What sources and quotes support Amelia's concern about her freckles? I found only the one on Google.
From Amelia: A Life of the Aviation Legend, by Goldstein and Dillon. This refers to the New York ticker tape parade after the "Friendship" flight: "As photographers snapped, several spectators, eager for a glimpse of the famous bob, sang out 'Take off you hat, Amelia!' She made a little face, but obligingly removed her modish straw cloche. Tossing it to Muriel, she remarked ruefully, 'Here's where I get sixty more freckles on my poor nose, I guess!'" (page 62)
Are there other quotes I can search for. Thanks.
The quotation you cite above is the best of all of them. It comes from Earhart's only sibling, Muriel Earhart Morrisey. Morrissey wrote a biography of her sister, "Courage is the Price" in which she (as Dillon's primary source) references the ticker tape parade incident, wherein Earhart complained of the sixty more freckles on her nose she would receive if she removed her cloche.
There are other references where Earhart obliquely refers to various skin problems brought on by sun, by open cockpits, by weather, etc. Earhart may have been accustomed to using euphemism in the instances when she actually complained about her skin and appearance.
Here is a list of mostly primary historical references to Earhart's concern with her skin I have found:
1) Page 94 of Amelia Earhart's 2nd book "The Fun Of It" has Earhart saying that the goggles she wore would cause her to look like a "horned toad" after the sun exposure she was receiving.
2) October 11, 1928 Omaha Morning World-Herald article, wherein Earhart asked for advice from actress Eve Casanova on her "weather-beaten appearance" from sun exposure, of which she was "ashamed."
"How do you prevent sunburn and keep that lovely complexion?" Miss Earhart wanted to know. "I get so burned and tanned that I'm sometimes ashamed of my weather-beaten appearance."
3) A
blog article, wherein a distant relative recalled a family lore that Earhart was not only concerned with her freckles, she could be irascible about them if the discussion turned in that direction:
"We get updates because Amelia is a relative on my paternal grandfather's side. Not a super close relative...only a second cousin or second once removed or something...I can't rememember exactly. But, after my grandmother died, my dad became the contact for this side.
My grandmother never knew her personally, but my grandfather and his brother met her a couple of times during her childhood...I really wish I could remember exactly how that shirt-tail relation works in the geneology..."
"Oh, Amelia really did HATE her freckles. It's something my grandfather remembered about her because he mentioned them to her (thought she was quite adorable) when she was little and she became irate!"
4) Earhart's mother kept a bag of sun creams on hand should Earhart ever return. Google "Earhart's mother kept suitcase" in Google Books for the citations.
5) Earhart's description of
preparations for the 1928 flight, wherein she said she typically packed a tube of cold cream for "cracked lips" as part of her "irreducible minimum" of cometics.
The Earhart biographer who appeared to devote the most attention to Earhart's self-consciousness about her appearance was Doris Rich. Her book is titled Amelia Earhart: A Biography, and is available from booksellers and Amazon.
Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078 ECR