahum, Andrew. Flight. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2011.

Reed, Jennifer. Daring American Heroes of Flight: 9 Brave Fliers. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: MyReportLinks.com Books, 2009.

Stone, Tanya Lee. Amelia Earhart: A Photographic Story of a Life. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2007.

Websites

The Amelia Earhart Project
http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr.html
Home page of an organization that searches for evidence that Amelia crash-landed on the island of Nikumaroro.

Centennial of Flight
www.centennialoffliight.gov
A NASA online exhibit that discusses flight from 1903 through 2003.

The Dream of Flight
www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/wb-home.html
A Library of Congress online exhibit that chronicles the history of aviation.

George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers
www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/
Papers and other artifacts donated to Purdue University by G. P. Putnam.

In Search of Amelia Earhart
www.museumofflight.org/amelia
The Museum of Flights web page on the disappearance of Amelia.

The Ninety-Nines, Inc.
www.ninety-nines.org
Home page of the organization for women pilots that Amelia helped found.

Places to visit

Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum
223 North Terrace Street
Atchison, KS 66002
913-367-4217
www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org

Amelia Earhart Earthwork
A portrait of Amelia carved into the ground by a Kansas artist.
17862 274th Road
Warnock Lake
Atchison, KS 66002
800-234-1854
www.travelks.com/s/index.cfm?LID=23

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park
16 South Williams Street
Dayton, OH 45402
937-225-7705
www.nps.gov/daav/index.htm

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Independence Avenue Southwest
Washington, DC 20597
202-633-1000
www.nasm.si.edu

More Than a Pilot

During her lifetime Amelia Earhart was one of the most famous women in the world. Best known as a pioneer in the newborn aviation industry, Earhart was also an author, speaker, social worker, and counselor. She set many flight records andat a time when women were discouraged from flyingproved that women could fly as well as men. She also helped found some of the first commercial airlines.

Earhart was the perfect representative for women in aviation. Her honest, straightforward manner won her friends and admirers everywhere she went. Her bold and fearless nature allowed her to take chances that others were afraid to take.

Earhart was a strong supporter of womens rights. At a time when aviation and other industries were dominated by men, Earhart showed that women could do whatever they chose. She hoped that her example would encourage other women to try new things and achieve greatness.

Fact VS. Fiction

Myth: Amelia Earhart was an incompetent pilot who should never have attempted a round-the-world flight.

Fact: Earhart logged many hours in the air and set several flight records. She may not have been the most skilled or talented female flyer of her time, but she was a competent pilot who could handle the hard-to-fly airplanes of the 1920s and 1930s.

Despite all of her accomplishments, Earhart became a legend because of her final failure. Her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937, remains one of aviations greatest mysteries. Today people still wonder what, exactly, became of the famous flyer.

Amelia Earhart disappeared shortly before her 40th birthday.

Young Amelia

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. Her father, Edwin Earhart, was a lawyer for the railroads. Her mother, Amy Otis Earhart, was a housewife. Amelia had one younger sister, Grace Muriel, born in 1899. The two would remain close throughout Amelias life.

Edwins job required him to be frequently on the move. So until she was 11, Amelia lived with her grandparents, Alfred and Amelia Otis, for most of the year. The Otises put a high value on education and learning. Amelia loved to read, and she was a good student.