Exactly five years after american aviator Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the atlantic ocean, earhart became the first woman to repeat that feat. We are thrilled to welcome dorothy cochrane, curator in the economics department. Secure is the collection of general aviation aircraft, flight material, aerial cameras, and the history of general aviation and women in aviation. She is the coauthor of the aviation careers of igor as well as an essay on Amelia Earhart that is included in the published book smithsonian american women. She earned her private pilot license in 1994 and is a member of the aircraft owners and Pilot Association and experimental aircraft association. So now please join me in welcoming dorothy cochrane. [applause] dorothy good evening, everyone. Thank you so much. Can you use the mic . Dorothy all right, i it is am. Supposed to be on. Can you hear me now . It is a pleasure to be here. I thank the Smithsonian Associates for inviting me. As i walked in tonight, i realized that i remembered being here with some of the people im going to talk about later in the evening for a symposium about, i dont know, 25 years ago. Was anybody else here then . [laughter] ok, just checking. I dont want you to get a repeat. You know. And i did want to point out our book here that just came out, smithsonian american women. I guess par for the course about amelia, she gets a four page spread in there. She is obviously still very popular and Everyone Wants to know about her. But there are a lot of other exciting women in this book, and i just want to encourage you to go online, and check it out, and see who else is there. We have got several other female aviators and a whole breath of women who have done all kinds of things in all kinds of disciplines. It is really a cool book and i was happy to be part of it. So, lets see here, and that all has to do with the american womens Historical Initiative that the smithsonian is running all this year which is of course the anniversary of the 19th amendment, women getting the right to vote, because of her story. And it is an Ongoing Program that you will be seeing all year long. So, we will go on without further ado. When an acknowledged media star disappears off the face of the earth, public speculation will run wild. January 11 as she mentioned was the 85th anniversary of the first solo flight from hawaii to the u. S. Mainland, and Amelia Earhart was the pioneering pilot. Few people know of this aeronautical milestone, but mention earharts name, and most everyone perks up. Yes, they know who she is. And they probably have an opinion on how or why she disappeared on her 1937 round the world flight. After all, her disappearance is one of the great mysteries of the 20th century. Earhart was a decorated pilot and a major celebrity during the 1930s, second only to Charles Lindbergh in terms of sheer notoriety, but even after the largest maritime search of the era came up empty, and amelia was declared legally dead, and even after nearly 83 years, people continue to think of her and wonder what really happened to her. With each new theory or book or expedition, her name remains in the public arena. But is that the only reason earhart is remembered . Why do people continue to search and more importantly, why do they care . Amelia earhart is the most famous american female pilot and arguably, the most famous one in world history. An accolade due both to her aviation career and to her mysterious disappearance. As we mentioned on may 21, 1932, she became the first woman in and the second person after Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop and solo across the atlantic. I do have to put a little asterisk, the north atlantic i found out a few years ago, that there was a gentleman who flew the south atlantic. So sometimes i have to mention that. Flying in her red lucky lockheed 5b she left , newfoundland, canada and landed 15 hours later near londonderry, Northern Ireland. The feet made her an instant feat made her an instant worldwide sensation and proved she was a courageous and able pilot. Then on august 24 and 25th of that year, she made her first solo nonstop flight by a woman across the United States from los angeles to newark, establishing a womans record of 19 hours and five minutes. And setting a womans distance record of 2447 miles. To be sure, amelia had courage and commitment. It takes courage to embark on a path that is so different from the norm, but earhart felt that tug all her life. She was born on july 24, 1897 in ison, send, in atch kansas the daughter of edwin and , amy otis earhart, and her sister was born two years later. She was a tomboy, no surprise. Playing cowboys and indians, building and testing homemade roller cer a gun and sew her own clothes. The family made moves due to her fathers spotty employment record and eventual alcohol issues. They lived in minnesota and chicago, visited him when he was working in iowa where she saw her first airplane. Her parents separated onandoff, so she learned to depend on herself. She and muriel often spent happy times with their grandparents in atchison as well where her grandmother took her to midwest society. She accepted most proprieties of the era and was throughout her life nearly always polite and respectful. She was smart but also headstrong, and not afraid to speak up for herself, her friends or her fellow students. An avid reader, she scoured the newspapers and magazines for articles on accomplished women, cut them out and pasted them into a scrapbook. One entry was about a female doctor by the name of jessica rach. However, i dont know if that article mentioned that jessica was a pilot and had built her own airplane with her husband. We will never know. When her mother received a modest inheritance, she enrolled the girls in private boarding schools. Amelia went to a school in suburban philadelphia and muriel went to a school in toronto. But when she went to visit muriel at school in toronto at christmas, this was christmas of 1916, she was moved by the presence of the world war i wounded pilots who were up in toronto. And she decided that she