1. Beyond Legend: The Life of Amelia Earhart
by
Jennifer Egiziaco
Submitted to the School of Liberal Studies and Continuing Education
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies
Purchase College
State University of New York
May 2016
Instructor: Judith Dupré

2. Egiziaco 1
Jennifer Egiziaco
Professor Judith Dupré
CAP 4800
May 1, 2016
Beyond Legend: The life of Amelia Earhart
When you walk onto an airplane do you ever think that you rarely see a female pilot fly
the plane to your destination safely? I saw a female pilot once, for the first time, on my last
flight to Florida and she was the co-pilot. We as females have come a long way.
Amelia Earhart, who paved the way for the acceptance of female aviators, was born on
July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Her greatest accomplishment was in 1932 when she became
the first person to cross the Atlantic twice. She gave hope to the American people, to look
forward, to the underdog story.
Amelia Earhart was a feminist before that term existed. The future for women like
Amelia Earhart was limited. At the time women were expected to become a homemaker, a
mother, a secretary or maybe a Hollywood starlet. During this period in America’s history, the
country was going through rough economic times due to the effects of the Spanish-American
War of 1898, World War I and the Great Depression
Earhart was ten years old when she first saw an airplane show with her grandparents.
She was unimpressed by it. It wasn’t until she took a ride in an airplane in her twenties that she
fell in love with airplane flying. For most of her childhood she was a “tomboy” who hunted for

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rats and other small creatures. During most of her childhood she lived with her grandparents
due her father’s inability to hold a job because of alcoholism. (Lovell 16)
In Earhart’s book, The Fun of It, she wrote about asking her parents to help to pay for
the flying lessons when she found out the cost would be about a thousand dollars. (24) A
thousand dollars, still a large amount for the average American today, was especially so in the
1920’s, when the average salary was $1,159 a year (Manly 5). The economic and social
challenges were factors that Earhart had to overcome in the 1920’s.
When Earhart told her parents that she wanted to fly a plane they wanted to be
supportive of her. At first her father didn’t believe her and asked, “You really weren’t serious,
were you? I thought you were just wishing. I can’t afford to let you have instruction” (Fun 25).
With or without her parents support, however, she was determined to fly an airplane. At one
time Earhart took a lesson with Frank Hawks, who held the record for being the fastest airman
in the world. This lesson was a turning point, fanning her desire to obtain her pilots license.
(Fun 25)
Before Earhart could cross the Atlantic by airplane as a passenger in 1928, she had to
raise the funds. She did this by performing public lectures and writing aviation columns for
Cosmopolitan Magazine, endorsing automobiles and other products and acted as an advisor to
college students at Purdue University.
“After I had really flown alone, Mother was a good sport enough to help me buy a small
second hand plane” (Fun 27). It was a turning point for Earhart, to show her that at least her
mother supported her and her dreams. Even though she supported Earhart, her mother

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worried about the dangers of flying. Once her father found out about how expensive the costs
of being an inspiring pilot, his support wavered. This lack of support may have had something
to do with his addiction to alcohol.
She supported her mother and her sister and brother-in-law by sending money and
wrote letters to her mother once a week. She wrote to her mother a few time a week, time
permitting. The approval of her lifestyle may not have been approved by her mother. Her
mother might have been upset about Earhart not having a traditional life style as a mother and
housewife. It was also pointed out that her mother may have been jealous of Earhart’s life
because she may have wanted to be independent of her husband and independent after her
husband passed away. Amelia’s mother may have lived vicariously through her daughter’s
accomplishments.
There were rigorous requirements to acquire a pilot’s license and a transport license. In
the 1920’s, “The cost of obtaining a license varies from approximately $300 to a possible out-of-
pocket cost of $4,000 for the transport grade. Of course, all that the schools can give is the
training and supervised solo flights” (Fun 30). The pilot diploma requirements were a written
test, a road test, and tended to be for a physician or lawyer to verify that he was a person who
was thoroughly competent. These requirements were actually to place limits on working class
people, black people or unfit people. The average American was struggling for funds to put
food on their table. Most average American’s could not afford the $300 fee which could be the
equivalent of a few months living expenses. Women were expected to become a housewife, a
mother, a nurse or a secretary, not a pilot. These expectations were the rules for females of

