National Air and Space Museum Archives

Amelia Earhart Project Recordings

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.2020.0025
Creators:
Jourdan, David W.
Long, Elgen Marion, 1927-
Dates:
1959-1998
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
4.5 Cubic feet
5 legal document cases and 13 cassette tape boxes
Repository:
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.

Scope and Contents

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).

Arrangement

Arrangement
Arrangement by donor.

Biographical / Historical

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).

Administration

Author
Patti Williams
Immediate Source of Acquisition
David Jourdan, Gift, 2020, NASM.2020.0025
Processing Information
Arranged, described, and encoded by Patti Williams, 2020.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
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.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Preferred Citation
Amelia Earhart Project Recordings, NASM.2020.0025, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Aeronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Underwater exploration Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Flights around the world Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews -- 1950-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings -- Audiotapes -- Audio cassettes -- Music Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Earhart, Amelia, 1897-1937 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Noonan, Frederick Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nauticos Corporation Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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