EARHART LETTER TO HER MOTHER USED TO HARVEST EARHART'S DNA.
EARHART, AMELIA. 1897-1937. Autograph Letter Signed ('A.') to her mother Amy Otis Earhart written in-flight on United Airlines letterhead, 2 pp, 260 x 185 mm, on United Airlines letterhead, sent from Omaha, NE, May 18, 1936, with original transmittal envelope and stamp.
Provenance: Estate of Earhart scholars Elgen M. and Maria K. Long.

EARHART WRITES TO HER MOTHER FROM THE AIR, and urges her to tell Amelia's cousin Nancy [Balis Morse] the story of her own mother's 'wanting to be a nurse and didn't have enough something to overcome opposition.' Nancy would graduate from NYU School of Nursing and become a nurse in 1939.

Interestingly, this letter from the collection of Elgen Long was used to extract DNA from saliva remnants on the stamp and the seal, in order to build a DNA profile of Earhart. Long and others have believed that Earhart and her navigator survived for a time on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro, and hoped to compare the DNA to bones found there.