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the time period to be dependent on her father or husband to support them. Most black people
had fewer rights than women of the time. Most black people couldn’t eat at the same
restaurant as white people or go to the same schools. Black people were not allowed to attend
a flying school or take pilot lessons. Earhart was a determined young woman who wanted to
fly. It took a lot of motivation to overcome these obstacles.
When Earhart got a pilot license in 1920, it was the year after women got the right to
vote. Earhart was not the first female aviator, however. Harriet Quimby was the first American
woman to earn a pilot’s license. Quimby accomplished the first woman’s solo flight across the
English Channel in 1912. (Bix 39)
The stereotype of woman still impacted the female pilot regardless of how efficient they
were as pilots. These famous women wanted American’s to “embrace the principles of
feminism, reflecting both awareness and ambivalence about the perceptions of pioneering
women” (Bix 42). American opinions toward female aviators were that women were show
pilots and that the women were not good at being real pilots. “Female aviators resented the
cute nicknames attached to them “as “angels,” “sweethearts of the air” and “power puff pilots”
(Bix 42). The female pilots wanted to have a fair chance to prove they were as good at being
pilots as their male counterparts.
Hermann’s article described Amelia Earhart as a pioneer similar to Charles Lindbergh
and the Wright Brothers. She was before her time. Earhart crossed the Atlantic in 1928, after
Lindbergh. She did it in the years that people never thought of a female as an airplane pilot.
The fact that she was a woman wasn’t enough for her. She flew the airplane more efficiently

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than Lindbergh said Mayor Walker of New York City. Hermann’s article stated the kind of
woman society was looking for as an aviatrix was an ideal female pilot with certain traits of
what a female pilot should or shouldn’t look like. Earhart looked more like Lindbergh when
flying a plane. The young aviation industry was looking for a name rather than a traditional
female pilot. They wanted the first female aviatrix to be well educated and able to efficiently
fly a plane in addition to being physically attractive with ladylike manners and be a member of
English society. The right “girl” turned out to be "a tall, slender, boyish-looking young woman."
She looked like Lindbergh. That is how Amelia Earhart got nicknamed as “Lady Lindy.” The
nickname stuck with Amelia forever.
The constant battle of the sexes was to determine who was the weaker of the two
sexes. Earhart and others like her proved over the years that this does not mean they can’t do
the things that a man can do. These stereotypes implied that a woman was weak minded or
weak in physical appearance. These attributes applied to woman throughout the ages into
modern times. Earhart twisted a hobby into a path for future pioneers like herself.
As for her famous quote, “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they
fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” This quote speaks for itself. When people
tell women that they are unable to do something because it can’t be done by a woman, they
should at least try doing it. If one woman fails at a task then a future woman can learn from her
mistake. Future people can learn from the previous mistake which can turn into a lesson.
The Hermann article stated that Earhart was not promoted because of her sex as a
female but did promote her sense of adventure with social obligation. She felt she did not have

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an obligation to females around the world to show that a female could fly an airplane. She
wanted to show that she had great skills as a pilot. It was her personal style that made her
stand out in the crowd, her short hair and wearing pants. The idea of what women wore, of
their appearance and of their attitude was of the greatest importance in society at the time.
When Earhart started her hobby of flying it was the fashion of the 1920’s for women to have
short hair. It wasn’t unusual for woman to have short hair because of the Roaring ‘20’s flapper
and the 1930’s women continued this short hairstyle. Amy Johnson was an Austrian pilot at the
same the time but was not as famous as Earhart. Johnson had short hair as well. It was hard
for them to comb their hair when it looked like a mess due the air pressure. Even famous
fashion designers such as Chanel, Donna Karan, and others, took note of Earhart’s personal
style. (Black 71)
The article stated that Earhart had two sides to her personality. She felt “to be the
American girl" is to be mediocre in the sense of ordinary, middle-class, a girl not a woman, and
above all, white” (Herman 8). She tended to be a feminist or a young female who liked to fly.
Her hobby was to fly but it had two purposes. One purpose was the joy of flying and to put
adventure in her life. The other purpose was purely accidental and that showed her to be a
modern feminist.
To prove society wrong wasn’t Earhart goal. It was merely an obstacle that came with
the territory of being a woman in a boy’s club industry. In spite of the American fascination of
supporting the underdog, women still needed to work as hard as or harder than men. After
Earhart’s flight across the Atlantic in 1928 she was established as a popular icon of 1930’s along

