Exhibit to focus on Earhart’s last letters and telegrams from 1937 world flight

The “Missing You” exhibit features many letters, photographs and this telegram, which is the last communication from Earhart before her departure for Howland Island. (Purdue University Photo/Megan Huckaby) Download image

A new exhibit from Purdue Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, will explore Amelia Earhart's last adventure through letters, telegrams, photographs and logs sent during her famous 1937 world flight attempt.

"Missing You" opened on June 29 to mark the 80-year anniversary of Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan’s world flight. It will remain open through Dec. 8.

“The mystery surrounding Earhart’s disappearance often overshadows her legacy as a pioneer aviator, vocal advocate for women’s opportunities in the workplace, as one of the first equal partners in a power couple marriage and as a role model for young women,” says Tracy Grimm, Purdue's Barron Hilton Archivist for Flight and Space Exploration. “‘Missing You’ explores Amelia Earhart’s last adventure through letters, telegrams and logs sent home during the 1937 world flight and examines the unique role Earhart played to promote women’s rights during the 1920s and 1930s.”

A new exhibit from Purdue Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, will explore Amelia Earhart's last adventure through letters, telegrams, photographs and logs sent during her famous 1937 world flight attempt. (Purdue University Archives Photo) Download image

The exhibit includes never before seen letters that Noonan sent home during the flight, photographs Earhart took with her own camera and a telegram, Earhart’s last communication, sent from Lae, New Guinea prior to their departure for Howland Island.

The exhibit, located in the Purdue Archives and Special Collections on the fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library in Stewart Center, is free and open to the public. 

Its summer hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Fall hours will be 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday-Friday.

The exhibit is made possible through the support of Purdue Libraries’ Susan Bulkeley Butler Women’s Archives and the Barron Hilton Archives for Flight and Space Exploration.

Writer: Megan Huckaby, 765-496-1325, mhuckaby@purdue.edu