Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864, in Pennsylvania, was a pioneering American journalist known for her groundbreaking investigative reporting. After a challenging childhood marked by her father's sudden death and financial hardships, Bly began her career in journalism by responding to a derogatory editorial about women, which led her to work for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. She gained fame for her undercover investigations, notably exposing the deplorable conditions at the Women's Lunatic Asylum in New York City through her article "Behind Asylum Walls," which prompted reforms in the treatment of patients.
Bly is also celebrated for her adventurous spirit, exemplified by her record-breaking journey around the world in 1889, completing the trip in 72 days, an endeavor inspired by Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg. Throughout her career, Bly advocated for women's rights and challenged societal norms, making significant contributions to journalism at a time when few women were in the field. After a brief retirement following her marriage to a millionaire, she returned to journalism later in life, continuing to address important social issues until her death in 1922. Bly's work left a lasting impact on investigative reporting and women's roles in the workforce.
Nellie Bly
Investigative reporter, writer
- Born: May 5, 1864
- Birthplace: Cochran's Mill, Pennsylvania
- Died: January 27, 1922
- Place of death: New York, New York
Also known as: Elizabeth Cochran; Elizabeth Cochrane; Elizabeth Jane Cochran; Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman; Elizabeth Seaman
Education: Attended Indiana Normal School
Significance: Nellie Bly is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cochran. Bly was the most famous investigative reporter of her time. She is best known for going undercover to write about the terrible treatment of patients in an insane asylum and beating an around-the-world record set by Phileas Fogg, the fictional hero of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days.
Background
Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864, in Cochran's Mill, Pennsylvania, a town named after her father, Michael Cochran, a judge and the owner of a successful mill. Bly's father had five children with her mother, Mary, and ten children from a previous marriage.
Bly's father passed away suddenly when she was six. He did not have a will, so Bly's family had no legal claim to his estate and was left with very little money. Bly's mother remarried but divorced because of abuse.
In part to financially support her mother, Bly wanted to go to college. She enrolled in Indiana Normal School in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to study education and become a teacher. However, she had to leave before graduating because she could not afford tuition. She moved with her mother to nearby Pittsburgh to run a boardinghouse.
When Bly was eighteen, she read an editorial in the Pittsburgh Dispatch that made her furious. In "What Girls Are Good For," the writer, Erasmus Wilson, claimed that women had no business working outside the home and should limit their pursuits to cleaning, cooking, and caring for children. He even referred to a working woman as "a monstrosity." Bly wrote a scathing rebuttal to his editorial and signed it "Little Orphan Girl." George Madden, the newspaper's managing editor, printed her rebuttal and was so impressed with her writing that he ran an ad asking Little Orphan Girl to come into the newsroom. Bly did, and Madden offered her a job as a reporter for five dollars a week. At this point, Elizabeth Cochran began using the pen name Nellie Bly, which was based on the title of a popular song released in 1849 by Stephen Foster.
Life's Work
Bly was excited to land a job as a newspaper reporter. She became known for her investigative reporting, for which she often went undercover. She took a job in a bottle factory to expose the poor working conditions there. Based on her mother's experience, Bly wrote about how women were disadvantaged during a divorce. In 1886, she traveled to Mexico to report on corruption and poverty there. Her articles angered Mexican officials, who forced her to leave the country. These articles were later published as Six Months in Mexico (1888).
Bly's reporting captivated readers but angered some business owners, who threatened to pull their advertising from the paper unless Bly was reassigned. Bly was told to write an article about gardening—she wrote the article and handed it in along with her resignation.
Bly then moved to New York City, which had many newspapers, but she struggled to find work. In September 1887, after four months without a job, she received a trial assignment from an editor for the prestigious New York World.
The paper had received complaints about the way patients were being treated at the Women's Lunatic Asylum, a mental hospital on Blackwell's Island in New York City. The editor wanted Bly to get herself committed to the asylum to see what the conditions were like there and then write about them. Bly checked into a boardinghouse and began talking to herself and acting paranoid. Some other residents at the boardinghouse complained about her erratic behavior, and a doctor committed her to the Women's Lunatic Asylum, where she would have to stay for ten days.
The conditions at the asylum were worse than Bly had ever imagined. The place was filthy and infested with rats. Nurses beat and choked patients, who received rancid food to eat and filthy water to drink. Patients were forced to bathe in ice water, and their uniforms were washed only once a month.
When she was released, Bly wrote the exposé "Behind Asylum Walls." "Inside the Madhouse" was published a week later. The articles were enormously successful—both editions in which they appeared sold out. Bly's reporting captured the attention of city officials, including the mayor. Because of her writing, the asylum received additional funds, hired better nurses, reduced the patient population, and gave the patients better food and care. For her outstanding work, Nellie landed a job as a reporter for the New York World.
In 1889, Nellie decided to race around the world in record time and write about her experience. Her goal was to beat a record set by Phileas Fogg, a fictional character in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Bly's newspaper gave her permission to embark on the journey, and she set sail. The New York World kept readers up to speed by printing articles daily. It also held a contest offering a prize to the person who came closest to guessing how long it would take Bly to circle the globe. Nearly one million people entered the contest. Traveling by ship, train, horse, and burro, Bly beat Fogg's 80-day record—she made the trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 4 seconds.
When she was thirty, Bly married Robert Seaman, a millionaire, and retired from journalism. When Seaman died in 1904, Bly ran his enormous iron-manufacturing company. She returned to journalism in her later years, writing about the Pullman Strike, women's issues, and World War I. Bly died of pneumonia in 1922 at the age of fifty-seven.
Impact
Bly was a groundbreaking investigative reporter at a time when women seldom worked outside the home. By going undercover to reveal the truth, Bly changed the way newspaper reporters performed their job. She also fought for women to have the same opportunities as men.
Personal Life
Bly had four siblings and ten half-siblings. She married Robert Livingston Seaman on April 5, 1895. Seaman was seventy at the time of their marriage; Bly was thirty. Seaman died in 1904. Bly adopted a child when she was fifty-seven.
Principal Works
- Ten Days in a Mad-House, 1887
- Six Months in Mexico, 1888
- The Mystery in Central Park, 1889
- Nellie Bly's Book: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, 1890
Bibliography
Bradner, Liesl. "Nellie Bly: Crusading Troublemaker." HistoryNet, www.historynet.com/nellie-bly-troublemaker.htm. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Edwards, Phil. "How Nellie Bly Became a Victorian Sensation and Changed Journalism Forever." Vox, 5 May 2015, www.vox.com/2015/5/5/8548361/nellie-bly-journalist. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Kroeger, Brooke. "Bly, Nellie." American National Biography, 2000, www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1601472. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Kroeger, Brooke. Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. Crown, 1992.
"Nellie Bly." The Famous People, www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nellie-bly-9296.php. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Norwood, Arlisha R. "Nellie Bly." National Women's History Museum, 2017, www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.
Schneider, Marcia. First Woman of the News. Sra, 1993.
Wertz, Julia. "Nellie Bly: The Intrepid Journalist." New Yorker, 29 Sept. 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/nellie-bly-the-intrepid-journalist. Accessed 16 Jan. 2018.