With a largely female student population, East Carolina Teachers College typically brought prominent, influential women to campus to speak, inspiring the young ladies attending the school to their own form of greatness. One of the speakers, an icon in twentieth-century American history, was Amelia Earhart (1898-1937). On January 15, 1936, Earhart spoke on "Aviation Adventures" before an audience of more than 1,500 in the auditorium of the recently constructed Campus Building (later, Wright Building). The Daily Reflector recorded that "never has an audience responded so enthusiastically to a speaker" as ECTC did to Miss Earhart. The Tecoan noted “Use the imagination of a thousand girls and you will feel the anticipation with which we looked forward to the coming of Amelia Earhart.”
Earlier, in 1916, Helen Keller had spoken to the student body, though in the auditorium of the Administrative and Classroom Building (Old Austin). In 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt also gave a talk on campus, in Wright Auditorium. In recent times this tradition of presentations by leading women has continued with the 2009 visit to ECU by Gloria Steinem, delivering a lecture to a packed house of nearly 1,500 faculty, staff, students, and community on feminism, its past and future. In 2007, Jane Goodall spoke to a sell-out audience in Wright, with simultaneous digital broadcasts at overflow locations on campus. At ECU, women’s voices remain strong.
Days before Earhart's appearance, The Daily Reflector noted that "ever since last spring [1935] when the entertainment committee of the college announced its program of entertainment for this year, both college students and the people throughout this section have been looking forward to the coming of Amelia Earhart. All considered her to be the leading attraction of the year." Although Earhart needed no publicity, the college advertised the lecture in The Daily Reflector in the weeks prior to the lecture.
Earhart achieved international fame in 1928 after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In that flight, Earhart did not pilot the plane, but simply flew as a passenger. In 1932, however, Earhart piloted a single engine Lockheed Vega 5b, matching Charles Lindbergh's solo run across the Atlantic. After the flight, nearly 15 hours long, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from the U. S. Congress, the Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and the Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society. By the mid-1930s, she and Eleanor Roosevelt were among the most well-known and admired women of their day.
Earhart reportedly captivated her audience "who not only listened breathlessly to her thrilling story of her 'Aviation Adventures,' but fell in love with a charming woman of gracious manners, with her keen sense of humor, and a winning smile."
Opening her remarks with deprecating charm, Miss Earhart explained how she was often "congratulated for swimming the English Channel,” or mistaken for Lindbergh's mother, for Mrs. Roosevelt or other celebrities." Then Earhart recounted her aviation adventures, specifically, her oceanic flights, the first crossing the Atlantic and the second crossing the Pacific. She described the cockpit as a "crazy little cubby-hole" with a cupboard for food and tools and such things as pencil and pad, strings, wire, and fuses." More romantically, Earhart spoke of air travel as "the most beautiful means of travel man has yet devised."
Tragically, in 1937, Earhart, vanished while flying over the Pacific Ocean. Earhart's lecture at ECTC was one of her last major public addresses prior to her attempt at circling the globe. Yet when asked at ECTC about her plans for a solo, around the world flight, Earhart said she had neither plans nor sufficient equipment for such a flight in the near future. But she added, "most every pilot has the desire to fly faster, farther, and higher."
ECTC alumni later recalled Earhart’s talk. Lucy Stuart Parrish ('37) noted that Earhart spoke of "the joy of flying, of piloting her own plane, of her devotion to her husband, of her joy of life and the possibility of service to all mankind," offering that as a challenge to the students. Jewel Cole Scott ('36) added that Earhart encouraged all women to learn to fly. Jimmy Carr ('36), recalled that he had the honor of picking Earhart up at the Proctor Hotel (now the Self-Help Building), and driving her to the auditorium. Carr, who served on the campus entertainment committee, claimed that by his estimation, Earhart was the biggest draw that East Carolina had up until that time. Admission to the lecture was forty cents.
Sources
“Amelia Earhart to lecture here tomorrow night.” The Teco Echo, vol. 12, no. 5. January 14, 1936. P. 1. ECU Digital Collections, Identifier: 50.05.02.v12n5. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38034.
“Amelia Earhart visits ECU.” East Carolina University, Joyner Library. http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/archives/pr_display.cfm?id=797
“Miss Earhart denies rumor.” The Daily Reflector, January 16, 1936. P. 1.
Citation Information
Title: Amelia Earhart at ECTC: "Aviation Adventures"
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 7/19/2019