was going to leave her school just before graduation and become and work as a nurse and a nurses aide in the military hospital, tending to those who from shell red excuse me, this is a tongue twister suffered from shell shock or ptsd as we know it today. She also took a visit to a flying club there and that kind of ignited a spark in her, she thought about that. But following her medical thread, she entered Columbia University extension program, taking premed courses in the fall. She stayed for a semester and then at her parents request, joined them in los angeles for the summer of 1920. The following months, there were airshows at many airfields and she started to learn more about aviation, and on Christmas Day 1920, she and her father attended an opening for a new airport at long beach at rogers field, which featured many exhibition acts. Her first she took a flight with veteran flyer frank hawkes, and declared, as soon i left the ground, i knew i myself had to fly. Her first instructor was anita netta snook, who is shown here, a barnstormer herself from iowa who gave lessons. However, that did not last too long. She thought that netta thought that amelia was a good student, but netta married and got pregnant and gave up flying. And then amelia went to a stuntman. She did very well with him as well, and to pay for her flight lessons, she worked as a telephone clerk, a photographer, and even a truck driver. In 1921oad soloed and took her trials for the National Aeronautic association license at that time. Characteristically, in 1922, she felt secure enough to buy a plane from a local designer, bert kenner flying shows, and , then wasting no time in setting a womens altitude record, and get this of 14,000 , feet. She barely knew how to fly, right, but she was determined to go up and do this. It was part of the exhibition, attitude and what people did in the era. People were excited to see anybody flying, really. And loved seeing the sport of it all. In 1923, she passed her flight test and became the 16th woman to receive an official Federation EraInternational Pilot license. When her parents parted for the final time, she sold airplane the airplane and left with her mother, moving east to be near her sister, muriel. She was drifting now for the next few years. She was not interested in marriage or motherhood, but she had not figured out what she wanted to do. She took some time to go back to columbia, took some courses at harvard, did some short jobs here and there, but eventually took some coursework that led to a job at the denison settlement house in boston. Where she began working with immigrant families. At that time, once she was kind of settled into that job and making some money, she was able then to locate the local flying school and the local flying clubs at denison airport, and got herself back into flying, joining the National Aeronautic association. So now she was starting to find herself again. She had a job, she had an evocation, she had friends, she was having a good time. However, opportunity came knocking when she offered the she was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to become the first woman to fly as a passenger across the atlantic ocean. She passed an interview in new york city with people who had already promoted lindbergh and richard berg. Richard berg was part of the group. She passed it and was sworn to silence then until the group prepared for a flight. I think i keep hitting something here. What am i hitting . Lets try that. There we go. I have to watch what im doing. She was a standin, a new york socialite who owned a f7 friendship and wanted to make the flight herself as a passenger, she was a socialite from new york. And her family strongly objected. So they set about asking around and looking for someone who could make the flight, and they were trying to find the right sort of girl. She had to be smart, have a good background, and then as it turned out with amelia, she was a bonus because she already had some womens records. So a. E. Fit the requirements just fine. Before leaving for newfoundland with pilots wilmer spouts and lou gordon she wrote a , philosophical note to her family, just in case she might not return. She said hooray for the grand adventure. I wish i had won. She accepted the challenge even though flying the atlantic in 1928 was very risky. 40 of the 1927 attempts failed. And 25 proved fatal. And the putnam group was not alone. It was a race. Another woman named mabel ball was at harvard grace, waiting out weather. Determined to make the flight in two columbia. Into colombia. The race was on. The lindbergh aero was there, lindbergh had flown the atlantic. It was just air mindedness and everyone was interested in aviation. There were all kinds of records and flights being taken. Everyone was involved, and the public just loved it, they ate it up. It was a very exciting time. It brought about investment and interest and regulation, all the things that aviation needed to actually become a form of transportation and grow into, of course, military flying, airlines, and more of what we know today. So on june 17, 1928, earhart , still and gordon left newfoundland in the plane. She had been promised time at the wheel, at the controls. But it was not to be. During the 20 hour, 40 minute flight to wales she got zero , flight time. However, she was able to pilot from wales to its final stop in southhampton, england. She said, i happened to be a woman and the first to make a transatlantic crossing by air, and the press and the public seemed to be more interested in that fact than anything else. It was a tumultuous reception at wales, england, new york, boston and pittsburgh. She hid her disappointment, except for one reference to just being baggage. Stunned by the crowds, she managed to find the time to buy an avian aircraft from british pilot lady mary heath. Before she could fly it, she was obligated to George Putnam who was running the publicity to write a book. And within two months, she wrote her book, her first book entitled 20 hours and 40 minutes which talked mostly about aviation and women and people wanting to fly, and