Editing Amelia Earhart (section)

== Early life ==

=== Childhood ===
[[File:Amelia Earhart birthplace from NE 1.JPG|thumb|[[Amelia Earhart Birthplace|Amelia Earhart's birthplace]]]]

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in [[Atchison, Kansas]], as the daughter of Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia "Amy" ({{née|[[Otis family|Otis]]}}; 1869–1962).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060901135618/http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~sch00228 "A/E11/M-129, Earhart, Amy Otis, 1869–1962. Papers, 1944, n.d.: A Finding Aid."] ''Harvard University Library.'', September 1, 2006. (archived). accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref> Amelia was born in the [[Amelia Earhart Birthplace|home of her maternal grandfather]] Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former judge in Kansas, the president of Atchison Savings Bank, and a leading resident of the town.<ref>{{cite book|title=Genealogical and biographical record of north-eastern Kansas|location=Chicago|publisher=Lewis Publishing|page=28|year=1900|isbn=978-5-87160-647-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0QHAwAAQBAJ}}</ref> Earhart was the second child of the marriage after a stillbirth in August 1896.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} She was of part-[[German American|German]] descent; Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=9}}

According to family custom, Amelia Earhart was named after her two grandmothers Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} From an early age, Amelia was the dominant sibling while her sister [[Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey|Grace Muriel Earhart]] (1899–1998), two years her junior, acted as a dutiful follower.<ref>[http://www.ninety-nines.org/grace-muriel-earhart-morrissey.htm "Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130001159/http://www.ninety-nines.org/grace-muriel-earhart-morrissey.htm |date=November 30, 2015 }} ''The Ninety-Nines''. accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref> Amelia was nicknamed "Meeley" and sometimes "Millie", and Grace was nicknamed "Pidge"; both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=8}} Their upbringing was unconventional; Amy Earhart did not believe in raising her children to be "nice little girls".{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|pp=8–9}} The children's maternal grandmother disapproved of the [[Bloomers (clothing)|bloomers]] they wore, and although Amelia liked the freedom of movement they provided, she was sensitive to the fact the neighborhood's girls wore dresses.

[[File:ameliachild.jpg|thumb|left|Amelia Earhart as a child]]
The Earhart children seemed to have a spirit of adventure and would set off daily to explore their neighborhood.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=16}} As a child, Amelia Earhart spent hours playing with sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle, and sledding downhill.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120412224805/http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/media/uploads/special_features/download_files/amelia_transcript.pdf "American Experience: Amelia Earhart Program Transcript."] ''americanexperience'', April 12, 2012. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Some biographers have characterized the young Amelia as a [[tomboy]].{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=4}} The girls kept worms, moths, [[Tettigoniidae|katydids]] and a [[tree toad]] they gathered in a growing collection.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=14}} In 1904, with the help of her uncle, Amelia Earhart constructed a home-made ramp that was fashioned after a roller coaster she had seen on a trip to [[St. Louis, Missouri]], and secured it to the roof of the family tool shed. Following Amelia's well-documented first flight, she emerged from the broken wooden box that had served as a sled with a bruised lip, a torn dress and a "sensation of exhilaration", saying: "Oh, Pidge, it's just like flying!"{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=9}}

In 1907, Edwin Earhart's job as a claims officer for the [[Rock Island Railroad]] led to a transfer to [[Des Moines, Iowa]]. The next year, at the age of 10,<ref name="Biography">[http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html "Biography.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525154635/http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html |date=May 25, 2012 }} ''The Official Website of Amelia Earhart (The Family of Amelia Earhart)''. accessed: June 4, 2012.</ref> Amelia saw her first [[fixed-wing aircraft|aircraft]] at [[Iowa State Fair]] in Des Moines.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=14}}{{sfn|Morrissey|1963|pp=17–18}} Their father tried to interest his daughters in taking a flight but after looking at the rickety "flivver", Amelia promptly asked if they could go back to the merry-go-round.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=18}} She later described the biplane as "a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting".{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=15}}

=== Education ===

Sisters Amelia and Grace—who from her teenage years went by her middle name Muriel—Earhart remained with their grandparents in Atchison while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, the Earhart girls received homeschooling from their mother and a governess. Amelia later said she was "exceedingly fond of reading"{{sfn|Hamill|1976|p=51}} and spent many hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time and Amelia, 12, entered seventh grade.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/TB/1037670.pdf|title=Pieces of Iowa's Past - Amelia Earhart: A Des Moines Connection|publisher=Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides|date=20 February 2019|access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Amelia-in-evening-clothes (cropped).jpg|thumb|Amelia Earhart in evening clothes]]

