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Talk:Denison House (Boston)

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Amelia Earhart's time at Denison House

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There are several conflicting sources for the dates of Earhart's employment at Denison House.

  • A Boston Globe snippet dated Sept 26, 1927 [1] announcing her as a "new" staff member.
  • The "Additional Description" section for the records of Denison House in the Schlesinger Library [2] states, "For nearly two years, starting in October 1926, Amelia Earhart was a social worker and resident at Denison House." They cite a biography: Susan Ware, Still Missing: Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1993, page 42. I don't have this book, so am relying on Google Books and the page numbers may be different in the edition I'm looking at.
  • Susan Ware, p. 39 [3] "Amelia Earhart had found her way to Denison House by way of another venerable Boston Institution, the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She used the WEIU placement bureau in 1926 to look for a better-paying position....The WEIU sent Earhart off for an interview at Denison House" where headworker Marion Perkins hired her on the spot. "In the fall of 1927 Amelia Earhart was graduated to full-time resident, and she continued her work with young girls, taught an adult education class, and organized a Syrian Mothers' Club." (emphasis mine) There's a footnote, but Google Books won't let me read it.
  • From the WEIU papers, here is AMELIA EARHART'S WEIU EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE, FRONT AND BACK, AUGUST 19, 1926: [4]

The records of Denison House [5] or the WEIU [6] might give us more information, but they're not all digitized; someone would have to go and look at the physical documents. Presumably, someone who wrote a full-length biography of Amelia Earhart - say, a notable biographer such as Susan Ware or Susan Butler (American writer) - would have done that work. It's not up to us to do original research.