Primary Source Spotlight: Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart felt she was meant to fly. In 1932, she became the first woman to pilot a plane across the Atlantic Ocean and three years later, in 1935, she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific from Hawaii to California. On July 2, 1937, towards the end of her round-the-world flight over the Pacific Ocean somewhere between New Guinea and Howland Island, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan sent their last radio communication. The mystery of their disappearance has never been solved.
“Miss Amelia Earhart . . . will take her own plane east” The Seattle Star (Seattle, Wash.), 08 Aug. 1922
Letter from Amelia Earhart to Orville Wright August 6, 1932
Letter from Amelia Earhart to Orville Wright December 20, 1933
Letter to Amelia Earhart from Orville Wright January 3, 1934
Speech by Amelia Earhart (Transcript)
Amelia Earhart’s palm print and analysis of her character 28 June 1933
H.J.Res.412 – A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to designate May 20, 1982, as “Amelia Earhart Day”
S.146 – A bill to require that all Government records that contain information bearing on the last flight and disappearance of Amelia Earhart be transmitted to the Library of Congress and made available to the public
Amelia Earhart Papers (George Palmer Putnam Collection) Purdue University
Amelia Earhart biography & news clippings Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum
Exploring Amelia Earhart with Library of Congress Primary Sources Teaching with the Library of Congress August 7, 2018
Amelia Earhart stories from America’s Library
Amelia Earhart, in History’s Hands Library of Congress Blog October 3, 2022
Amelia Earhart: Mystery and True Heroine Headlines and Heroes October 8, 2019
Will the Search for Amelia Earhart Ever End? Smithsonian Magazine January 2015
Women Who Dare webcast video
American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped Our Country webcast