I have been wanting to delve into the L’Aerophile collection for business themed posts for quite a while; I’ve found a number of things I want to write about, but I’ve chosen to start with Amelia Earhart, because March is Women’s History Month.
The L’Aerophile collection was featured in a post by Angel Vu in 2016, but it is such a treasure trove, it deserves more attention. L’Aerophile was one of the premier journals in the early history of aviation and was published from 1893-1947. The Library’s collection contains fifteen thousand or so items that we acquired in 1970 and includes correspondence on aeronautics, manuscripts, design details for aircraft engines, wings, photographs, etc. If you want to look more deeply at the collection you can look at the inventory.
The collection is made up of many boxes and Earhart appears in two different boxes.
BOX 18B Earhart, Amelia. Amelia Earhart, 192-?
ENVELOPE 1 Portraits.
ENVELOPE 2 Solo Atlantic Flight, 1932.
ENVELOPE 3 Newspaper Clippings, 1933.
ENVELOPE 4 Newspaper Clippings.
ENVELOPE 5 Newspaper Clippings, 1934-1935.
ENVELOPE 6 Newspaper Articles.
ENVELOPE 7 Newspaper Clippings, 1936.
ENVELOPE 8 Newspaper Clippings, 1937.
ENVELOPE 9 FAA Aviation News, “The Last Flight” 1975.
ENVELOPE 10 Amelia Earhart Bibliographies.
The photo of Earhart in this post comes from Box 148 “American Aviators” and has folders for Edward Rickenbaker, Gen. Billy Mitchell, and one labeled “women,” with photos of Edna Newcomer and Margaret Spitzer, among others. Earhart however, also has a folder to herself. Most are stock photos, but it is a nice collection, including one taken in Oakland after landing in January 1935.
The photo here shows Earhart after she landed in Southampton on June 19, 1928. The caption on the back of the photo reads:
Miss Amelia EARHART et ses deux compagnons qui viennent de faire la traversée aérienne de l’Atlantique, photographiés à leur arrivée à Southamption.
De gauche à droit; Gordon, Miss EARHART, STULTZ et le Maire de Southampton.
If you want to see more photos of Earhart, there are already a number of photos on our web page, many from Harris & Ewing. There are also a few other items on our web page that may be of interest - a recording of a speech she gave, the transcript of another speech, and a collection of resources and links to online materials. Of course, there are many books if you want to search our catalog.
If you want to know about the L’Aerophile collection you can submit a question to https://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-scitech.html.