Date: March 5, 2008
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

PNCWA Presents “Amelia Earhart’s Enduring Legacy”

Westville – The Purdue North Central Women’s Association Spring Luncheon will be Saturday, April 12 at the PNC Westville campus. The program, “Amelia Earhart’s Enduring Legacy,” will focus on Earhart and her two passions – aviation and women’s rights – and why she is still such an important figure to girls and women today.

Earhart was part of Purdue University from 1935-37. As an inspiration for women to pursue non-traditional roles, then Purdue President Edward Elliott invited Amelia to lecture at the University. She joined the faculty of Purdue University, serving as a counselor in the study of careers for women and an adviser in aeronautics. In July 1936, she acquired a new Lockheed Electra airplane she called her “Flying Laboratory.” It was purchased with funds from the Purdue Research Foundation. With her new airplane, Earhart began planning what was to be her ill-fated last flight.

The program will feature Professor Sammie Morris, head of Archives and Special Collections and assistant professor of Library Science at Purdue University. Morris authored “What Archives Reveal: The Hidden Poem of Amelia Earhart” (Provenance vol. 23, 2005). She serves on the editorial board for the “College and University Archives Thesaurus”, which is due to be published later this year by the Society of American Archivists.

Morris graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a Master of Library and Information Science degree, specializing in Archival Enterprise, in 1998. Her undergraduate degree is in English Literature from the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern University. She is a certified archivist and a past president of the Society of Indiana Archivists.

The luncheon will in the Library-Student-Faculty Building Room 144. Check-in begins at 11 a.m. and the luncheon will begin at 11:20 a.m. The cost is $16. For reservations, contact Angel Cable, PNCWA treasurer at 800-872-1231, ext. 5401. Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Cable.

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