siblings: Harry Cummings Cochrane. Bly continued to produce regular exposs on New Yorks ills, such as corruption in the state legislature, unscrupulous employment agencies for domestic workers, and the black market for buying infants. Also Known As: Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Elisabeth Cochrane Seaman, place of death: New York City, United States, Notable Alumni: Indiana University Of Pennsylvania, education: Indiana University Of Pennsylvania, See the events in life of Nellie Bly in Chronological Order, (Journalist and Writer Known for Her Record-BreakingTrip Around the Worldin 72 Days), http://www.newseum.org/2015/03/17/unsung-heroes-nellie-bly/, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blynellie/p/Nellie-Bly.htm, https://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2015/01/25/Honoring-Nellie-Bly-s-trip-125-years-ago-a-British-woman-retraces-her-steps-around-the-globe/stories/201501250014, https://www.biography.com/people/nellie-bly-9216680. [70], The Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York City, was named after her, taking as its theme Around the World in Eighty Days. Her report of the horrifyingly appalling conditions prevailing inside the asylum was an eye-opener for the general public and authorities alike. A number of positive changes were made after the release of the book. In 1880, the family moved to Pittsburgh where Elizabeth supported her single mother by running a boarding house. Her first articles, on conditions among working girls in Pittsburgh, slum life, and other similar topics, marked her as a reporter of ingenuity and concern. [74] From early in the twentieth century until 1961, the Pennsylvania Railroad operated an express train named the Nellie Bly on a route between New York and Atlantic City, bypassing Philadelphia. In business, her curiosity and independent spirit flourished. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nellie-bly-9296.php. 1985.212. In an effort to accurately expose the conditions at the asylum, she pretended to be a mental patient in order to be committed to the facility, .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}where she lived for 10 days. Cochran's Mills, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story, An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster, "She went undercover to expose an insane asylum's horrors. 2022. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly. Her fathers death when she was quite young had left the Cochran family with meagre means. The most famous of Elizabeths stunts was her successful seventy-two-day trip around the world in 1889, for which she had two goals. Nicols Enrquez de Vargas (artist), Portrait of Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz, ca. In it, she explained that New York City invested more money into care for the mentally ill after her articles were published. [45] The winning proposal, The Girl Puzzle by Amanda Matthews, was announced on October 16, 2019. Blys husband died in 1903, leaving her in control of the massive Iron Clad Manufacturing Company and. Chicago- Norwood, Arlisha and Mariana Brandman. Engraving. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. By Barbara Maranzani Updated: Nov 12, 2020. History 101: Nellie Bly. Bly continued to publish influential pieces of journalism, including interviews with prominent individuals like anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman and socialist politician and labor organizer Eugene V. Debs. Unidentified African American woman in uniform, 1861. https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/learn/women-forging-way/nellie-bly-around-the-world, Ten Days in the Madhouse. A Celebration of Women Writers. Given the green light to try the feat by the New York World, Bly embarked on her journey from Hoboken, New Jersey, in November 1889, traveling first by ship and later also via horse, rickshaw, sampan, burro and other vehicles. It was one of the few things that helped set her apart from her 14 siblings. In early 2019, Lifetime released a thriller based on Bly's experience as an undercover reporter in a women's mental ward. How many siblings did Emily Dickinson have? The majority of her writings were literary works. [48], Bly was the subject of the 1946 Broadway musical Nellie Bly by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. Bly switched back to reporting, later on writing stories on Europe's Eastern Front during World War I and the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913. [47], The New York Press Club confers an annual Nellie Bly Cub Reporter journalism award to acknowledge the best journalistic effort by an individual with three years or fewer of professional experience. To escape writing about womens issues on the society page, Elizabeth volunteered to travel to Mexico. Activist journalists like Elizabethcommonly known as muckrakerswere an important part of reform movements. Following her marriage, she retired from journalism and became the president of her husband's Iron Clad Manufacturing Company. A steam tug named after Bly served as a fireboat in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. However, after his death, the family . Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nellie Bly was famed for pioneering new investigative journalism when she worked as an undercover journalist in New York's most notorious mental institution. [20] Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper the New York World and took an undercover assignment for which she agreed to feign insanity to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, now named Roosevelt Island. Date accessed. In 1880, her mother moved the family to Pittsburg, and Nellie Bly caught the eye of "The Pittsburg Dispatch" editor George Madden, when she wrote a response to the article "What Girls Are Good For." Michael had 10 children with his first wife, and he had 5 children with his second wife. Nellie Bly was an unwavering advocate for social change, a journalistic dynamo, and a force of nature. Bly's future began to look brighter in the early 1880s, when, at the age of 18, she submitted a racy response to an editorial piece that had been published in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. In the piece, writer Erasmus Wilson (known to Dispatch readers as the "Quiet Observer," or Q.O.) Seaman died in 1904, and Bly took over his firm, the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company. Nellie started boarding school but had to drop out after only one term since her parents did not have enough money to pay for the school. But Bly held the record for only a few months before it was broken by businessman George Francis Train who completed the journey in 67 days. How many siblings did Victoria Woodhull have? Sherwood, D., Gabriel, R., Brescovit, A. D. & Lucas, S. M. (2022). Her father had ten children from his first marriage and five children from his second marriage to Elizabeths mother, Mary Jane Kennedy. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html, Janet Yellen: The Progress of Women and Minorities in the Field of Economics, Elinor Lin Ostrom, Nobel Prize Economist, Chronicles of American Women: Your History Makers, Women Writing History: A Coronavirus Journaling Project, We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist DC, Learning Resources on Women's Political Participation, https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601472, https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/modern-womanhood/nellie-bly/, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/28/she-went-undercover-expose-an-insane-asylums-horrors-now-nellie-bly-is-getting-her-due/, https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/learn/women-forging-way/nellie-bly-around-the-world. To sustain interest in the story, the World organized a "Nellie Bly Guessing Match" in which readers were asked to estimate Bly's arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip. Nellie Bly gained international stardom for her world tour stunt that multiplied her fame. New-York Historical Society Library. Unfortunately, Bly did not manage the finances well and fell victim to fraud by employees that led the firm to declare bankruptcy. Read free previews and reviews from booklovers. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, D.C. McLoughlin Bros., Round the World with Nellie Bly, 1890. Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore (February 11, 1861 - January 6, 1929) was an American journalist and author, perhaps now best known for her 1889-1890 race around the world against Nellie Bly, which drew worldwide attention. Her New York debut, at age 23, was a harrowing two-part expos of the Woman's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's (now Roosevelt) Island for which she had feigned insanity and fooled a battalion of Bellevue doctors and curious reporters from competing papers to get inside. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1889-11-14/ed-3/seq-1/, By: Arlisha R. Norwood, NWHM Fellow; Updated by: Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Womens History | 2020-2022. After ten days, the asylum released Bly at The World's behest. How many siblings did Mary Livermore have? She also prioritized the welfare of the employees, providing health care benefits and recreational facilities. Nellie Bly was ousted from Mexico after she ran a series of articles criticizing the Mexican dictator and ruler, Porfirio Diaz. The Girl Puzzle Monument honoring activist and journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, pen name Nellie Bly (1864-1922), is a public sculptural installation by American artist Amanda Matthews, CEO/Partner of Prometheus Art Bronze Foundry and Metal Fabrication.The installation is located on the northern tip of Roosevelt Island in Lighthouse Park (named after the Blackwell Island Light) in the New . [9] In 1879, she enrolled at Indiana Normal School (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania) for one term but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds. In her later years, Bly returned to journalism, covering World War I from Europe and continuing to shed light on major issues that impacted women. Elizabeth Cochran was born on May 5, 1864 in Cochrans Mills, Pennsylvania. In 1885, Bly began working as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch at a rate of $5 per week. One of her first undertakings for that paper was to get herself committed to the asylum on Blackwells (now Roosevelt) Island by feigning insanity. Between 1889 and 1895 she wrote eleven novels. Her trip around the world in 72 days brought her even further fame. At 15, Bly enrolled at the State Normal School in Indiana, Pennsylvania. What might she have been able to do that men could not? After the fanfare of her trip around the world, Bly quit reporting and took a lucrative job writing serial novels for publisher Norman Munro's weekly New York Family Story Paper. How many siblings did Patricia Bath have? Faced with such dwindling finances, Bly consequently re-entered the newspaper industry. Ten Days in a Mad-House was a raging success and brought Nellie Bly immense fame and recognition as a writer and civil rights activist. Nellie (her pen name) is the best known of these children, and there is not much information about her 14 siblings. [36], Bly was, however, an inventor in her own right, receiving U.S. Patent 