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[Ric Gillespie]

I may be totally wrong, but IMHO, the second woman in this photo is either Amelia's friend, Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran, or her twin.

We're sure it's Nilla Putnam because we found another photo taken at the same time but from a slightly different angle with the notation "Amelia with Nilla Putnam."  David and Nilla Putnam, who lived in Ft. Pierce, FL are known to have been in Miami on May 29.   Cochran lived on the West Coast and we're aware of no indication that she was present in Miami at that time.

[C.W. Herndon]

If you say so

[Mark Samuels]

I may be totally wrong, but IMHO, the second woman in this photo is either Amelia's friend, Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran, or her twin.

We're sure it's Nilla Putnam because we found another photo taken at the same time but from a slightly different angle with the notation "Amelia with Nilla Putnam."  David and Nilla Putnam, who lived in Ft. Pierce, FL are known to have been in Miami on May 29.   Cochran lived on the West Coast and we're aware of no indication that she was present in Miami at that time.

Mr. Gillespie, is it possible for you to post the other picture from a different angle for comparison?

[Jeff Palshook]

Ric,

I am interested in the 2nd photo of Earhart and Nilla Putnam you mentioned, too.  If you could post it (the Miami Herald permitting), that would be great.  I'm interested in the thin, (almost) straight line shadow falling diagonally across the Electra fueslage and seemingly disapperaring behind Nilla.  A 2nd view of that shadow line might be helpful.

Jeff P.
 

[Ric Gillespie]

Here's the second picture of AE and Nilla. 

[Bill Mangus]

Ric,

I am interested in the 2nd photo of Earhart and Nilla Putnam you mentioned, too.  If you could post it (the Miami Herald permitting), that would be great.  I'm interested in the thin, (almost) straight line shadow falling diagonally across the Electra fueslage and seemingly disapperaring behind Nilla.  A 2nd view of that shadow line might be helpful.

Jeff P.
 

Jeff,

Pretty sure that line is a shadow of one of the antenna cables on top of fuselage.  Note AE and NP's shadows and figure backwards to top of fuselage.

[Monty Fowler]

What Bill said. My first thought was it was the antenna lead-in to the fuselage, but the Harney drawings show that entering the fuselage lower down at about Station 239, which would be forward of that window. 

Or ... it could just be a scratch 

LTM, who watches what he scratches,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189ECSP

[Greg Daspit]

See the other picture to see it's a wire.
Edit: It vanishes behind Nilla in both images. Could be a shadow of a wire. I don't see its reflection. It is kind of wierd but I don't think it is a scratch

[JNev]

The story of Nilla herself charmed me, and Woody's wondering about Jackie Cochran was interesting, so I did a bit of digging -

Nilla was reported to have been "several months pregnant" when she saw Earhart in Miami.

On hand to see off Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were Earhart's husband and business manager, publisher George Palmer Putnam; his 24-year-old son, David Putnam, who lived up the coast in Fort Pierce; and David's wife, Nilla, who was several months pregnant.

As the plane waited on the runway, there were last goodbyes and hugs. Earhart told David to keep an eye on his dad for her. And she placed her hand on Nilla's stomach as she whispered in her ear, ''Take care of yourself, little one.''

Then it was time. The plane's two engines fired, and Earhart lifted off, flying east, into the sun, into history.

There is even kind mention of a man who believes he has found a piece of Earhart's plane out on Nikumaroro -

One man thinks he has found a piece of her Electra on a Pacific coral reef. Everyone, it seems, has an Amelia Earhart story.

As to the child Nilla was carrying that last day of Earhart on American mainland soil -

Sally Putnam Chapman herself, born just months after her mother watched Earhart fly into the dawn sky, didn't know the full, surprising story until she read the revealing diaries kept by her grandmother Dorothy - an independent-minded woman who was both George Putnam's first wife and Amelia Earhart's close friend.

Not surprisingly, little Sally Putnam grew up on stories of Amelia Earhart.

''Amelia was the heroine of my childhood,'' she says.

Today, she is Sally Putnam Chapman, a slim, youthful woman with short, feathery blonde hair, her mother Nilla's fine-boned features and the Putnam family's love of travel and adventure

I can't tell if the woman next to Earhart is "several months pregnant" or not, but she's not "showing" if she is (I guess it varies).

Chapman herself is quoted saying that her mother was "five months pregnant" when Earhart laid a hand on her pregnant belly for a fond goodbye, and wrote of the event -

All the while she wrote, Chapman wore the silver fish pendant that Earhart had given her grandmother in 1928. (Chapman says her mother Nilla was five months pregnant with her when Earhart departed Miami for her round-the-world trip. Earhart “… reached down, gently placed her hand on Mom’s swollen belly, and whispered, ‘Take care of yourself, little one.”’) Chapman hired a secretary to type her manuscript. Later, Warner Books sent Stephanie Mansfield, who is credited as her co-author, to help organize the book. “I had just seven chapters in the book, and she said shorter chapters were better,” Chapman says.

If that's Nilla in the picture with Earhart (upstring), she certainly carried 5 months of baby very nicely.  Lovely lady.

