Intro/Outro (00:06)
From the Bill of Rights Institute, Fabric of History weaves together US history, founding principles, and what all of this means to us today. Join us as we pull back the curtains of the past to see what’s inside.

Haley (00:20)
In this episode of Fabric of History, Mary, Gary, and Eryn celebrate and reflect on the fascinating life of Amelia Earhart, a true American trailblazer. They’ll delve into the famed Aviator’s cultural influence as a pioneering female figure, as well as the mysterious and still unresolved circumstances surrounding her disappearance in 1937. Today, do we remember Earhart as a legend, a person, or both?

Mary (00:48)
Something we really like to do here at the Bill of Rights Institute is to look at narratives of individuals who made history as a way to explore big concepts. So the idea that narrative isn’t just the retelling of a life, it is that, but it’s also emblematic of something bigger. But the story right. You got to have the story because who doesn’t love a good story? And the story of Amelia Earhart is particularly interesting. She lives at an interesting time. She achieved many things. You were exposed to her name pretty young, I think, in the United States. She’s a character in The Night at the Museum. But how do we remember her? When you say Amelia Earhart, what determines how we think of her? Is she a female pilot? Is she someone who meant missing? Is she an outlier? So what’s the story with Amelia Earhart?

Gary (01:49)
That’s a great question because immediately my thought is when you ask, what the story of Amelia Earhart? There is the story of the person and story of the legend of Amelia Earhart, I think even in her own time. And so I think that is a really great question to ask.

Eryn (02:06)
I was just going to say I loved Amelia Earhart growing up. We talked in our first season about Salem Witch Trials, which is one of my obsessions. And then my other obsession was Amelia Earhart. And just because we’re thinking, who is she? Was she a pilot? Do we talk about her because of her disappearance? And has she become more of a legend? And I just feel like thinking about my own experience. I was probably more obsessed due to the mystery surrounding her. So I think it’s really interesting that we would talk about who she is as a person and how her background really impacts and influences her decision to become a pilot and try to achieve all these great feats.

Mary (02:52)
I think a lot of times when we think about people in the past, we sort of see them frozen as the picture in the textbook or something like that, and we forget they were living, breathing flesh and blood with feelings and reactions to things. And again, Amelia Earhart’s story is just sort of it’s worth telling. So she’s born, she’s from the great state of Kansas. I know we have a lot of BRI teachers out in Kansas I have not had the privilege. I’ve never been to Kansas, and I’m sad about that. I would like to get there.

Gary (03:22)
Can I put a plug in for, first of all, all of Kansas, but can I put a plug? So she was born in Atchison, Kansas. I want to give a shout-out to the Amelia Earhart birthplace, which I have been to. It is a lovely Museum welcoming people with lots of information. So if you do get a chance to be in Atchison, Kansas, go ahead and visit the birthplace there. She’s born 1897 there. And just what a time and what a place.

Mary (03:47)
So she was, by all accounts, a tomboy. And her mother dressed her in bloomers or pants, which was very unconventional for that time for girls. And she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women. So women who had careers of some sort, which was still I mean, roles of women were changing at the time. But to still have your own career and be mentioned like that would be out of the ordinary. So she’s already had her pulse as a young woman on other women who are exceptional in some way. And she served as a nurse in Canada during World War I, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. And she actually caught it herself. She recovers. And it’s when she’s in Canada as a nurse that she watches the Royal Flying Corps practicing at a nearby airfield. So she, I think, gets the bug for flying and the interest for flying while she’s still pretty young. And if she sees a flying expedition by a World War I pilot while she’s in Canada, the pilot, the story goes, actually dove at her and she didn’t flinch or run away, which I would have I don’t know what I would have done.

Mary (05:02)
I see a bug. Yeah, I probably would have just passed out. So she’s, I think, fascinated already. She’s hooked. And then she later takes a flight in California with a famous air racer. And she’s just in love with it. It feels her desire to become a pilot, and she just has this in her mind that she loves it, and that’s what she wants to do with her life. And again, this is in the beginning of the 20th century. It’s not common really at all for people to be pilots and especially not for women, but she’s hooked and she’s going to make it happen just to backtrack.