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with females such as the tennis player, Helen Willis, the movie stars, Katherine Hepburn and
Mae West, and the most popular person, Eleanor Roosevelt. These women are role models of
the modern world.
The organization, Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots was
founded on November 2, 1929, was formed to encourage females to be pilots and aviators, to
enter flying schools, not because they were females but because they were interested in flying
airplanes. (Bix 42) In 1930, Earhart was elected as the president of Ninety-Nines. Also, one of
Earhart’s accomplishments that most people do not know about was that she broke the
women’s world record for speed in airplane racing in 1930.
Earhart was engaged to a gentleman named Sam Chapman, an engineer, from
Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1923. The engagement ended in 1928, before she met George
Palmer Putnam. The problem she had with Chapman was that he wouldn’t let her take up
flying because he wanted a more traditional marriage with children and a family. The attraction
to Putnam was that he was emotionally supportive to Earhart’s goals and dreams. Putnam
helped her put herself on the map. They both had common interests such as aviation and
outdoors, books and sports. “We came to depend on each other, yet it was only friendship
between us, or so at least I thought at first. At least I didn’t admit even to myself that I was in
love.” (Lovell 154) Earhart knew that Putnam was the only person who could put up with her.
He was married at the time but that didn’t matter to him. He was known for getting what he
wanted. His belief was, “if you wanted something, you went all out and you got it, letting
nothing stand in your way” (Lovell 155).

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On February 7, 1931, Earhart and Putnam were married in Noank, Connecticut. Before
they were married Amelia Earhart wrote George Putnam a prenuptial letter to her future
husband. In figure 1, in the book entitled The
Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell, it is said that
Amelia Earhart said in a prenuptial letter to George
Putnam, “On our life together I want you to
understand I shall not hold you to any medieval
code of faithfulness to me, or shall I consider myself
bound to you similarly.” The most important thing
that was referred to in the letter was how
important her flying was to her. “Please let us not
interfere with the others’ work or play, nor let the
world see our private joys or disagreements.”
(Lovell 166) Earhart was afraid of commitment
because she saw that her parents had a difficult marriage and she didn’t want that kind of life
for herself. She felt the marriage needs to hold a mutual respect from each other. In a 1932
interview when Earhart was asked about her husband, she said that she was proud of him and
that he was a good sport about her flying. (Lovell 188)
Earhart wanted independence in her life and with financial matters. However, she was
indeed dependent on Putnam for financial support. Putnam financially sponsored Earhart
through her career starting with her 1928 solo flight across the Atlantic. (Wandersee 142)
Earhart and Putnam agreed not to have children in order for Earhart to advance in her career.
Figure 1: Earhart's pre-nuptial to Putnam on wedding
day from February 7, 1932. Mary S. Lovell. "The Sound
of Wings." New York, NY. St. Martin's Press, 1989.

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Putnam had children from his previous marriage. Earhart was historically important to popular
culture because of the advancement in the aviation industry. She was also instrumental in the
emergence of the individualistic liberal feminism movement. Earhart was thought to be a
selfish individual who insisted on her way or the highway. She also supported the liberal
policies of the New Deal that were part of President Roosevelt’s plan. She wanted to help all
American women, to be part of their life, especially in aviation. . (Wandersee 143)
Earhart believed that women were flying for their children and their children’s children.
The purpose was for future generations to understand that a woman can fly a plane as well as
any man can. Earhart believed in teaching young people to fly and doing it safely. These
women wanted to change the role of women in society but it was not welcome in society. A
woman can be a mother, a wife and a pilot. A woman can have a career and be a housewife
too. She can have both worlds. These female pilots made these sacrifices for future
generations to be able to be accepted. These women made sacrifices so little girls of the future
can be anything they wanted to be, a housewife or a pilot. Every pilot should be able to feel the
excitement of freedom and the power of flying without having to overcome the sex
discrimination that these women had to endure. (Bix 42)
Earhart decided to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in May 1932.
She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person doing it twice. In
her book called The Fun of It, Earhart recalled that the reason that she did this mission was for
self-justification, to prove to herself and to anyone else who was interested, that a women with
adequate experience could do it. (Fun 188)

