USCGC Itasca radio log
Document
The timed record of Earhart’s voice, including the 157–337 line. It is the central primary source for the last hour.
Evidence quality is strong for a missed island and a last radio call, and weak for a wreck site.
What survives is good enough to write the morning of 2 July and not good enough to close the map.
Exhibits
Navy and Coast Guard search reports
Archive
Ship and aircraft logs from July 1937. They document effort and the absence of confirmed wreckage.
Electra equipment and frequency notes
Technical
What radio gear NR16020 carried, and why two-way contact with Itasca failed. Communications, not conspiracy, sit in this paper.
1940 Gardner Island bones
Physical
A colonial find later lost. Surviving measurements have been re-analysed for sex and stature without a chain that can identify Earhart.
TIGHAR island exhibits
Forensic
Aluminium and camp objects offered as Electra-related. Debated in the specialist press; not certified by the United States Navy.
1939 legal-death file
Document
The California proceeding that closed the estate. It is a civil ending, not a wreck report.
How strong is the record?
Location of the wreck18
Howland ditching remains the official default; no certified airframe.
Last-hour radio record78
Itasca’s log is detailed; Earhart’s ability to hear the cutter was not.
Nikumaroro identification28
A developed private case without official acceptance.
Capture-story documentation8
Late testimony, no accepted contemporary paper.
The strongest evidence is a cutter’s log. The weakest is any claim that names a prison or a closed wreck.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.