Gary (05:36)
So she’s born in she’s six years old when the Wright brothers are at Kitty Hawk with their plans from the time she’s emerging of wondering what’s going on around the world that’s brand new and how quickly things change. Right. You mentioned that she was in World War I by World War One. Airplanes are now being employed in battles that are happening. And she’s a teenager while all this is going on. So she’s watching the evolution of aircraft, as you said, with a wrapped attention without flinching, as you said. And that’s super cool, because really over the course of her life, as she herself matures, so does the whole industry of airplane. She’s right there on the cutting edge.

Mary (06:21)
So this is something that I found really interesting about her. And I think also something I think of when I think of Amelia Earhardt, is she has short hair and she cuts her hair. That’s how female aviators because she wasn’t the only one. There are other women pioneering in flight, including her first teacher. But she cuts her hair short and she starts flying lessons in 1921. And she’s very dedicated and persevering and making this happen for herself. She’s working different jobs. She has to take the bus to the end of the line and then walk to get to the airfield. So she’s committed. And by 1923, she is the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot’s license. So that’s pretty, wow. I mean, again, there’s not that many people doing what she’s doing, but her heart is set on it, and she’s going to make it happen.

Eryn (07:07)
Just listening to this, I feel very inspired. It’s like so much girl power going on, just thinking of the dedication she had to reach these goals. We’re going back and talking about who Amelia Earhart was and how we remember her. And I think the things you were just talking about, Mary, are so often overlooked in her life. And so I think it’s really important that we kind of resurface that discussion because there was so much that led up to her being able to be a female pilot at the time, just a pilot at all because it’s always expensive, but it was quite revolutionary and like what it took to get there.

Mary (07:57)
She starts her flying lessons in 1921. She gets her license in 1920. 1920 is when the 19th Amendment is ratified. So women are given the right to vote. And like we said in the beginning, as Gary was saying, what a time to be alive. So there’s a lot going on with the development of flights and aviation, but it’s also, again, a big period of time for change in women’s roles. And it’s not like it is today, ladies, and there’s still a ways to go, but there’s a lot of change. And I think there was a lot of excitement. Right. It’s the 20s, roaring 20s. She starts setting all of these records for out flying across the Atlantic as a passenger in 1928. She sets altitude records flying in her plane. So she’s an outlier, and she’s becoming a bit of a celebrity.

Gary (08:48)
Yeah, I think that’s a key part. Right. So this is already we’re emerging into the two approaches to almost the two Amelia Earharts. There’s the Amelia Earhart, the human being who’s making choices in her time period. But then there’s also becoming the legend, I mean, even that first flight. So she’s in her early 30s at that point. Right. You said part of that is almost legendary. Right. Part of that she writes a book after that. The book, 20 hours, 40 minutes. Part of it was that her husband was going to be publishing about it. It got a lot of attention afterward. Her being on that from the almost start of not her flying. She had been flying already. She had her own plane. But from the start of the attention to the achievements, I guess I should say that her legend grows. Right. She has accomplished X, Y, and Z, and people are paying attention. And I wonder if part of that is what you’re saying in terms of this. She’s almost the face and this is back to your narratives thing. She’s almost the face of the connection between what’s happening culturally and technologically in the United States. If you think about the development of aircraft and what’s happening with women in society in the 1920s, like, here’s somebody who is really a perfect person to imagine as she’s going through these achievements.

Mary (10:09)
And she’s also I think she’s connected to the pop culture at the time, which is something that’s new with the radio and more media and more just you’re out there. So she has mass-market endorsements for clothes, for luggage, for cigarettes, and she uses all of these things to support her flying. But she’s promoting things. She’s sort of selling her image, the Queen of the air or Lady Lindy, a reference to Charles Lindberg, who, of course, was another famous aviator. But she’s out there in all these different ways. So even at the time, there’s certainly someone that if you mentioned her name, people wouldn’t know who she was.

