Atchison's own Amelia Earhart gets the museum she deserves

Statue of Amelia Earhart featured in front of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum in Atchison Kansas/ Photo courtesy of the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum

By MATT PIKE

St. Joseph Post

A new museum in the birthplace of famous pilot Amelia Earhart is walking museum goers through the life of Earhart.

The $17 Million museum was opened in Atchison, Kansas by the Amelia Earhart Foundation.

Founder and President of the foundation Karen Seaberg says the museum is a unique mixture of history and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.)

"There are a lot of STEM museums, there are a lot of history museums, but there are rarely any that can do both," Seaberg tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.

Seaberg says the museum centers around Earhart's life and every exhibit is interactive, including a VR experience flying Earhart's plane across the Atlantic.

Visitors can try their own navigation skills to pilot a virtual reality recreation of Amelia’s historic 1932 flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (This is a ticketed experience.) The VR flight mirrors obstacles Amelia overcame to become the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean/ Photo courtesy Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum

And upstairs, Seaberg says there is even more to experience.

"You can shoot the stars, or look at the stars, just like Fred Noonan would have on the flight around the world," Seaberg says. "And you can use the sextant, you can work with radio waves, the atmospheric pressures you have all the way up to space."

Noonan was the navigator that traveled with Earhart on her journey around the world which departed on May 21, 1937.

On the Museum’s mezzanine, visitors explore how Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, flew around the globe relying on radio waves, a sextant, and quick calculations to navigate the sky. (ADA elevator available to access the mezzanine.)/ Photo courtesy Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum

Downstairs in the museum children can even dress up as Earhart in four of her different careers, which Seaberg says was a big hit with focus groups.

The museum displays the life and adventures of the pilot born in Atchison, Kansas. But it also explores the theories behind her disappearance.

Seaberg says while the museum does not focus entirely on the theories, they do have an interesting way to explore those theories

"We pick six of the (theories), there's multiple theories, but we choose six, and we give a for and against," Seaberg explains. "So, you get to see why that may have happened or was it crazy, and then at the end you actually get to vote for which of the six you believe."

Seaberg says the museum is the first of its kind and something that Atchison has never had before.

"We've had the wonderful birthplace, and it's a beautiful home museum, but as far as I know there's nothing across the nation," Seaberg says. "There are a lot of things named for Amelia Earhart all across the nation, even internationally in Derry Northern Ireland and other places, but nothing that combines the STEM and Amelia's history."

A grand opening will be held at Noon on Friday. You can find out more information about the museum HERE.

The Museum’s centerpiece is “Muriel” — the world’s last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E aircraft — identical to the plane Amelia piloted on her fateful round-the-world flight. Muriel is named after Amelia’s younger sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey/ Photo courtesy Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum

Amelia Earhart standing in front of her Lockheed Electra 10-E/ Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons