Description

Earhart, Amelia (1897 – 1937)

Earhart signs a portrait midway through her doomed circumnavigation attempt of 1937!

An extraordinary signed 7″ X 5″ photograph by Amelia Earhart, showing the aviatrix posing in front of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra aeroplane during her ill-fated attempt to circumnavigate the world. This image was taken in Dakar, Senegal on either June 8th or 9th 1937. Earhart is shown alongside four other gentlemen in sunhats. She herself is dressed in a black-and-white patterned shirt and jumpsuit. She has signed boldly in fountain pen ink, and the image is additionally signed by Fred Noonan, her navigator, who perished alongside Earhart in July 1937. The photograph bears a ‘Lataque’ stamp to the reverse, as well as a ‘Lataque’ imprint to the lower right of the image, indicating that the image was taken by the Senegal-based French photographer Oscar Lataque. In very fine condition.

We have found images of two of the exact same gentlemen pictured alongside Earhart — they appear to have been mechanics who worked on Earhart’s plane in Dakar in June 1937. These images can be found above for reference. Earhart had flown from Brazil to Saint Louis, Senegal, arriving on June 8th, before flying on to Dakar the same day. She remained in Dakar until June 10th. Hence the photograph can be accurately dated to June 8th or 9th 1937, during that stay in Dakar. Earhart was also pictured wearing this exact same shirt in a famous image alongside Noonan a few days earlier, on June 7th 1937 in Natal, Brazil.

The photographer, Oscar Lataque, was based in Senegal; after taking this image on 8th or 9th June 1937, he had to have developed it in time for signatures to be sought prior to Earhart’s departure on 10th June 1937. Earhart and Noonan then made further stops in Africa, India and South East Asia, before taking their final ill-fated flight from Papua New Guinea on July 2nd 1937.

Given the deductions above, it seems likely that this is one of the last images — if not the very last — to be signed by Earhart. An extraordinary piece of aviation history.