Gary (10:51)
Yeah. And that’s such a wild thought, the idea of celebrity. Right. Because again, legend almost implies something that happened a long time ago. But you could be legendary. At the time you mentioned Lindberg, his flight was only the year before hers. It was like 1927. So people are really interested. And the idea of endorsements, to me, is a very seemingly modern thing. But it’s not. Right. She’s got her image and name on things, and I guess it’s not her. There’s marketing teams and people are interested in it. She this whole time legitimately, just loves flying and is flying.

Mary (11:26)
I was going to say I think that her like talking about making choices and that being like being in that moment of deciding, okay, I’m going to go down this path and not this path. We think of history as like a foregone conclusion. But I think if we zero in on the events that lead to Amelia going missing, I think that is rife with exploring, well, if she had done this or if this had happened, could this have happened? I think that’s part of what makes her story so interesting. We should take a break and maybe get into the details of her last flight.

Mary (12:23)
Okay. So before we took a break, we were talking about this moment in history, in anybody’s history, where you can go down one path or the other. So in Amelia Earhart’s story, so as we mentioned, she first crosses the Atlantic as a passenger, so she wasn’t actually flying the plane. And after that flight is really when her fame starts taking off and she says or she writes, I was just baggage like a sack of potatoes. Maybe someday I’ll try it alone. So I think the dream is already there after she completes that flight and by 1937, she is ready to attempt circumnavigating the globe on her own, which is just something that she really wants to do. And she actually has a first attempt in March of 1937 and she loses control of her plane and it’s damaged and so it’s undergoing repairs, but she’s undaunted despite having sort of this freakish, ominous start to her time. She’s going to try again. And while her plane is being repaired, she’s actually contacted by someone at the Naval Academy who’s improving celestial navigation again from 1927 to 1937. There’s a lot of changes going on. So 1927 is when Amelia Earhart is the passenger on her transatlantic flight, and that’s when she has the dream of trying to do the flight on her own. And she does. And by 1937, she wants to circumnavigate the globe. So in those ten years, she set a lot of records and she’s a celebrity and she has all these achievements, but there’s also a lot of changing in the actual mechanics of flight. So the actual planes themselves and also the tools, the pilot and the Navigator and use themselves. So a lot is changing in this time period. It’s very much it’s still a new technology and you kind of have to keep up with all of these changes that are happening to be effective.

Gary (14:29)
Right. We were saying before how amazing how her life is going along with the evolution of flight itself and how flight in 1919 versus flight in 1927 versus flight in 1937, we’re talking about the difference between World War I and almost World War II and how much changes by then. By 1937, they’re already starting to test jet engines very far away from Kitty Hawk in the early days. So it’s amazing how lightning quickly this technology is changing. And you’re right. All along the way, she is staying on top of it by achieving things, but sometimes just the external changes in technology is a really significant factor.

Mary (15:15)
Right. And this is something that’s going to come back when we get to her disappearance. Is this a part of why she went missing? So her first attempt to circumnavigate the globe, and she, by the way, is choosing a route over the South Pacific, which is something that others had not done before her. She loses control of her plane and it’s badly damaged. And during this time period, when the plane is being repaired. She’s actually offered by a man at the Naval Academy in Annapolis to undergo additional navigational training. And Charles Lindberg was actually one of his students, as well as a Polar Explorer, Lincoln Ellsworth. So I think that’s something that I don’t know. I think sometimes when you think of a legend or someone who’s known for doing the first of something, if you don’t think of all of the knowledge and the backtracking or all of the legwork, that’s the phrase I was going for that’s involved with making that happen. So he reaches out to her and says, I’m interested in I’d like to teach you, I’d like to help you. And it’s her husband, actually, that declines the letter. And it says, as matters stand, it seems that she will be shoving off for another try at the world flight pretty soon. That was her husband George Putnam. So she is going to just have another go at this navigation. She does so again in 1937. And this is the second flight is, of course, where she goes missing.

