📍Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, 223 North Terrace Street, Atchison, KS 66002, USA
1897 – 1908“I was born in July 1897 in the south-west bedroom of my grandparents' house in Atchison, Kansas, a tall Gothic Revival house that my grandfather, Judge Alfred Otis, had built in 1861 on a bluff high above the Missouri River. My father's work as a railroad claims lawyer kept him moving, so my sister Muriel and I spent much of our childhood here with our grandparents, going to school in Atchison during the year. I always thought of Atchison as my hometown. My grandmother's house was proper and full of fine things, but outside I was free. Muriel and I explored the bluffs and caves along the river, had mud-ball fights, collected worms, moths and toads, and went on picnics. I wore bloomers so I could climb trees and go belly-down on my sled, which girls were not supposed to do. In 1904, after a trip to the World's Fair in St Louis, I persuaded my uncle to help me build a homemade roller coaster from the roof of the toolshed. I flew off the end, tore my dress and bruised my lip, and told Muriel it was just like flying. I did not see an aeroplane until I was ten, and I was not impressed. It was years later, at an air show in California, that I took my first flight and knew I had to fly. In 1932 I became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The house in Atchison is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, run by The Ninety-Nines, the organisation of women pilots I helped found, and visitors can stand in the room where I was born.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today