The Earhart family's finances seemingly improved with the acquisition of a new house and the hiring of two servants but it soon became apparent Edwin was an alcoholic. In 1914, he was forced to retire; he attempted to rehabilitate himself through treatment but the Rock Island Railroad never reinstated him. At about this time, Earhart's grandmother Amelia Otis died, leaving a substantial estate that placed her daughter's share in a trust, fearing Edwin's drinking would exhaust the funds. The Otis house was auctioned along with its contents; Amelia later described these events as the end of her childhood.{{sfn|Garst|1947|p=35}}

In 1915, after a long search, Edwin Earhart found work as a clerk at the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Amelia entered [[Central High School (Saint Paul, Minnesota)|Central High School]] as a junior. Edwin applied for a transfer to [[Springfield, Missouri]], in 1915, but the current claims officer reconsidered his retirement and demanded his job back, leaving Edwin Earhart unemployed. Amy Earhart took her children to Chicago, where they lived with friends. Amelia canvassed nearby high schools in Chicago to find the best science program; she rejected the high school nearest her home, complaining the chemistry lab was "just like a kitchen sink".{{sfn|Blau|1977|pp=10–11}} She eventually enrolled in [[Hyde Park Career Academy|Hyde Park High School]] but spent a miserable semester for which a yearbook caption noted: "A.E.—the girl in brown who walks alone".{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=11}}

Amelia Earhart graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1916.{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=33}} Throughout her childhood, she had continued to aspire to a future career; she kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in male-dominated careers, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.<ref name="Biography" /> She began junior college at [[Penn State Abington|Ogontz School]] in [[Rydal, Pennsylvania]], but did not complete her program.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/ogontz-school-1850-1950/outstanding-alumnae |title=Outstanding Alumnae |date=2016-09-12 |work=Penn State University Libraries |access-date=2018-09-25 |language=en |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925220042/https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/ogontz-school-1850-1950/outstanding-alumnae |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Kerby|1990|pp=18–19}}

===Nursing career and illness===

During Christmas vacation in 1917, Earhart visited her sister in [[Toronto]], Canada, where she saw wounded soldiers returning from [[World War I]]. After receiving training as a [[Certified Nursing Assistant|nurse's aide]] from the [[Red Cross]], Earhart began working with the [[Voluntary Aid Detachment]] at [[1 Spadina Crescent|Spadina Military Hospital]], where her duties included food preparation for patients with special diets and handing out prescribed medication in the hospital's dispensary.<ref name="nurseaide">Popplewell, Brett. [https://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/451270 "The city Amelia loved".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611122605/http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/451270 |date=June 11, 2009 }} ''[[Toronto Star]]'', June 29, 2008. accessed: June 30, 2008.</ref><ref>[http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/1391197?buttons=Y "Portrait of Earhart as a volunteer nurse in Toronto."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924140105/http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/1391197?buttons=Y |date=September 24, 2017 }} ''Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America'' [[Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study]]. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> There, Earhart heard stories from military pilots and developed an interest in flying.<ref name="Gils-2009-PoF-262">Gils, Bieke, "Pioneers of Flight: An Analysis of Gender Issues in United States Civilian (Sport) and Commercial Aviation 1920–1940" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 262.<!-- https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-archive/bieke-gils-thesis-pioneers-flight-analysis-gender-issues-united-states-civilian-sport-and-commercial/sova-nasm-2010-0038 --></ref><ref>
Ware, Susan. ''Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. {{ISBN|0-393-03551-4}}.</ref>

In 1918, when the 1918 [[Spanish flu]] pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in nursing duties that included night shifts at Spadina Military Hospital.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}}{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}} In early November that year, she became infected and was hospitalized for pneumonia and [[Maxillary sinus|maxillary]] [[sinusitis]]. She was discharged in December 1918, about two months later.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}} Her [[sinus (anatomy)|sinus]]-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye, and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat.{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} While staying in the hospital during the [[Timeline of antibiotics|pre-antibiotic]] era, Earhart had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinus{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}}{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}}{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} but these procedures were not successful and her headaches worsened. Earhart's convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]].{{sfn|Earhart|1932|p=21}} Earhart passed the time reading poetry, learning to play the banjo, and studying mechanics.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|p=27}} Chronic sinusitis significantly affected Earhart's flying and other activities in later life,{{sfn|Backus|1982|pp=49–50}} and sometimes she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube.{{sfn|Rich|1989|pp=31–32}}

By 1919, Earhart prepared to enter [[Smith College]], where her sister was a student,<ref>{{Cite book |last=College |first=Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rEY4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7 |title=Official Circulars, Smith College |date=1921 |publisher=Smith College |page=192 |language=en |access-date=October 24, 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001122/https://books.google.com/books?id=rEY4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0Y4AAAAMAAJ |title=Catalogue of Smith College |year=1918 |page=165 |publisher=Smith College |access-date=March 18, 2023 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001225/https://books.google.com/books?id=D0Y4AAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> but she changed her mind and enrolled in a course of medical studies and other programs at [[Columbia University]].{{sfn|Thames|1989|p=7}} Earhart quit her studies a year later to be with her parents, who had reunited in California.

