Amelia Earhart Photos

Enlarged photos of Amelia Earhart’s visit to Hawaii in 1934 are on display at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (Oahu) where she stayed. Sixty-five recently discovered photographs of the pioneer’s time in Hawai’i are from the archives of the Matson Navigation Company (owners of the Royal Hawaiian, and the S.S. Lurline, which transported the pilot and her plane to Hawai’i). Although Earhart spent a lot of time at Wheeler Field getting her plane ready for travel, she and her husband also relaxed in Waikiki.

The black and white photographs capture Earhart with her husband vacationing, enjoying a little R&R, meeting Duke Kahanamoku, sampling pineapple, visiting Maui and the Big Island, and planting a banyan tree. Also on board the ocean liner was aviator Paul Mantz, who took her bright red Lockheed Vega up to Wheeler Field for fine-tuning and flight testing. The plane, she nicknamed “Old Bessie”, was pretty much hidden from public view, while Earhart and her husband became the toast of the islands.

The pictures are blown up in exquisite detail on canvas, and will be donated to the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island when the exhibition ends. In addition to the oversize canvas prints, more than 50 other pictures of Earhart will be used in an illustrated time line of her stay in the islands. On Jan. 12, 1935, Earhart took off from Wheeler and flew to Oakland, becoming the first person to make a solo trans-Pacific flight. The country went wild, and Earhart’s status as a modern heroine was assured. The exhibition starts on July 24, 2010 (Earhart’s birthday) and continues through the end of the year.