Added below: another picture - of Nilla, with George and Amelia - looks like from newsprint, perhaps; attractive lady - hair and facial features seem different.  Circa not known except look at Amelia's outfit - looks the same as the other with the plane, down to the neck tie; AE may be in short sleeves in the airplane photo, though - her left bare arm appears visible.  The other lady, if Nilla, is sans-coat as well. 

I guess one question that comes to mind, are we certain this photo of Earhart and 'Nilla' was made in Miami, or something that was mislabeled?  Maybe silly - I guess it is a Miami Herald photo.  Reason for asking though is possibility this was made in California - the window is still very open in one view, pre-patch.

Not knowing Cochran to be in Miami may not disqualify same - but I'd agree that's a long way and perhaps a longshot. 

Anyway, all interesting as a history puzzle.

Here's Jackie Cochran with her P-51B Mustang on 24 May 1948, after setting a speed record - nearly 11 years after Earhart flew away from Miami; she was one of my aviation heroes, for sure -

[Jeff Palshook]

Ric, Thanks for posting the 2nd photo.

Bill,

The shadow from one of the antenna wires was my thought, too, after studying the 1st photo.  However, the shadow line did not look right to be the shadow of of either of the horizontal legs of the dorsal V-antenna.  Playing around with a small plastic model of the Electra convinced me this was the case -- neither leg of the dorsal V-antenna was making that shadow line.

That left the feedline from the radio transmitter to the starboard leg of the V-antenna.  Extend the shadow line down to the right from where it disappears behind Nilla's shoulder and it appears to be heading right toward the fuselage exit point for the transmitter feedline used for the 2nd world flight attempt.  (This point is almost directly below the forward edge of the navigator's window and is clearly visible in several photos taken during the 2nd world flight attempt.  The shadow line stopping at Nilla's shoulder, not continuing across her body, indicated to me the object casting the shadow must have been behind her and thus very close to the surface of the fuselage.

This was a puzzle, though, because the antenna feedline on the 2nd world flight attempt (post-Miami) ran from the fuselage penetration point upward and slightly forward to the starboard leg of the dorsal V-antenna.  If that were the case in the first photo, this feedline and/or its shadow should have been visible running upward and forward along the fuselage.  This is obviously not the case in the photo.

That left me with the tentative conclusion that the shadow line was cast be the antenna feedline, but the feedline was running upward and aft from the fuselage penetration point to the dorsal V-antenna.  This was an unknown (to me) "intermediate" configuration for the feedline -- different from the configuration used during the 1st world flight attempt, and different from the configuration used during the 2nd world flight attempt post-Miami.  With the various changes made to the Electra's radio system after the Luke Field crash (some known, some not well known or documented), including changes made while Earhart was in Miami, this intermediate configuration certainly seems like a possibility.

The 2nd photo seems to support my conclusions above about the antenna feedline configuration present when Earhart arrived in Miami.

Jeff P.

[Bruce Thomas]

Facts can be elusive things, and facts obtained from newspaper accounts always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Even Nilla’s child Sally, born December 6, 1937, stretches things a bit by saying that her mother was 5 months pregnant with Sally at the time her parents joined the others at the Miami airport on Tuesday, June 1, to bid farewell to AE and FN. By my reckoning, her mother would have only been barely 3 months pregnant at that time. That’s 12-14 weeks pregnant — and in my experience, many women at that stage are able to conceal their baby bump.

Whether the woman standing beside AE in the photo that shows the window in the lavatory area of NR16020 is the pregnant Nilla Putnam is not the important thing. An essential question is whether that photo was taken in late May 1937 as AE and FN prepared to depart for San Juan, thus showing that the lavatory window was still installed during that stop in Miami. Subsidiary questions include, “Who fabricated the patch, where was it fabricated, who installed it, and when was it installed, and why was it even done?”

Woody has called into question the identification of the woman, suggesting another person as being the one standing beside AE. That has led to legitimate questioning of the time and location of the photograph. As I recall, we’re told that the source of the photograph is the archives of the Miami Herald, but that does not guarantee who the woman was or the time and location of where it was taken.

But to repeat, an important thing is to nail down whether that window was in place when NR16020 arrived in Miami in late May 1937. So the challenge is to find other photographs taken as AE and friends flew across the U.S., from California to Arizona to Louisiana and on to Florida, showing that the lavatory window was in place during that trip.

They departed Oakland on May 20, 1937, and landed in Burbank about 6 p.m. The next afternoon they departed Burbank and landed in Tucson, Arizona about dusk, where the infamous backfire of the port engine occurred, causing AE to activate the engine fire extinguisher and her mechanic Bo having to replenish the extinguisher.

On May 22, leaving Tucson in the early morning they flew on to New Orleans and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. Then after a late morning breakfast on Sunday, May 23, the gang flew across the Gulf of Mexico, passing over Tampa and landing in Miami (at the wrong airport). Here began 8 days of preparations, involving Pan American personnel attending to autopilot and radio repairs. And, we believe, at some point the lavatory window was replaced with an aluminum covering, before the departure for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

So Forum detectives: can incontrovertible photographic evidence be found from that cross-country hop that shows the lavatory window still in place? That’s really the important point.

[Mark Pearce]

...As I recall, we’re told that the source of the photograph is the archives of the Miami Herald, but that does not guarantee who the woman was or the time and location of where it was taken.

Here is another photo of Nilla Putnam, with David Putnam, her husband.
http://books.google.com/books?id=PNzlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false

The "second picture" of AE and Nilla is reproduced in Sally Putnam Chapman's 1997 book, "Whistled like a bird: the Untold Story of Dorothy Putnam, George Putnam, and Amelia Earhart."

The caption reads; "These were the last photos taken of Amelia by G.P.P. before her flight on June 1st, 1937, at Miami."

See page 759 here-
http://www.krizma-ebooks.com/books/%20Whistled%20Like%20a%20Bird%20.pdf

[Ric Gillespie]

So Forum detectives: can incontrovertible photographic evidence be found from that cross-country hop that shows the lavatory window still in place? That’s really the important point.

Here is incontrovertible photographic proof that the window was still in place on May 21, the day AE, FN, GP and Bo McKneeley departed Burbank for Tucson.  This is one of several shots taken by a young photographer by the name of "Dusty" Carter who happened to stop by the airport that day to take some pictures and caught AE and FN loading the plane for the "sneak" beginning of the second world flight attempt.  We bought Dusty's negatives from his widow several years ago.

In the first photo below, Amelia stands near the tail talking to someone.  Fred is moving his bags from the trunk of his Terraplane roadster while his wife, Mary Bea, stands watching.
In the second photo, a Mantz Air Service truck is backed up to the cabin door and work is being done on the left engine.
In the third photo we can see the right hand side of the airplane with the window clearly visible. We can see through the window to the open cabin door. The truck is still there.

There wasn't time to replace the window during the brief overnight stops in Tucson and New Orleans, so the window had to still be present upon arrival in Miami. 

[JNev]

Facts can be elusive things, and facts obtained from newspaper accounts always need to be taken with a grain of salt. Even Nilla’s child Sally, born December 6, 1937, stretches things a bit by saying that her mother was 5 months pregnant with Sally at the time her parents joined the others at the Miami airport on Tuesday, June 1, to bid farewell to AE and FN. By my reckoning, her mother would have only been barely 3 months pregnant at that time. That’s 12-14 weeks pregnant — and in my experience, many women at that stage are able to conceal their baby bump.

Whether the woman standing beside AE in the photo that shows the window in the lavatory area of NR16020 is the pregnant Nilla Putnam is not the important thing. An essential question is whether that photo was taken in late May 1937 as AE and FN prepared to depart for San Juan, thus showing that the lavatory window was still installed during that stop in Miami. Subsidiary questions include, “Who fabricated the patch, where was it fabricated, who installed it, and when was it installed, and why was it even done?”

Woody has called into question the identification of the woman, suggesting another person as being the one standing beside AE. That has led to legitimate questioning of the time and location of the photograph. As I recall, we’re told that the source of the photograph is the archives of the Miami Herald, but that does not guarantee who the woman was or the time and location of where it was taken.

But to repeat, an important thing is to nail down whether that window was in place when NR16020 arrived in Miami in late May 1937. So the challenge is to find other photographs taken as AE and friends flew across the U.S., from California to Arizona to Louisiana and on to Florida, showing that the lavatory window was in place during that trip.

They departed Oakland on May 20, 1937, and landed in Burbank about 6 p.m. The next afternoon they departed Burbank and landed in Tucson, Arizona about dusk, where the infamous backfire of the port engine occurred, causing AE to activate the engine fire extinguisher and her mechanic Bo having to replenish the extinguisher.

On May 22, leaving Tucson in the early morning they flew on to New Orleans and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. Then after a late morning breakfast on Sunday, May 23, the gang flew across the Gulf of Mexico, passing over Tampa and landing in Miami (at the wrong airport). Here began 8 days of preparations, involving Pan American personnel attending to autopilot and radio repairs. And, we believe, at some point the lavatory window was replaced with an aluminum covering, before the departure for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

So Forum detectives: can incontrovertible photographic evidence be found from that cross-country hop that shows the lavatory window still in place? That’s really the important point.

I think the ID of the woman is interesting, that's all, Bruce.  I'm touched by the human story.

It is not crucial to the process here to know that.

It is crucial how we go about discerning salient facts, of course.  I didn't realize any question remained as to the patch suddenly appearing in Miami. Perhaps crucially, the pictures of the open window could have been anywhere the craft may have been between the time of window mod and window patch installation.  The timeline of events you've shared have been the crux of our firm understanding of that as I've understood it.

[Ric Gillespie]

Was the photo of AE and Nilla by the still-windowed Electra taken on Saturday May 29?  In this photo, AE is dressed in the same outfit she is wearing in the photos with Nilla Putnam.  The tailwheel of the Electra has been raised up to put the aircraft in flight attitude for checking the accuracy of the compass – known as swinging the compass.  Press reports establish that the compass was swung on Saturday, May 29.