Amelia Earhart Had No Time For Outdated Surname Standards | HuffPost Women - Action News
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Posted: 2017-07-13T20:11:59Z | Updated: 2017-07-13T20:11:59Z

Acclaimed aviator Amelia Earhart did not like the press swapping out her professional name for her married one, and she had no problem telling The New York Times to cut it out.

In a May 1932 letter shared by The Times on Thursday, Earhart called out the paper for referring to her as Mrs. Putnam in its columns after she married book publisher George Palmer Putnam.

Despite the mild expression of my wishes, and those of [Putnam], I am constantly referred to as Mrs. Putnam when the Times mentions me in its columns.

I admit I have no principle to uphold in asking that I be called by my professional name in print. However, it is for many reasons more convenient for both of us to be simply Amelia Earhart. After all (here may be a principle) I believe flyers should be permitted the same privileges as writers or actresses.

Earhart addressed the letter to to then-publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger shortly after she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In Thursdays revisiting of the letter, The Times admits its 1932 editors initially seemed deaf to her request but began honoring it consistently that July.