Eryn (16:44)
And what’s really interesting is that of this circumnavigation already 22,000 miles of her journey had been completed by this point, which I think is very fascinating. She had started her Trek in June and she ended up disappearing July 2, 1937. And what happened was she and her Navigator, Noonan, had just taken off from Papua New Guinea. And it was really interesting because this was also supposed to be one of the most difficult legs of their journey. And so several US ships, including a Coast Guard cutter, were deployed to aid Earhart and Noonan in this difficult leg. And as they approached Howard Island, where they were going to land again, Earhart radioed and explained she was low on fuel. And they went back and forth trying to establish communication. Neither of them could see one another or locate where they were, even though this cutter was sending out all this black smoke. And so she ended up radioing one half-hour Feel and no landfall. And soon after, contact was lost. And that was where all these disappearance theories, started to bubble up.

Gary (18:05)
So it was known that it was going to be a dangerous leg. And so the ships weren’t there too fine. The ships were there because of that was dangerous.

Eryn (18:11)
Yes. To have that constant communication and help her navigate her landing at Howard Island.

Gary (18:19)
Right. So it’s all kind of somewhat going to plan. And also that’s also key because that’s the evidence of where at least the last place they know because they were in contact with these ships. So that’s why we have a general idea of the vastness. But it’s a big area out there.

Eryn (18:38)
Absolutely. And it’s really interesting to me that even though they were in the same area, neither of them could locate each other in any way they tried after several hours.

Gary (18:51)
Right. And that goes back to the technology. Right. A radio signal. It could be anywhere.

Eryn (18:58)
Well, and what’s also fascinating is that their planes, radio instruments had been replaced by older, lighter models to save fuel. So one wonders, did that impact the inability to communicate with this US Coast card?

Mary (19:16)
Sadly, there’s no contact now from Amelia Earhart or her navigator, Fred Noonan. And they actually search an area of the Pacific roughly the size of Texas, which is pretty remarkable.

Gary (19:30)
Yeah.

Mary (19:30)
That’s about the great state of Texas. So there’s definitely this big effort to find some trace of them, and nothing is found. So you have this exceptional woman trying to do this exceptional thing, and she goes down in this unfortunate circumstance, and then you have all these theories about what really happened to her. And I think that plays into how we remember her as much as what she did as a person. And some of these theories are just kind of crazy, like conspiracy theories, but some of them are low. There’s not a definitive close on her story. And I think that or ending to her story. I think that is what plays into the stick to the witnesses of her in our culture and in our history.

Eryn (20:20)
Yeah. It’s an ongoing mystery. And people are still so fascinated by her and her disappearance, which we might say plays into this idea of Amelia as a legend. Right. Having all these different theories around her disappearance. And what’s really interesting to me also is that there are still people in groups that are going out and combing the areas, looking for the plane, digging up artifacts. And so perhaps after a break, we can talk about what some of these theories are and what people are still doing today.

Mary (21:23)
All right. So before the break, Eryn mentioned these theories. So we know that Eryn, if you don’t know, Eryn really likes mysteries. And Macabre, Eryn is going to go through some of these theories on what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.

Eryn (21:42)
Just in a quick summary in terms of theories, and then we can kind of chat a little bit more about maybe some of the more obtuse or interesting ones. So, of course, number one most predictable theory, people may argue, is that Earhart ran out of fuel and their plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean because even though we haven’t found the plane, that’s probably likely what happened.

Mary (22:11)
Yeah, it’s a big ocean. Yeah.

Gary (22:15)
Much bigger than Texas.