=== Early flying experiences ===
[[File:Amelia Earhart in her first training plane, 1920.jpg|alt=Amelia Earhart in her first training plane in 1920|thumb|Earhart in her first training plane, 1920]]

In the early 1920s, Earhart and a young woman friend visited an air fair held in conjunction with the [[Canadian National Exhibition]] in Toronto; she said: "The interest, aroused in me, in Toronto, led me to all the air circuses in the vicinity."<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart">{{cite web |title=Amelia Earhart Story |url=https://www.forneymuseum.org/News_AmeliaEarhart.html |website=[[Forney Museum of Transportation]] |access-date=24 May 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001214/https://www.forneymuseum.org/News_AmeliaEarhart.html |url-status=live }}</ref> One of the highlights of the day was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I [[Flying ace|ace]].{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=2}} The pilot saw Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'{{sp}}" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=3}}

On December 28, 1920, Earhart and her father attended an "aerial meet"<ref name="latimes/daily-pilot/2008-07-31-pipeline">{{cite news |last1=Epting |first1=Chris |title=In the Pipeline |url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2008-07-31-hbi-pipeline073108-story.html |access-date=25 May 2022 |work=[[Daily Pilot]] [[Huntington Beach Independent]] |publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=31 July 2008 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001225/https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dpt-xpm-2008-07-31-hbi-pipeline073108-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> at [[Long Beach Airport|Daugherty Field]] in [[Long Beach, California]]. She asked her father to ask about passenger flights and flying lessons.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Earhart was booked for a passenger flight the following day at [[Emory Roger's Field]], at the corner<ref name="latimes-1990-08-09-me-25">{{cite news |last1=Harvey |first1=Steve |title=Has Simi Valley become embroiled in the Middle East situation? |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-09-me-25-story.html |access-date=25 May 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=9 August 1990 |quote=Fawn Peck took off on his first airplane flight from Rogers Field, which isn't listed on any current maps. It was at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Soon afterward he took a job as a mechanic at a two-hangar facility called Mines Field. You might know it better by its current name, Los Angeles International Airport. The year was 1928. |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001124/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-09-me-25-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> of [[Wilshire Boulevard]] and [[Fairfax Avenue]].<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> A 10-minute flight with [[Frank Hawks]], who later gained fame as an [[air racing|air racer]], cost $10 ({{Inflation|US|10|1920|fmt=eq|r=-1}}). The ride with Hawkes changed Earhart's life; she said: "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90&nbsp;m] off the ground&nbsp;... I knew I had to fly."{{sfn|Earhart|1937|p=4}}

[[File:Neta amelia kinner airster s.jpg|thumb|left|L–R: [[Neta Snook]], Earhart's [[Kinner Airster]] and Amelia Earhart, {{circa|1921}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Viewing page 3 of 10 |url=https://transcription.si.edu/view/18704/NASM-NASM.XXXX.0424-M0000075-00060 |website=[[Smithsonian Digital Volunteers]] |publisher=transcription.si.edu |access-date=25 May 2022 |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001144/https://transcription.si.edu/view/18704/NASM-NASM.XXXX.0424-M0000075-00060 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Snook-Airster-Earhart">{{cite web |title=Flight instructor Neta Snook with her student Amelia Earhart at Kinner Field, Los Angeles, in 1921. |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |url=https://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature/amelia-netta-960_640/ |via=[[HistoryNet]] |access-date=24 May 2022 |quote=uncropped, different histogram |archive-date=January 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112001126/https://www.historynet.com/lady-lindy-the-remarkable-life-of-amelia-earhart-july-97-aviation-history-feature/amelia-netta-960_640/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