a bit about the flight itself. So then she came and flew her avian, came back from the east coast to california and back. A trip that had a few crack ups and breakdowns, but everybody had that. It also gave her the opportunity to speak with people and learn to interact with them in the media. And most importantly, it brought her to the realization that this fame she was starting to get might get her the opportunity to earn a living in aviation, which is what she wanted to do. Putnam George Putnam of the , putnam publishing and publicity family, became her manager, and she began lecturing and writing in aviation and learned how to deal with the press while guarding her privacy. One of her first moves was joining the Editorial Staff of cosmopolitan magazine. And her first column came out in november of 1928 titled try flying yourself. [laughter] dorothy so now she was determined to succeed. So she acquired her transport license. She made sure she did more flying, that she got better at it, that she took the trials that were necessary to dedicate her to so she would be taken as a serious pilot. In august of 1929, flying a very speedy lockheed vega, similar to the one we have in the collection, she placed third in the all womens air derby, behind louise baden and gladys odonnell. This is the first transcontinental flight for women, and it was important. It was from santa monica to cleveland, ohio, where the Cleveland Air races were, and it was a race that she helped organize, but more importantly, it was a race that was closely followed by the press and the public. And it proved that women could make a long and dangerous flight. They were capable of making these flights a day in and day out, taking care of the airplanes, taking care of themselves, learning how to fly in all kinds of weather, make decisions, and a lot of men did not think women could do that and they were out to prove that they were that they could. Will rogers dubbed the flight the powder puff derby. Louise baden said we would rather just be called pilots, thank you. I forgot to mention, then there was the beach nut auto driver. She flew that around as well. And that was a new plane that was kind of a short takeoff and landing plane with the rotor on the top. That was a whole different design. That took some time to learn how to fly that. She flew that across country and back. The second day that she flew it, she went up and did an altitude record in that. She was not afraid of technology, she was not afraid of trying something new. She did have her crackups but so did other people. Everyone is testing these new designs. Shes not afraid of technology and she is not afraid of a challenge. In fact, she is eager for it, it is what keeps her going. So after the derby, the women who participated in it, they finally found all these other women who were very interested in flying just like them. They didnt know each other. There were two Different Levels of flying in the derby. Once they got to know each other, they did what all pilots naturally do, talk about opportunities and jobs in airplanes, and they decided that they needed to have their own group. And so they created the group that would be for social and networking purposes, finding jobs, all of the above. Female pilots obviously lacked the social and economic independence that men had, and they were it was harder for them to get aircraft. They could not get jobs. They could not get paid. Most of the jobs they had were very small and didnt pay well. They a group of women organized, sent out letters to the 285 licensed american female pilots. 99 women responded and 26 actually showed up at valley stream, new york to actually organize the club. That is the image of them here. Amelia is in the back there on the left, about three or four in. In the front, on the front right is faye bellis wells. And you know, when i came in this theater, i was saying i know we spoke a few years ago, i think faye bellis wells was speaking about that about amelia because she knew emilio so well. She was a longtime friend of the smithsonian and just a marvelous pilot herself. She is the one in the flight suit. So. Yeah. So that is ok. And then, now she was being managed by George Putnam. Flying seemed to be the easy part for earhart. She felt a far more personal risk from a stream of marriage proposals from her manager, George Putnam. He was married when she first met him, but he and his wife dorothy divorced, and amelia really had nothing to do with that. It was dorothys idea, she had other plans, she had other interests, and she divorced george. George, i dont think, minded too much because he really liked amelia. He started proposing to her not long after the divorce. Though she liked him, and they were successful business partners, she really valued her independence. And she was afraid it would compromise her life. On the other hand, george was her publicist, and he knew what she wanted to do, and he was good at it. So she finally married him on her own terms in february 1931, after delivering a letter of mixed emotions. She dismissed the medieval code of faithfulness and she also requested a cruel promise that you will let me go in one year if we find no happiness together. Though some called it a marriage of convenience, they remained together. And while other husbands of women pilots often objected to their wives flying, george kept amelia on the treadmill. She chose the flights, he booked the lectures. Putnam was demanding and not wellliked by any of her friends. I really havent found any of them that liked him. But bobby trout had to admit, she said, i might have been famous if i had a promoter like george. So she was still flying with friends, louise baden, eleanor smith, and ruth nichols. Ruth nichols was quite the competitor. All of them were baden had won the womens air derby, nichols had an idea to fly the atlantic, and amelia was getting the idea to fly the atlantic. She had done it as a passenger, but she felt she hadnt done enough flying yet. She was doing a variety of races, doing a variety of shows and things like that. But she felt she really needed to show the di