Editing Amelia Earhart (section)

=== Marriage to George Putnam ===

[[File:Amelia Earhart and husband George Putnam 1931.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Earhart and Putnam in 1931]]

Earhart married her public relations manager [[George P. Putnam]] on February 7, 1931, in Putnam's mother's house in [[Noank, Connecticut]], in what has been described as a [[marriage of convenience]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/earhart-and-george-palmer-putnam | title=Earhart and George Palmer Putnam }}</ref> Earhart had been engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, but she broke off the engagement on November 23, 1928.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=130, 138}} Putnam, who was known as GP, was divorced in 1929 and sought out Earhart, proposing to her six times before she agreed to marry him. Earhart referred to her marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control"; in a letter to Putnam and hand-delivered to him on the day of the wedding, she wrote: <blockquote>
I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil {{Sic}} code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly&nbsp;... I may have to keep some place where I can go to be by myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=165–166}}<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041107204646/http://ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-02-25&nav=VIEW&id=0823D7UCP05030225 "Newly Discovered Amelia Earhart Letter Shows Her Wild Side."] ''Wireless Flash News'', February 25, 2003. accessed: September 23, 2017.</ref><ref>Patterson-Neubert, Amy. [http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/030224.Mobley.Earhart.html "Public to get first look at Amelia Earhart's private life."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060725091511/http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/030224.Mobley.Earhart.html |date=July 25, 2006 }} ''Purdue News'', 2003. accessed: July 2, 2010.</ref></blockquote>

Earhart's ideas on marriage were liberal for the time; she believed in equal responsibilities for both breadwinners and kept her own name rather than being referred to as "Mrs. Putnam". When ''[[The New York Times]]'' referred to her as "Mrs. Putnam", she laughed it off. Putnam also learned he would be called "Mr. Earhart".{{sfn|Pearce|1988|p=82}} There was no honeymoon for the couple because Earhart was involved in a nine-day, cross-country tour promoting autogyros and the tour's sponsor Beech-Nut chewing gum. Earhart and Putnam never had children but Putnam had two sons—the explorer and writer David Binney Putnam (1913–1992), and George Palmer Putnam Jr. (1921–2013)—from his previous marriage to [[Dorothy Binney]] (1888–1982),<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040604061051/http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/DorothyPutnam.htm "Dorothy Binney Putnam Upton Blanding Palmer 1888–1982."] ''St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc.'' (archived). accessed: September 23, 2017.{{better source needed|date=June 2024}}</ref> an heir to her father's chemical company [[Binney & Smith]].<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/EdwinBinney.htm "Edwin Binney 1866–1934."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060713052246/http://www.rootsweb.com/~flslchs/EdwinBinney.htm |date=July 13, 2006 }} ''St. Lucie Historical Society, Inc.'' accessed: June 3, 2012.</ref>{{sfn|Lovell|1989|pp=154, 174}}