Nellie Bly is one of the women I am writing about
for my biography series on Intrepid Women for middle grade readers.
In 1864, Elizabeth Cochran
Seaman was born into a well-to-do family outside of Pittsburgh. She changed the
spelling of her surname to “Cochrane” while in boarding school because she
thought it was more sophisticated. Because of her clothing color of choice, she
was known as Pink or Pinky to family and friends.
When her father died she
had to quit boarding school since the family money was gone. The family
struggled for many years and Pink tried various things to help support the
family. Little did she expect that her response to a newspaper article would
set her on her life’s path. She had little formal schooling
In 1880, when Pink was sixteen,
she was upset by a newspaper column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled, “What Are
Girls Good For?”. Pink took exception to the relegation of women to the
barefoot-and-pregnant role, dismissing their worth outside the home. Her
response to the article impressed the editor and he offered her a reporting
job.
At the time, the few women
newspaper reporters wrote articles about housekeeping, gardening, and social
events. But Elizabeth, renamed by her editor as Nellie Bly, was assigned to
write topics on women’s issues and wider issues. At one point, she traveled to
Mexico reporting on corruption and the poverty of the Mexican people. These
artciles were collected and subsequently published in a book as Six Months in Mexico.
In 1887, Nellie left
Pittsburgh and headed for New York City. She approached Joseph Pulitizer’s New York World for a reporter position.
One of her first investigations was undercover at Blackwell’s Island where an
infamous women’s insane asylum was located. Details of what happened at the
asylum were shrouded in mystery since few ever were released. Nellie fooled a
panel of psychiatrists and got herself committed for ten days to the Women’s
Lunatic Asylum.
At the end of the ten days,
Nellie wrote a series of articles for The
World (later collected and published as the book, Ten Days in a Mad-House) that led to a grand jury investigation of
the abusive, unsanitary conditions. The grand jury ordered the changes she had
suggested and called for increased funding for the mentally ill as well as more
thorough examinations before commitment.
In 1888, Nellie suggested
to her editor that they capitalize on the popularity of Jules Verne’s Around
the World in 80 Days and send her around the world in a race against another
woman reporter from a competing newspaper. Both wanted to beat Phileas Fogg’s
record (the protagonist in the book) and one another. They took off in opposite
directions and reported on their separate progress. The world watched with
great interest, particularly since The
World offered a Grand Prize of a European trip to the person who guessed
Nellie’s arrival time. Over a million people entered the contest.
On the last leg, the paper
transported her from San Francisco to New York City by train. She took 72 days,
6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds to circumnavigate the world. She beat the
other reporter by four and a half days. Nellie published her adventures, Nellie Bly’s Book: Around the World in
Seventy-Two Days and people played the Nellie Bly board game of her trip.
She was the most famous woman reporter in the world.
Nellie’s life took another
turn when she married millionaire business man, Robert Seaman in 1895. She was
only 31 years old and had accomplished so much. Robert was forty years older
than she and died in 1904. They reportedly had a happy marriage and Nellie left
reporting for her new life.
After Robert died, Nellie
lost her husband’s fortune through fraudulent dealings from her employees. But
she was still one of the world’s leading women industrialists, obtaining two
patents for her inventions, a new kind of milk can and a stacking garbage can.
Still it was not enough to support her so she returned to reporting.
She wrote stories about
World War I’s Eastern Front and reported on the Women’s Suffrage Parade of
1913. She accurately predicted that it would be 1920 before women would get the
right to vote.
Nellie contracted pneumonia
in 1922 and died in a New York hospital at age 57.
Bloggers need readers. If
you found this post interesting would you spread the word and the link? Thanks
so much!
Facebook:
Nellie Bly was an intrepid woman whose life adventures are amazing. Journalist,
inventor, social reformer, and travel-record breaker. Everything she attempted
was larger than life. See more at Caroline Adams Writer http://bit.ly/2gOvc7i
Twitter:
Nellie Bly: original daring girl reporter—in the late 19th century.
Read @Caroline_Adams9 for her accomplishments http://bit.ly/2gOvc7i
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