Amelia Earhart

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Lore & Background

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the daughter of Samuel 'Edwin' Stanton Earhart and Amelia 'Amy' Earhart. She was the second child, following a stillbirth in August 1896. Her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis, was a former judge and the president of Atchison Savings Bank. Following family custom, she was named after her two grandmothers, Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton. From an early age, Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister Grace Muriel Earhart, two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower. Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be 'nice little girls.' As a child, Earhart climbed trees, hunted rats with a rifle, and built a homemade ramp with her uncle in 1904, fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen in St. Louis. After her first ride on it, she emerged from the broken wooden box with a bruised lip, a torn dress, and a 'sensation of exhilaration,' saying, 'Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!'

In 1907, the family moved to Des Moines, Iowa. At age 10, Amelia saw her first aircraft at the Iowa State Fair but was not interested in flying it, calling the biplane 'a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting.' The family's finances suffered due to her father Edwin's alcoholism, and after her grandmother Amelia Otis died, the family home was auctioned, which Earhart later described as the end of her childhood. She graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in 1916 and attended junior college at Ogontz School in Pennsylvania but did not complete the program. During Christmas vacation in 1917, she visited her sister in Toronto, saw wounded soldiers, and trained as a nurse's aide with the Red Cross. She worked at Spadina Military Hospital, where she heard stories from military pilots and developed an interest in flying. In 1918, she contracted pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis during the Spanish flu pandemic, leading to chronic sinusitis that required painful operations and affected her later life. After convalescence, she studied at Columbia University but quit after a year to be with her parents in California. On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an 'aerial meet' at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, California. The next day, she took a 10-minute passenger flight at Emory Roger's Field with Frank Hawks, which cost $10. The ride changed her life; she said: 'By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground ... I knew I had to fly.' The following month, she engaged Neta Snook as her flying instructor for 12 hours of instruction at $500. Earhart worked as a photographer, truck driver, and stenographer to save $1,000 for flying lessons, and had her first lesson on January 3, 1921, at Kinner Field.

Reader's Guide

Amelia Earhart's significance as a pioneering aviator is built on specific achievements. In 1928, she became the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, for which she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. She was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Her disappearance on July 2, 1937, while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world, turned her into a global cultural figure. Since then, numerous films, documentaries, and books have recounted her life.

Did You Know?

• Earhart was named after her two grandmothers, Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton.
• As a child, she built a homemade ramp with her uncle in 1904, and after crashing in it, she said it gave her a 'sensation of exhilaration' like flying.
• Her first flying lesson was on January 3, 1921, with instructor Neta Snook at Kinner Field.
• She worked as a photographer, truck driver, and stenographer to save money for flying lessons.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

1. Some believe Earhart was immediately fascinated by airplanes as a child. However, after seeing her first aircraft at age 10, she called it "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting." Her passion for flying began only after her first passenger flight in 1920. 2. It is sometimes thought she came from a wealthy, stable family. In fact, her father's alcoholism strained the family's finances, and after her grandmother died, the family home was auctioned, an event Earhart described as the end of her childhood.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

Amelia Earhart endures not only as a symbol of aviation achievement but as a testament to persistence and self-reliance. From saving money by working as a truck driver and stenographer to defying societal expectations of what a "nice little girl" should be, she embodied the courage to pursue one's own path against the odds. Her mysterious disappearance only deepened her legend, but her legacy is built on concrete accomplishments that continue to inspire.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting." — Amelia Earhart "In soloing—as in other activities—it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it. Almost every beginner hops off with a whoop of joy, though he is likely to end his flight with something akin to the D.T.'s." — Amelia Earhart "There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war." — Amelia Earhart "As I look back on the flight I think two questions have been asked me most frequently. First: Was I afraid? Secondly: What did I wear?" — Amelia Earhart