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A few months after the 1932 flight Earhart was invited to The White House by President
Hoover. At the dinner she received the Society’s Special Gold Medal which had previously been
awarded to only eight pilots. The next day she received the Distinguished Flying Cross. She was
the first woman to receive the award.
In Figure 2 Earhart and Roosevelt were on President Roosevelt’s airplane after dinner
with the President and First lady. At this occasion Earhart is
wearing a dress which was a rarity. On April 30, 1933 Earhart
and Eleanor Roosevelt took a flight from Washington, D.C., to
Baltimore, Maryland, and back to Washington, D.C., after a
White House dinner to celebrate Earhart‘s accomplishment of
flying solo across the Atlantic. They both admired each other’s
achievements for women. Eleanor Roosevelt applied for a
student pilot license and was allowed to briefly take the
controls during that flight.
In 1935, Earhart also made a solo flight from Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming
the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. The public called the fight the
“great hope.” There were 2,000 people to greet her at the Burbank Airport. It showed how
popular Earhart had become and how much the public respected her. It took twenty–four
hours to complete the mission. (Letter 189)
On September 4, 1936 there was a flying competition called The Bendix Trophy Race. “It
was the start of the coast to coast Bendix Trophy Race,” and the “most important of all air
F
i
g
Figure 2 Earhart and Roosevelt on Roosevelt’s
airplane after dinner with the President and First
Lady 30 April 1933. Mary S. Lovell. "The Sound of
Wings." New York, NY. St. Martin's press. 1989

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races.” (Corn 556) The race took sixteen hours. The first place winner was Louise Thaden and
Blanche Noyes, who flew together. The second place winner was a solo pilot named Laura
Ingalls. Then there were two men that came in third and fourth place. The fifth place was
Amelia Earhart and Helen Richhey. “Women of three places out of five. Outstanding, yes, but
not unusual” (Corn 556).
Earhart played an important part in the development of aviation. She sold airplanes,
piloted aircraft on publicity tours for manufacturers and did promotions for airlines. “She made
solo flights across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and as the ‘Lady Lindbergh’ of her time,
was the best known of the aviatrixes” (Corn 557). Many women pilots of Earhart’s generation
found opportunities because there was little place for women in the railroad and automobile
industries. During the Earhart era the two words “female and flight” conjured the idea of a
stewardess rather than a pilot. The female pilot made the attraction of aviation or airplane a
reliable or practical means of transporting people and goods over great distances from place to
place. The airplane was no longer considered as unless as a toy to the American people after
the Wright Brother invented it in 1903.
When these female pilots entered race competitions, such as the 1936 Bendix Race, the
women won the competition. Women won in at least six categories of the race. It caused a
great stir and the public refused to give these women the credit they deserved. “The public
simply didn’t have confidence in women fliers,” noted Louise Thaden, ‘not without bitterness”
(Corn 563). There were many female pilots who spoke out against their fellow pilots. “Ruth
Nichols, for instance, claimed women had no more place in an airliner cockpit than they do” as
sea captains or truck drivers” (Corn 563).

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The Public remained deeply skeptical about flight. In great numbers people refused to
fly, though in the abstract they were enthusiastic about airplanes or “air minded, put in
contemporary parlance“ (Corn 558). “Many people would go up in an airplane, ran a popular
joke, “only as long as they could keep one foot firmly on the ground.” People were anxious
about height and afraid that the plane would go down. People remembered that decades ago
the planes were made of wood, wire and cloth which made them fragile and often would kill all
their occupants. The public thought of fliers as “birdmen,” a phrase that became popular in the
early 1900’s and 1910’s. The popular thought was that pilots had an extraordinary combination
of active energy, courage, decision of purpose, a quick eye and clearness of judgment, the
utmost presence of mind and great psychical dexterity, the quality that a bird would have.
In 1937 Earhart and Frank Noonan took off from Oakland, California, on
the first leg of their flight to travel around the world, traveling westward. Earhart went missing
on July 2, 1937. She was declared dead on January 9, 1939.
Her legacy has prevailed for years to come. Earhart was a feminist and a female who
loved to fly a plane and a person who liked to be by herself. Earhart was a person who broke
barriers and made new ones, a role model for us all.
There are a lot of myths and rumors about Earhart’s sexuality and to the authenticity of
her being missing. The Hermann article questioned Earhart’s sexuality, if she had no sex life or
preferred men or women. Her marriage was considered a modern relationship. Her fashion
preference came into question but if she wore a skirt it could get in the way of her flying a
plane. “The postmodern rewriting de-‘queers’ Amelia by imagining a heterosexual romance,

