In May 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman pilot to make
a solo trans-Atlantic crossing. Bad weather forced her to
abandon her plan to land in Paris, à la Charles Lindbergh, five
years earlier. Instead, she had to set down at the first
clearing she could find: a farm in Londonderry, Northern
Ireland. When a startled Dan McCallion came over to greet this
extraordinary interloper, Earhart explained, “I’ve come from
America.” “Have you now?” he replied. Slide 1 captures that
mood. The tumultuous crowds, parades, testimonial dinners, heads
of state (crowned and uncrowned) have yet to materialize. The
photographer for the London bureau of Times Wide World Photos (a
division of The New York Times until 1941) had the sense to
stand far enough from the plane to show how small the gathering
really was. The presence of a dog underscores the theme: just
another day on the farm — except for the arrival of an airplane
from America, piloted by a young woman. Slide 2 shows her
arrival at the Hanworth Airdrome near L