According to the Kansas City Star, Congress will pay tribute to the pilot, who made history in 1932 as the first woman to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, in a statue dedication ceremony July 27 at the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall of Kansas, where Earhart was born in 1898, announced the event in a news release Monday, KWCH-TV reported.
“A bold and inspiring aviator, Amelia Earhart soared into the history books, setting flight records and breaking barriers,” Moran said in a statement. “She led the way for thousands of women to pursue their dreams – whether that was in aviation or to break their own, new barriers. Next month, the statue of Amelia Earhart will join President Dwight D. Eisenhower as bronze beacons representing Kansas in our nation’s capital.”
Marshall called Earhart “a true Kansas pioneer who exemplifies our state motto: Ad Astra Per Aspera – To The Stars with Difficulty,” according to the release.
BREAKING: The statue of Amelia Earhart will officially be placed in the United States Capitol. The Congressional Statue Dedication Ceremony will take place in the Capitol on July 27. pic.twitter.com/iFPjWVt0cz
The Capitol’s collection features 100 statues, including two from each state, the release said. Although Kansas was originally represented by statues of abolitionist Sen. John James Ingalls and former Gov. George Washington Glick, the state’s Legislature decided more than two decades ago to send figures of Eisenhower and Earhart instead, the Star reported. Eisenhower’s statue was unveiled in 2003, according to the newspaper.
A museum about Earhart, who vanished along with navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world, is slated to open next year in Atchison, where she was born, the Star reported.
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Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years Here are some memorable photos of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared during a 1937 flight. A statue of Earhart will be placed in the U.S. Capitol in July 2022. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1918: File photo of Amelia Earhart when she graduated from Ogontz School in Philadelphia in 1918. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1928: In a June 26, 1928, file photo, American aviator Amelia Earhart poses with flowers as she arrives in Southampton, England, after her transatlantic flight on the "Friendship" from Burry Point, Wales. (AP Photo, File)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years Circa 1929: Amelia Earhart waves from the cockpit of her plane circa 1929. (Getty Images)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1931: Amelia Earhart is shown at the controls of her plane, nicknamed the "Flying Laboratory," on July 3, 1931. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1932: Andrew Mellon, U.S. ambassador to Court of St. James, offers congratulations to Amelia Earhart Putnam as the famous aviator arrives in London on May 22, 1932. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1932: Amelia Earhart, the transatlantic flyer, is shown in Cherbourg, France, on June 10, 1932, when she arrived there to meet her husband, George Palmer Putnam, the publisher, who went over to Europe to join her after her transatlantic flight. Miss Earhart is being presented with a bouquet by M. Quonium, president of the chamber of commerce there. Putnam is at her left. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1932: Mayor James J. Walker awarded the special city medal to Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam, in recognition of her record transatlantic solo flight at the City Hall, in New York on June 20, 1932. The scene duplicated the reception accorded her four years ago when she returned from a flight across the Atlantic as a passenger in a tri-motored plane. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1932: American aircraft pilot Amelia Earhart receives the National Geographic Medal by U.S. President Herbert Hoover, in honor of her transatlantic flight, on June 21, 1932, at the White House lawn in Washington, D.C. Standing on the left is Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the National Geographic Society, on the right is first lady Lou Henry Hoover watching the scene. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1932: Amelia Earhart Putnam came to Providence, Rhode Island, on Nov. 5, 1932, to see her stepson, David B. Putnam, play football with the Brown freshman team against Columbia. The group at their hotel in Providence; left to right: Mrs. Putnam, David B. Putnam and his father, George Palmer Putnam. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1933: Three trans-Atlantic flyers were the guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., July 30, 1933, when the Flying Mollisons and Amelia Earhart came for a visit. Standing on the lawn, from left: Mrs. Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Jim Mollison, his wife Amy Johnson and President Roosevelt. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1935: In this Jan. 13, 1935, file photo, American aviator Amelia Earhart climbs from the cockpit of her plane at Los Angeles after a flight from Oakland to visit her mother. (AP Photo, File)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1936: Amelia Earhart is talking with her husband, George Palmer Putnam, right, and friends in New York, Sept. 4, 1936, before she took of from Floyd Bennett field for Los Angeles in the Bendix Trophy race. (AP Photo)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1937: In this May 1937 file photo, aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, stand in front of their twin-engine Lockheed Electra airplane in Los Angeles, prior to their historic flight in which Earhart was attempting to become first female pilot to circle the globe. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared in the South Pacific in July 1937. (AP Photo/File)
Photos: Amelia Earhart through the years 1937: In this file photo taken on or about July 2, 1937, American aviator Amelia Earhart, left, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, right, pose beside their plane with gold miner F.C. Jacobs at Lae, New Guinea just before Earhart and Noonan took off in a flight to Howland Island on July 2, during which they disappeared somewhere in the Pacific. (AP Photo, File)