697,553 for a novel milk can and U.S. Patent 703,711 for a stacking garbage can, both under her married name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman. She covered a number of national news stories, including the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth often referred to suffrage in her articles, arguing that women were as capable as men in all things. Her reporting introduced readers to the horrors of insane asylums and to international travel. [53] In 2019, the Center for Investigative Reporting released Nellie Bly Makes the News, a short animated biographical film. Still only 21, she was determined "to do something no girl has done before. [57], Bly has been the subject of two episodes of the Comedy Central series Drunk History. Nellie Bly: Around the World in 72 Days. Senator John Heinz History Center. [34] Due to her husband's failing health, she left journalism and succeeded her husband as head of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., which made steel containers such as milk cans and boilers. How many children did Laura Ingalls Wilder have? How might Elizabeths position as a woman have helped her investigative reporting? When Cochrane introduced herself to the editor, he offered her the opportunity to write a piece for the newspaper, again under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl". She began her career in 1885 in her native Pennsylvania as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, to which she had sent an angry letter to the editor in response to an article the newspaper had printed entitled What Girls Are Good For (not much, according to the article). Death date: January 27, 1922. Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran (she later added an "e" to the end of her name) on May 5, 1864, in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. Nellie Bly had 14 siblings (10 half-siblings; 4 full blooded siblings). She stayed there until the World rescued her ten days later. [43][44], In 2019, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation put out an open call for artists to create a Nellie Bly Memorial art installation on Roosevelt Island. She is also well-known for making a trip around the world for a record 72 days, beating a fictitious record that had been set by . Though most of her works were based on throwing light at the appalling condition of women in the society, and the need to uplift them, she is best remembered for her work on an asylum expos in 1887 in which she faked insanity to get into a mental asylum and reported about the horrific condition of the mental patients. She was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. Before becoming an investigative journalist and travelling around the world in 72 days, Nellie Bly had a childhood. This is a short thirty-minute lesson on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. [28] Bly's journey was a world record, though it only stood for a few months, until George Francis Train completed the journey in 67 days.[31]. In 1889, the paper sent her on a trip around the world in a record-setting 72 days. [19] When Mexican authorities learned of Bly's report, they threatened her with arrest, prompting her to flee the country. Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 - January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist, who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Verne 's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an expos in which she worked undercover to How many siblings did Queen Liliuokalani have? The town was founded by her father, Judge Michael Cochran. Between 1889 and 1895, Nellie Bly also penned twelve novels for The New York Family Story Paper. Bly went on to gain more fame in 1889, when she traveled around the world in an attempt to break the faux record of Phileas Fogg, the fictional title character of Jules Verne's 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. After the company suffered losses from embezzlement, Bly returned to journalism and reported from Europe during World War I. Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864 in Cochran's Mill, Pennsylvania. "Bly, Nellie (1864-1922), reporter and manufacturer." Though New York World continuously covered her travel diaries, it was later in 1890 that Bly published a book about the experience, titling it Around the World in 72 Days. Nellie Bly PBS: American Experience, Accessed 23 March 23, 2017 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/peopleevents/pande01.html, Life Story: Elizabeth Cochrane, aka Nellie Bly (1864-1922), Women & The American Story, New-York Historical Society Library and Museum, https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/modern-womanhood/nellie-bly/. Elizabeth positioned herself as an investigative reporter. During World War I, she traveled to Europe as the first woman to report from the trenches on the front line. [2], Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born May 5, 1864,[3] in "Cochran's Mills", now part of Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Toshiko Akiyoshi changed the face of jazz music over her sixty-year career. Elizabeth hoped the massive newspaper industry of New York City would be more open-minded to a female journalist and left Pittsburgh. Blys successful career reached new heights in 1889 when she decided to travel around the world after reading the popular book by Jules Verne, At the age of 30, Bly married millionaire Robert Seamen and retired from journalism. The investigative nature of her articles and her cry for womens rights issues did not go too well with the editors of the newspaper who pushed her into the so-called women's pages to cover fashion, society, and gardening.