Eryn (22:17)
It’s so difficult to find a relatively small plane in that giant area of water. But they also say that she may have been taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese and then later died as a POW. But in 2017, there was a photo that supposedly depicted them on the shores of a Japanese barge. And they said that’s Earhart, that’s Noonan. And so they said, oh, they were taken as prisoners of war. They’re living in Japan. Maybe they died as POWs. But this photo was later discredited when a Japanese blogger realized that the photo was taken in 1935, two years before their disappearance. So don’t think that happened. People may still argue that she was captured by the Japanese, but so that is one they also related to the Japanese capture. Others argue that she was captured by the Japanese and became known as Tokyo Rose, which was a woman on the radio who spread Japanese propaganda. However, her husband, George Putnam, listened to hours of this broadcast and said, no, that’s not my wife’s voice. But of course, these theories are still perpetuated. Some say that she was on an undercover mission for the United States and that she still, well, maybe not alive, but she was alive and then went undercover and lived to a ripe old age in New Jersey.

Mary (24:04)
Oh, New Jersey.

Eryn (24:05)
Yes, they say New Jersey.

Mary (24:07)
Okay, shout out.

Eryn (24:12)
So there are all these theories that persist. And regardless of the theories that persist, there is also a research group, I would call them. They are operating under this. And again, I’m going to spell this word out. N-I-K-U-M-A-R-O-R-O. I’m going to say, Nikumaroro Fury. So that is a coral part that is part of the Phoenix Islands. And this group has taken dogs out to sniff for human remains. And they keep finding all these different artifacts in the area and they put it up on this website. So this group is a collaboration between the National Geographic, the tour company called Betchart Expeditions, and the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which is a nonprofit out of Pennsylvania. And so they’re known by their acronym T-I-G-H-A-R which is pronounced Tiger. And so according to TIGHAR’s hypothesis, Earhart and Noonan veered south of their planned flight path and landed on this Nikumaroro, which was at the time referred to as Gardner Island. So they theorized that they sent out distress signals using power from the plane’s engine until a high tide washed the plane away. So they have combed this island for different artifacts. And you can go to their website. It’s actually very fascinating where they have pictures of everything that they’ve found and a description of what it is. Old shoes, parts of shoes, apparently a jar of old freckle cream that Amelia Earhart apparently used. And so it’s all documented up on their website. They’ve taken multiple expeditions and spent millions of dollars

Mary (26:11)
Trying to put closure on the story. Right. I think that’s what all these theories are trying to do. Whether they’re in their own way, how does the story end? I think that’s what right everyone has for them. I wonder if it would be better if it didn’t end. No one can conclusively point to hard evidence to say this is what happened if that would be preferable to people or part of the appeal is that we don’t have a nice ending that we can tie up with a bow to her story.

Eryn (26:46)
I think that’s what it is. That’s what plays so strongly into her still being so well known and almost, quote, unquote legendary that we don’t know. And there are all these series.

Mary (26:59)
I think even without having a definitive ending to her story, it’s still a really good story. You have this determined individual, through hard work and perseverance, pursues her dream in a time period of a lot of cultural change, in a time period of a lot of technological change and I think that’s what sticks with us. I’d be curious to hear what the listeners think. So do you think it’s better that we don’t have an ending to her story that we can continue to look for evidence for her and for Noonan or that we would just want to know what happened to tie a bow on the story? Or do you like the theories like do we need closure on her story or what does her story tell us about how we can continue to live our lives today?

Gary (27:50)
We may not have an ending to the story of the legend of Amelia Earhart, but that was a pretty good ending to a podcast.

Mary (27:59)
If you have any thoughts, please let us know so we’re at comments@fabricofhistory.org. Thanks, everybody. Bye, guys.

Gary (28:09)
Thanks, bye.

Intro/Outro (28:17)
The Bill of Rights Institute engages, educates, and empowers individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exists in a free society. Check out our educational resources and programs on our website mybri.org. Any questions or suggestions for future episodes? We’d love to hear from you. Just email us at comments@fabricofhistory.org and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to stay connected and informed about future episodes. Thank you for listening.