The next month, Earhart engaged [[Neta Snook]] to be her flying instructor. The initial contract was for 12 hours of instruction for $500 ({{Inflation|US|500|1921|fmt=eq|r=-3}}).<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Working at a variety of jobs, including photographer, truck driver, and [[stenographer]] at the local telephone company, Earhart saved $1,000 ({{Inflation|US|1000|1921|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) for flying lessons; she had her first lesson on January 3, 1921, at [[Kinner Field]] on the west side of Long Beach Boulevard and Tweedy Road,<ref name="latimes/daily-pilot/2008-07-31-pipeline"/> now in the city of [[South Gate, California|South Gate]]. Snook used a crash-salvaged [[Curtiss JN-4]] "Canuck" airplane she had restored for training. To reach the airfield, Earhart had to take a bus then walk {{convert|4|miles|km|abbr=out|spell=in}}. Earhart's mother provided part of the $1,000 "stake" against her "better judgement".<ref>[http://www.aviationhistory.org/ah_Amelia_Earhart.html "Lady Lindy, Amelia Earhart's life history."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205024527/http://aviationhistory.org/ah_Amelia_Earhart.html |date=December 5, 2006 }} ''aviationhistory.org''. accessed: October 12, 2009.</ref> Earhart cropped her hair short in the style of other female flyers.{{sfn|Blau|1977|pp=15–16}} Six months later, in mid 1921 and against Snook's advice, Earhart purchased a secondhand, [[chromium yellow]] [[Kinner Airster]] biplane,<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> which she nicknamed "The Canary". After her first successful solo landing, she bought a new leather flying coat.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/> Due to the newness of the coat, she was subjected to teasing, so she aged it by sleeping in it and staining it with aircraft oil.<ref name="forneymuseum/AmeliaEarhart"/>

On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew the Airster to an altitude of {{convert|14000|ft|m|abbr=out}}, setting a world record for female pilots.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=36}} On May 16, 1923, Earhart became the 16th woman in the United States to be issued a pilot's license (#''6017''){{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=36}} by the ''[[Fédération Aéronautique Internationale]]'' (FAI).<ref name="6017@npg.si.edu">[http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/earhart/pop-ups/02.html "Amelia Earhart's pilot's license, leather and paper, Issued May 16, 1923 (One Life: Amelia Earhart)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528125615/http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/earhart/pop-ups/02.html |date=May 28, 2017 }} ''National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution''. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref>
{{Clear}}

=== Financial problems and move to Massachusetts ===

Throughout the early 1920s, following a disastrous investment in a failed [[gypsum]] mine, Amelia Earhart's inheritance from her grandmother, which her mother was now administering, steadily diminished until it was exhausted. Consequently, with no immediate prospect of recouping her investment in flying, Earhart sold the Canary and a second Kinner and bought a yellow [[Kissel Motor Car Company|Kissel]] Gold Bug "Speedster", a two-seat automobile, and named it "Yellow Peril". Simultaneously, pain from Earhart's old sinus problem worsened, and in early 1924, she was hospitalized for another sinus operation, which was again unsuccessful. She tried a number of ventures that included setting up a photography company.{{sfn|Goldstein|Dillon|1997|p=33}}

[[File:Amelia Earhart on horseback from 20 Hrs 40 Min.jpg|thumb|left|Photo of Earhart from her book ''[[20 Hrs. 40 Min.]]'' (1928)]]

Following her parents' divorce in 1924, Earhart drove her mother in "Yellow Peril" on a transcontinental trip from California with stops throughout the western United States and northward to [[Banff, Alberta]], Canada. Their journey ended in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], where Earhart underwent another, more-successful sinus operation. After recuperation, she returned to Columbia University for several months but was forced to abandon her studies and any further plans for enrolling at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), because her mother could no longer afford the tuition fees and associated costs. In 1925, Earhart found employment first as a teacher, then as a [[social worker]] at [[Denison House (Boston)|Denison House]], a Boston [[Settlement movement|settlement house]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080401003450/http://www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/aearhart/biog.php "Amelia Earhart Biographical Sketch".] ''George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers'', Purdue University, April 1, 2008. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> At this time, she lived in [[Medford, Massachusetts|Medford]], Massachusetts.

When Earhart lived in Medford, she maintained her interest in aviation, becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society's Boston chapter and eventually being elected its vice president.{{sfn|Rich|1989|p=43}} She flew out of [[Dennison Airport]] in [[Quincy, Massachusetts|Quincy]], helped finance the airport's operation by investing a small sum of money,{{sfn|Long|Long|1999|p=38}} and in 1927, she flew the first official flight out of Dennison Airport.<ref>Chaisson, Stephanie. [https://archive.today/20120909002251/http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x1709132033 "Squantum has a hold on its residents."] ''[[The Patriot Ledger]]'', [[Quincy, Massachusetts]],  July 12, 2007. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref> Earhart worked as a sales representative for Kinner Aircraft in the Boston area and wrote local-newspaper columns promoting flying; as her local celebrity grew, Earhart made plans to launch an organization for female flyers.{{sfn|Randolph|1987|p=41}}