Did you know that in July 1929 famed aviator and author Amelia Earhart paid a visit to Chautauqua Institution? Fittingly, she arrived from New York City by plane, piloting her Lockwood Vega plane to its landing on the 14th fairway of the Chautauqua Golf Course. Ms. Earhart was renowned for her many accomplishments, notably becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Later, in 1935, she became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University in its Aeronautical Engineering Department. In 1937, Purdue funded her effort to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe on a flight that included her navigator Fred Noonan. The flight was to begin and end in Oakland, Calif. However, they disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean on one of the last legs of their journey and were last seen in Lae, New Guinea on July, 2, 1937. Many months later, there having been no further sightings of the pair or the plane, Earhart and Noonan were declared dead on January 5, 1939. Although the story of Amelia Earhart’s life and the manner of her disappearance and presumed death is widely known, a part of her legacy will always have a local connection for that day in 1929 when she landed her plane on the golf course at Chautauqua Institution.

Reference Credits: “Chautauqua Institution 1874-1974” by Kathleen Crocker & Jane Currie; Wikipedia.org.

Photo: Courtesy of Chautauqua Institution Archives