Purdue University Acquires Film Showing Amelia Earhart

The Virginia Kelley Karnes Archives at the Special Collections Research Center at Purdue University Libraries has acquired a 16-millemeter film showing Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed Electra aircraft. The film was taken at the Union Air Terminal in Los Angeles in 1937 as Earhart was about to embark on her round-the-world flight. The plane disappeared during the flight and has never been found.

Earhart was a career counselor and adviser to the department of aeronautics at Purdue University from 1935 to 1937. In April 1936, the Purdue Research Foundation created the Amelia Earhart Fund for Aeronautic Research. The foundation funded the purchase of Earhart’s plane.

Purdue University will preserve the film and make it available to researchers. The film will join the Amelia Earhart Papers Archive already held by the university. The online collection includes more than 3,500 scans of photographs, maps, documents, and artifacts relating to Earhart.