Amelia Earhart Project Recordings

Object Details

Summary: This donation consists of 156 separate interviews or sound sources collected by Elgen Long while he was researching and writing his book, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved which promotes the theory that Amelia Earhart's aircraft came to rest at the bottom of the ocean near Howland Island.; This collection is in English.

Biographical / Historical: Elgen Long collected oral recordings, both interviews and sound sources, while he was researching and writing his book, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved which promotes the theory that Amelia Earhart's aircraft came to rest at the bottom of the ocean near Howland Island. These tapes were also used throughout Long's partnership with David W. Jourdan, founder of the deep-sea exploration company Nauticos, during their three attempts to locate Earhart's aircraft on the ocean floor (2002, 2006, and 2017).

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Interviews; Sound recordings

Citation: Amelia Earhart Project Recordings, NASM.2020.0025, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Processing Information: Arranged, described, and encoded by Patti Williams, 2020.

Rights: Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Genre/Form: Interviews -- 1950-2000; Sound recordings -- Audiotapes -- Audio cassettes -- Music

Scope and Contents: The donation consists of 156 separate interviews or sound sources, some comprising two or more tape sides. Most of them are interviews conducted by Long, including interviews with: crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Itasca; Naval and Coast Guard officials; mechanics and engineers involved in the maintenance of Earhart's aircraft; New Guinea and Australia residents and radio operators; friends, family and associates of Earhart and Noonan; and advocates of alternative disappearance theories. There are also radio interviews and a few movie soundtracks and miscellaneous items. The total running time of the collection is 13,209 minutes (220sca hours). This donation also includes a hard drive which holds 387 audio files in .mp3 or .mp4 format (each file is an interview with the possibility of multiple interviews per tape).