Amelia Earhart Statue in the US Capitol

Photo credit - Architect of the Capitol

In a special ceremony on July 27th, 2022, Amelia Earhart Statue was unveiled in the US Capitol by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. The statue represents Kansas in the National Statuary Hall collection in the US Capitol.

Amelia Earhart (1897-c.1939) was a famous pioneering female aviator who set many aviation records, including the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. She was also a writer, the co-founder, and the first president of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots, and a businesswoman who promoted commercial air travel. In her attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world, on July 2nd, 1937, she and her navigator disappeared, only three weeks before her 40th birthday. She was declared dead on January 5th, 1939.

The bronze statue depicts Earhart as she appeared in many of her photographs. She stands casually, smiling, a determined look on her face. She wears her famous leather jacket and scarf; her left hand holds her aviator’s cap and goggles. Her belt buckle is in the shape of the state of Kansas. A sunflower is inscribed on it, referring to Kansas’s nickname, “Sunflower State.”
The inscription on the pedestal reads:
KANSAS
Amelia Earhart
Famous Aviatrix
First Woman to fly solo across the Atlantic

Earhart’s Statue in the US Capitol was dedicated several months after the dedication of the statue of Mary McLeod Bethune. Click here for a list of all the women who are honored in a statue in the US Capitol.

The sculptors Mark and George Lundeen created it. A copy stands in Earhart’s hometown, Atchison, outside the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum since its dedication in September 2022 by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and Earhart’s great-great niece.

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