The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Who Was “Lady Lindy”?

Amelia Earhart earned that title because of her record-breaking aviation career and because her physical appearance was similar to pioneering pilot and American hero Charles Lindbergh.

Amelia Earhart, seated in airplane, checking equipment

Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis

Earhart was born in July 1897 and died mysteriously in July 1937. She was the first woman to fly as a passenger across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1928, and in 1932, she became the first woman to pilot a plane across that ocean. She was an inspiration to women everywhere who wanted a career during a time when not many options were available. Earhart is one of more than two dozen "Amazing Americans" in the America's Library Web site for kids and families. Though designed with children in mind, the Web site is as educational as it is entertaining for people of all ages. Here you can "Jump Back in Time" to learn what happened on any day in history; "Explore the States" and take a virtual trip across the country; "Join America at Play" and play a game of baseball online; and "See, Hear and Sing" with a "Jammin' Jukebox."

You can view images of Charles Lindbergh by going to the American Memory Collection Finder Search page and typing in his name in the search box. The photo above shows the aviator with his famous plane, Spirit of St. Louis. Type in "Amelia Earhart" and you'll get more than 40 links to photos of Earhart herself or images realted to the history of aviation.

Stories and visual materials relating to other inspirational women — famous and not so famous — can be found in "The Hannah Arendt Papers" collection about this author, educator and political philosopher who is one of the principal sources for the study of modern intellectual life. In "Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921" there are 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. A "Special Presentation" provides the details in "One Hundred Years Toward Suffrage." For example, in 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, N.Y., for attempting to vote for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election. Images of the struggle for women's suffrage are found in "By Popular Demand: 'Votes for Women' Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920." Anthony is the most famous of the suffragists, and the Library has many portraits of her, including this "Susan B. Anthony, full length, seated left" image.

A. [Amelia Earhart, seated in airplane, checking equipment], 1937. New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction No.: LC-USZ62-119130 (b&w film copy neg.); Call No.: NYWTS - BIOG--Earhart, Amelia--Aviatrix--Dead--Airplanes [P&P].

B. Harry M. Rhoads, photographer, "Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis," 1927. Reproduction No.: Rh-888. From the Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. This image is not in the Library of Congress. For reproduction information, contact the Denver Public Library.