Földvári Books

Amelia Earhart in Saint-Louis, Senegal, June 8, 1937

[Earhart, Amelia]; [Conti, Anita]

[Aviation / Oceanography Pioneers] Private Photo Album with Images of Amelia Earhart, and Anita Conti.

[France / Africa]: [1937–1949]. Contemporary photo album in leather binding. More than 210 black and white photos, the majority captioned with typewritten labels. Picture size varies, the majority are 65 × 90 mm; some are up to 180 × 130 mm. . 19 album card leaves with photographs (and 5 blank). One photo was removed. Otherwise in fine condition.

13 unpublished photos of Amelia Earhart in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and a photo of Anita Conti, the pioneer French female oceanographer.

Interesting private photo album of a French Colonial commissioner in Africa (Mr. Moiret), with more than 210 contemporary black and white photographs taken mostly in French West Africa. Among them thirteen unpublished photos of the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in Saint-Louis; an inscribed photo of Anita Conti the first French female oceanographer; an original photograph of a Senegalese woman used as the illustration of a noted local postal stamp in 1938; besides several images of different aircraft, and various colonial themes.

The album starts with thirteen hitherto unknown images of Amelia Earhart taken in Saint-Louis, Senegal (French West Africa) on June 8, 1937, after setting a 13 hours and 22 minutes time record for the 1,900 miles of the eastward South Atlantic crossing from Natal, Brazil to the coasts of West Africa, part of her ill-fated second attempt of circumnavigational flight. Due to navigational errors and the weather circumstances on their South Atlantic crossing from Brazil, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan missed Dakar, their original destination in West Africa, and landed eventually some one hundred miles to the north in Saint-Louis, Senegal on June 7, 1937. As the arrival to this city was unexpected there was no official press coverage, only amateur photos were taken by the few local French officers who greeted the aviators. Besides the present ones, we couldn’t find any other photographic records of Amelia Earhart in Saint-Louis. The photos were taken in the morning on June 8, before Earhart's flight forward to Dakar, showing the aviation pioneer in short sleeve checkered shirt around her twin-motored Lockheed (Model 10E) Electra, and the local French officers.

Another important piece of the album is Anita Conti’s inscribed portrait. This is the only colored picture of the collection, and it shows the first French female oceanographer with a huge manta ray hanging next to her in a fishing net, among local people in a fishing port. The picture is inscribed in ink: “Pour M. le Commissaire Moiret en grande sympathie Anita Conti 1949”. The album contains a copy of the photo picturing a half-naked Senegalese woman, wearing necklaces, and head-carrying a large pot, which image was used as the model of the illustration for a series of Senegales postal stamps published in 1938.

The rest of the album consists of images of the funeral of the victims of an aerial accident of the Béarn squadron at Kayes; several pictures of various aircraft; visits of important French colonial officials and a minister: Colonel Jean-Baptiste Marchand(?), Louis Lefebvre (Governor of Senegal) Boresy (commissioner), and Marius Moutet (Minister of the Colonies); lion hunting; different pictures from Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Dakar, Pastoria, Kindia, Louga and Kaolack; an explosion of gasoline barrels in Conakry in 1948; and some pictures of Commissioner Moiret and his wife at their home and garden.

Price: €15,000.00