and most American universities were scarce. Elliott realized that the more professional women to revere and admire amid the redbrick and limestone buildings of Purdue, the more female students would be drawn to its campus. If those role models were world-famous, that would be an added coup.
Purdue had its first full-time Dean of Women Dorothy Stratton, a grand Women’s Residence Hall with dynamic Director Helen Schleman, and now the University needed a woman to advise and teach science and put the campus on the atlas around the globe. What better woman than one who piloted her own plane across that globe—Amelia Earhart.
It has been said that Elliott had a flare for the dramatic and was always on the alert for ways to stimulate and inspire students to greater aspirations and accomplishments. A meeting with Amelia sparked a flash of brilliance.
In 1934, Amelia was a speaker at the annual Women and the Changing World Conference sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune. By then, Amelia had claimed many flying firsts. She was the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger. She piloted over the Atlantic alone, and she became the first person to cross twice. Additionally, she set the women’s record for fastest nonstop transcontinental flight. Amelia was a successful author and little-known poetess, who took Eleanor Roosevelt on a night flight to go “skylarking” and became a beacon of hope to unemployed struggling families during the Great Depression.
Elliott also was a speaker at the conference, and he was seated next to Amelia at Mrs. Ogden (Helen) Reid’s luncheon. Ogden Reid’s family owned the New York Herald Tribune. Mrs. Reid was the vice president of the newspaper and a good friend with Marie Mattingly Meloney, who introduced Amelia before she spoke. Meloney was one of the leading United States female journalists, having written for numerous renowned publications including the Washington Post and the Herald Tribune. Both she and Mrs. Reid ran in the same circles as magnificent, powerful women. In the 1920s, Meloney organized a fund drive to buy radium for Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Noble Prize, and she was a friend and confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt. Meloney announced Amelia: “I present to you evidence against a ‘lost generation.’ For I remind you that no generation which could produce Amelia Earhart can be called a lost generation. She has set the pace for those of her age and her time. She has never been content to rest on her laurels. She has worked, and is working, and will continue to work hard to further the science to which she has dedicated her life.”
Amelia’s introduction alone could have been the flicker to fan a flame in Elliott’s mind. An idea crystallized, and later that evening Elliott dined with Amelia and her husband, George Palmer Putnam, at the Coffee House Club in New York. The private social club was located in the Hotel Seymour, where the couple lived in the theater district. Established in 1914, the name of the club was a nod to the coffee houses that first appeared in London and were “patronized by all the wits and talent of the town.” The club was not pretentious but intentionally “very simple and cheap.” Some of the early members were Winston Churchill, Douglas Fairbanks, Herbert Hoover, and Purdue alumnus George Barr McCutcheon.
Putnam described Elliott in his book, Soaring Wings, written in 1940 after Amelia’s death. In the chapter he titled simply “Purdue,” Putnam states: “He is a lean, powerful man who combines the brisk attributes of a dynamo with the important qualities of scholarship and human vision. He has a habit of referring to himself, with humorous deprecation, as just a Hoosier schoolmaster, but no gentleman from Indiana ever knew his way about more competently than Dr. Elliott.”
Putnam goes on to write about the Coffee House Club setting in which a fateful deal was struck between Amelia and Elliott: “That evening we three had to ourselves what I imagine is the most civilized and homely clubroom in America. We sat at a little table in that first-floor front room with its books and paintings, the grand piano and diminutive stage where some of the most lively capers of theatrical tomfoolery in our time have been presented … the setting was superlatively pleasant for the launching of any project.”
After the three ate dinner, Putnam and Amelia sat on a clubhouse couch while Elliott sat in a chair facing the couple. He smiled and got to the point: “We want you at Purdue.”
“I’d like that,” Amelia said, without hesitation. “If it can be arranged. What do you think I should do?”
Elliott told Amelia that Purdue had six thousand enrolled students, of whom eight hundred were women. He said, “We’ve a feeling the girls aren’t keeping abreast of the inspirational opportunities of the day nearly as well as might be.”
For two hours into the night, the three discussed the idea of Amelia coming to Purdue and how she could work with the female students. Then Elliott had to catch a midnight train from Grand Central Station to head to a morning conference. The plan was settled. Amelia would spend as much time as she was able at Purdue, which for such a busy woman would total about six to seven weeks out of the academic year. For Amelia, one of the attractive qualities of Purdue was that it was the only university in the United States with its own fully equipped airport for day and night flying. Amelia would have a free hand in “ventilating” her philosophies to Purdue’s women students as a counselor and also as an advisor in aeronautics.
In June 1935, Elliott announced the appointment: “Miss Earhart represents better than any other young woman of this generation the spirit and the courageous skill of what may be called the new pioneering. At no point in our educational system is there greater need for pioneering and constructive planning than in education for women. The University believes that Amelia Earhart will help us to see and to attack successfully many unsolved problems.”
That fall, Amelia became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University and began her friendship with Dean of Women Dorothy Stratton and Women’s Residence Hall Director Helen Schleman. Years later, Helen said of Elliott’s methods:
We used to joke, albeit very respectfully, that sometimes President Elliott hired a person he knew would be great to have on campus and then wrote the job description later. Sometime this aspect of the agreement between the university and the new personality, if it happened to be a feminine one, fell to the Dean of Women to fashion. This was largely true in the case of Miss Earhart. Dean Stratton, with her rapport with student groups of all kinds, saw to it that women students had all possible opportunities for contacts with Amelia Earhart.
On September 21, 1935, Dorothy wrote a letter to President Elliott outlining how she believed the aviatrix could be most effective on campus. She suggested that Amelia meet informally with students as well as talk to groups. Amelia could be of service through conferences with individuals and with families, where she could highlight new progress and opportunities for women. Dorothy penned:
It seems to me that one of the best ways to provide for informal student contacts with Miss Earhart would be for her to live in the Women’s Residence Hall during at least part of her stay on the campus.… In order to introduce Miss Earhart informally to the campus, it would be my suggestion that the Women’s Self-Government Association and the Student Senate arrange a meeting in the Union Building.…
Miss Earhart has no doubt made considerable study of the careers for women and would welcome opportunities to discuss this problem with students.
Helen wrote Amelia at her home at the Hotel Seymour in New York City on September 7, 1935, inviting her to stay in the Women’s Residence Hall. It is curious that Helen corresponded with Amelia prior to Dorothy sending her letter to Elliott that suggested Amelia live in the residence hall. Helen sent copies of her letter to President Elliott and Dorothy. She wrote:
My Dear Miss Earhart,
The Women of the Residence Hall should like to extend to you an invitation to be their guest while you are in Lafayette. We have a very nice guest room with private bath, located on the first floor, and we should be very glad to have you use this room at your convenience while you are with the University. We thought perhaps that such an arrangement might give you the opportunity of knowing the freshman women particularly well and we are sure that they would gain much from whatever casual contact they might have with you while you are in the house as a guest.
All of the women of the University are looking forward to your coming and we