Purdue News

May 2, 2002 Original song performed at Amelia Earhart collection ceremony WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University today (Thursday, 5/2) enlarged its longstanding association with Amelia Earhart by becoming the largest, most comprehensive repository of materials relating to the life, career and mysterious disappearance of the famous aviator. Amelia Earhart Download Photo Here During today's ceremony, an original song about Earhart was performed. The copyrighted song by Laura Clavio was arranged and accompanied by Michael Kelsey and was performed by Julie Ricciardi, all of Greater Lafayette. Sally Putnam Chapman, the granddaughter of Earhart's husband, George Putnam, donated 492 items – including rarely seen personal and private papers, such as poems, a flight log and a prenuptial agreement – to Purdue Libraries' Earhart collection. Chapman joined university representatives at the Purdue Airport to celebrate the donation during a Discover Purdue event, a yearlong campaign to highlight the university's accomplishments and aspirations. Together with the university's earlier Earhart collection, it will be known as The George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers. Digitized pieces of the collection are being placed on the Internet to make the documents easily accessible to the public for the first time. The announcement of the new Earhart acquisitions also launched Purdue's "Countdown to 100 Years of Flight" celebration, which acknowledges the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight and the university's ongoing role in aviation and aerospace history. Related story: Purdue libraries land new rare items for Amelia Earhart collection Additional photos of Earhart's prenuptial agreement, passport and her with her plane, as well as a photo of Sally Putnam Chapman are available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/earhart.newdocs/ To the Purdue News and Photos Page