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the one she never had, perhaps the one the contemporary woman in a dual-career marriage
would like to have, or worse yet, fears she had renounced”(Hermann 6). Earhart didn’t like the
feminist term. She didn’t see herself the way the media portrayed her. Even after being
missing for seventy years, modern bloggers appropriate her personal qualities for their own
personal gain.
In regard to where her airplane went down and her remains, King’s article talks about
aviation pioneers. Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937 in the Pacific. King’s
article also mentions that the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR)
hypothesizes that they landed and died on Nikumaroro, then called Gardner Island. Amelia
Earhart’s bones were found on the island by Kiribati and Tuvaluan colonists in 1940.
TIGHAR has done several studies on the disappearance of Earhart and Noonan, which
has been a priority since 1988. They have gathered information from “archival and oral
historical research in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvaluan and
the Solomon Islands, as well as archaeological reach on Nikumaroro, McKean Island, and
Kanton Island in the Phoenix group”(King 310).
The detail was stated, that “TIGHAR recovered parts of two shoes on Nikumaroro which
were identified by a footwear specialist as a woman’s shoe and a man’s shoe” in 199 (King 310).
These Oxford shoes dated from the 1930’s era which is the time that Earhart went missing.
They found several bones that fit a woman of Earhart’s size and height.
There are still several pieces of the puzzle of her missing remains still in question. There
were problems with the original search and subsequent searches for Amelia Earhart because it

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was during the period before DNA came into play. Evaluators have created a hypothesis that
the remains are from Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan but have not been able to arrive at a
definite conclusion without positive proof.
The impact of Earhart’s life has influenced many of us regardless of our gender. People
are still fascinated about her being missing or the way she lived her life. She was a pioneer and
before her time. What we do know is that she was a female who liked to flight and helped to
change the life of American women forever.
Earhart can teach us many of life’s lessons which go beyond her legendary life. She
never changed herself as she got more famous. She remained grounded during her whole
journey. She was the girl next door. She was a tomboy but she helped many people, including
her mother and sister. She showed me that it is important to have a lover and a friend in one
person and a “partner in crime” who will support you and your goals in life. A mutual respect is
the key to any relationship regardless of romance. Don’t let a label define who you are! Don’t
let someone else’s ideas of how we should act and what we should do in your life determine
what is going to make us happy.
Two of my favorite quotes that Earhart said that inspire me the most is, “Never
interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done.” That is something I know too
well. In my personal life I have done things that people told me that I couldn’t do. I love
proving them wrong. Some people may try to stand in your way to prevent you from
accomplishing your goals. The second quote is, “The most effective way to do it is to do it.” I
feel that a person should not worry about how they are accomplishing something as long as

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they are doing it. A person should stop thinking about doing something and put their plan into
action. If the person fails, at least they tried. A successful person is one who is proactive about
an issue. I feel if you put your mind to doing something, you will achieve it.

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Works Cited:
Bix, Amy Sue. "OAH Magazine of History." OAH Magazine of History 24.3 (2010): 39-44. Web. 8
Apr. 2016.
Black, Prudence. "Fashion Takes Flight: Amy Johnson, Schiaparelli And Australian
Modernism." Hecate 1-2 (2009): 57. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Corn, Joseph J. “Making Flying ‘thinkable’: Women Pilots and the Selling of Aviation, 1927-
1940.” American Quarterly 31.4 (1979): 556–571. Web. 20 March. 2016.
Earhart, Amelia. The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation.
Chicago, IL: Academy, 1977. Print.
Earhart, Amelia. Letters From Amelia, 1901-1937. Boston, Mass. Beacon Press, 1982.
Herrmann, Anne. “On Amelia Earhart: The Aviatrix as American Dandy.” Michigan Quarterly
Review 39.1 (2000): 76-107. ProQuest. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
King, Thomas F. “Amelia Earhart on Nikumaroro: A Summary of the Evidence.” Pacific Studies
35.3 (2012):305-323. America History and Life. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart. N.p.: St. Martin's Griffin, 1989.
Print.
Manly, Basil Maxwell. Are Wages Too High? N.p.: Princeton U, 1922. Google Books. People's
Legislative Service, 2010. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.

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Ryan, Pam Muñoz., and Brian Selznick. Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride. New York: Scholastic,
1999. Print.
Wandersee, Winifred D. "Breaking Down The Barriers: Three Women Who Led Public Lives."
Journal of Women's History 6.3 (1994): 140-152. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web.
29 Mar. 2016.