On the last Saturday in February, a variety of sports memorabilia and a leather aviator cap from the 1920s, which had belonged to none other than aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), came up for auction at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas.
The sensational memorabilia was valued at $80,000 by the auction house. However, this sum was overshadowed by the final price: $825,000.
The consignor from Minnesota had to fight for a long time to have the authenticity recognised. He had inherited the cap from his mother, who had owned it in Cleveland, where Earhart had landed after flying in the 1929 Women's National Air Derby. Earhart had previously worn the cap in June 1928 when she became the first woman to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in an airplane, albeit only as a passenger.
The authenticity of the hat as belonging to Amelia Earhart was only proven last year using a new type of photo comparison technology, which shows that this cap corresponds exactly to the one Earhart is wearing in various photos from the time.
See also: Worth Millions: Behind the Appeal of Celebrity Memorabilia
See also: Fashion Comes to a Head: The History of the Hat
Amelia Earhart discovered her passion for flying in her early twenties and shortly thereafter set a new world altitude record for women (4,300 m). After she had only crossed the Atlantic as a passenger in 1928, “like a sack of potatoes", as she herself put it, she dared to make this flight in May 1932 as the first woman alone. This also made her the first person ever to fly across the Atlantic twice. Other pioneering achievements of Earhart were her solo flights from Hawaii to Oakland, California as well as from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey.
Earhart used her enormous popularity for women's rights, especially when it came to admissions into male domains, such as technical colleges. She had worked as a nurse during the First World War and was also a pacifist and committed to social issues.
Unfortunately, Earhart's greatest adventure was to be her last. In 1937, she wanted to be the first person to fly around the world at the level of the equator. On 21 May, she started from Miami, first heading south, and then circumnavigating the globe eastwards. On 2 July, she embarked on the last leg from New Guinea. When Earhart lost radio contact with a US Coast Guard ship over the Pacific, an extensive search operation was initiated, but was unsuccessful and was cancelled on 19 July. Earhart was declared "missing, presumed dead."
The tragic disappearance of Amelia Earhart has sparked speculation and turned an already formidable woman into a legend. Against this history, the enormous price increase for Earhart's leather cap is hardly a surprise.
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