Nellie Bly: Journalist, Pioneer, Feminist
On May 5, 1865 in Pennsylvania, a girl named Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born. She would become known, however, by a different name: Nellie Bly, a pen name which would soon be plastered across the front pages of newspapers from sea to shining sea.
Cochran got her start in 1880 with an angry letter to the editor of The Pittsburgh Dispatch, arguing against traditional gender roles on the behalf of unmarried women in her society. She was daring, she was fierce, she was ambitious, and she was full of fire. Her passionate letter resulted in employment at the paper and Elizabeth's transformation into the reporter Nellie Bly.
Nellie's first work was an article entitled "The Girl Puzzle," and then she was assigned to investigate the plight of girls working in factories. After this series of investigative articles, she was pushed to write for the "women's pages." Bly rejected this and instead undertook a six month foreign correspondence job, living in Mexico and sending articles back to The Dispatch.
Tired of the small scene offered in Pennsylvania, Nellie Bly packed up and moved to the big city in 1887, where she wrote her first big-time article-- an expose of the conditions in insane asylums. On behalf of The New York World, she posed as a crazy girl, got herself committed to an asylum, and lived there undercover for ten days. As a result of her article, regulations were tightened, institutions were investigated, and the lives of the mentally handicapped were drastically improved.
In 1889, Bly raced around the world in 72 days in a successful attempt to beat the record proposed in the popular Jules Verne novel of the day. Elizabeth Bisland of the New York Cosmopolitan also took on the race, but finished after Bly, who set a new world record. At the time during which Nellie wrote for The World, every newspaper in America wanted "a Nellie Bly" on their staff.
Eventually, she married. In 1895, Nellie Bly retired from journalism, married Robert Seaman, and became the president of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., a company which made steel containers. Following her husband's death in 1905, she, as Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, patented a novel milk can and a stacking garbage can. She was one of the leading female industrialists in the nation, but soon embezzlement by employees caused the bankruptcy of the business.
Nellie returned to journalism. She wrote on the eastern front in Europe during World War I and covered the Women Suffrage Parade of 1913. She was employed by The World until January 27, 1922, the day of her death from pneumonia.
Nellie Bly stood up for the little people, risked her own safety for the benefit of the majority, persevered in difficult circumstances, and changed the social fabric of the nation. She pioneered the tactics of investigative and stunt journalism and made a name for women in journalism. Nellie Bly lived for a mere 57 years, and yet altered the shape of the world forever.
Cochran got her start in 1880 with an angry letter to the editor of The Pittsburgh Dispatch, arguing against traditional gender roles on the behalf of unmarried women in her society. She was daring, she was fierce, she was ambitious, and she was full of fire. Her passionate letter resulted in employment at the paper and Elizabeth's transformation into the reporter Nellie Bly.
Nellie's first work was an article entitled "The Girl Puzzle," and then she was assigned to investigate the plight of girls working in factories. After this series of investigative articles, she was pushed to write for the "women's pages." Bly rejected this and instead undertook a six month foreign correspondence job, living in Mexico and sending articles back to The Dispatch.
Tired of the small scene offered in Pennsylvania, Nellie Bly packed up and moved to the big city in 1887, where she wrote her first big-time article-- an expose of the conditions in insane asylums. On behalf of The New York World, she posed as a crazy girl, got herself committed to an asylum, and lived there undercover for ten days. As a result of her article, regulations were tightened, institutions were investigated, and the lives of the mentally handicapped were drastically improved.
In 1889, Bly raced around the world in 72 days in a successful attempt to beat the record proposed in the popular Jules Verne novel of the day. Elizabeth Bisland of the New York Cosmopolitan also took on the race, but finished after Bly, who set a new world record. At the time during which Nellie wrote for The World, every newspaper in America wanted "a Nellie Bly" on their staff.
Eventually, she married. In 1895, Nellie Bly retired from journalism, married Robert Seaman, and became the president of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., a company which made steel containers. Following her husband's death in 1905, she, as Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, patented a novel milk can and a stacking garbage can. She was one of the leading female industrialists in the nation, but soon embezzlement by employees caused the bankruptcy of the business.
Nellie returned to journalism. She wrote on the eastern front in Europe during World War I and covered the Women Suffrage Parade of 1913. She was employed by The World until January 27, 1922, the day of her death from pneumonia.
Nellie Bly stood up for the little people, risked her own safety for the benefit of the majority, persevered in difficult circumstances, and changed the social fabric of the nation. She pioneered the tactics of investigative and stunt journalism and made a name for women in journalism. Nellie Bly lived for a mere 57 years, and yet altered the shape of the world forever.
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