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Nellie Bly is one of the pioneering journalists widely known for her 72-day trip around the world and her expose on the conditions of asylum patients on Blackwell’s Island in New York City. In addition to this, Nellie Bly is also a writer, inventor, and industrialist.
Early life and childhood
Nellie Bly was born on May 5, 1864 with the birth name Elizabeth Mary Jane Cochran. Her birthplace, Cochran’s Mills, is now part of Pittsburgh.
The Conchrans had emigrated from County Londonderry, Ireland, in the 1790s. Elizabeth’s father, Michael Cochran, in his early days worked as a laborer and miller.
However, in the future, he became a merchant, postmaster, and associate judge at Cochran’s Mills. Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Jane, was Michael’s second wife. He married her after the death of her first wife, Catherine Murphy. Isabel had 4 brothers and 10 half-siblings.
Subtitle: Nellie Bly Source: PBS
Pinky, as Nellie was known in her youth for frequently wearing that color, changed her last name to “Cochrane” when she became a teenager.
He even attended boarding school, but unfortunately had to leave after the death of his father. He subsequently enrolled at the Indiana Normal School.
He then joined a small college in Indiana. However, due to the financial crisis, he was unable to continue his higher education. So, in 1880, she and her family moved to Pittsburgh and opened a boarding house with her mother.
Nellie Bly – Awards
Bly had done extraordinary work during his life. Even after her disappearance, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in the year 1998. Additionally, she is one of four journalists honored with a US postage stamp in a film about “Women in Journalism” set in 2002. .
Caption: Publicity photograph taken by the New York World newspaper to promote Bly’s round-the-world trip. Source: Britannica
Apart from this, the films have been based on his life experiences. In 2015, Timothy Hines directed the film ’10 Days in an Asylum’, which depicts Bly’s harrowing experience in the asylum.
Recently, in 2019, another thriller film, ‘Escaping the Mad House’, based on his undercover experience in the asylum, was released.
Nellie Bly – Marital Status
Bly married millionaire manufacturer Robert Seaman, aged 73, in 1895. At the time she was only 31 years old. Bly had to take care of her husband and his company due to her poor health conditions. Unfortunately, shortly after 9 years of marriage, Robert passed away.
Subtitle: Elizabeth Cochran, “Nellie Bly”, Source: Biography
Professional life
Pittsburgh Dispatch
Bly received attention for his writing after he submitted a bold response to an editorial that had been published in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. The editorial titled “What Girls Are For,” by writer Erasmus Wilson, stated that girls have limitations in domestic tasks.
Bly’s response to the article impressed the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, George Madden. In exchange, he offered her a full-time job.
In 1885, Bly began her work at the Pittsburgh Dispatch, taking the pseudonym “Nellie Bly.” She comes from the famous Stephan Foster song “Nelly Bly.”
As a reporter for the ‘Pittsburgh Dispatch’, She highlighted the importance of women’s rights and the consequences of gender inequality. She featured articles about divorced women, factory workers and their poor conditions.
However, she was moved to the women’s page to cover fashion, society and gardening after receiving complaints from factory owners. It was then that she aspired to find a more meaningful career. She then decided to travel to Mexico, where she served as a foreign correspondent.
He spent 6 months in Mexico learning and reporting on the local population. He even criticized the Mexican government for imprisoning the local journalist.
When her article came to the attention of the authorities, they threatened to arrest her. Consequently, she fled back to the United States.
asylum exhibition
After leaving the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1887, he moved to New York and began working for the New York World. One of her previous assignments was to covertly investigate the lived experiences of patients at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York City.
To do this, she pretended to be mentally ill and lived in the Asylum for 10 days. She watched closely and experienced neglect and physical abuse. After her return, she published the complaint in ‘the world’.
Later he even published the book “Ten Days in a Madhouse”, which was a great success. This not only brought him fame, but also prompted the asylum to implement reforms.
Following Blackwell’s exposure, Bly continued similar research work. Some of her top reports include corruption in the state legislature and inappropriate treatment of people in New York prisons and factories.
Worldwide
Nellie Bly decided to break the false record of Phileas Fogg, the fictional character who gives the title to Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. She then asked her editor at the New York World to take a trip around the world.
On November 14, 1889, he began his journey to conquer the world from the Augusta Victoria, a steamship of the Hamburg America Line in New Jersey. She traveled through England, France, Italy, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
He sent progress reports throughout his journey. After 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes, on January 25, 1890, he returned to New Jersey setting a real world record.
Bly received internal recognition after completing her months-long venture. His experience was turned into a book “Around the World in Seventy-Two Days” in 1890.
Industrial
After her marriage to industrialist Robert Seaman, a world-famous journalist retired from her job and took over her husband’s Iron-Clad Manufacturing Co..
She became one of the most important industrial women of her time after inventing the novel milk can and the stackable trash can. She held a US patent for both inventions under her married name Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman.
While in charge of the company, Bly introduced enormous social reforms to the industry that allowed employees to enjoy various benefits. But eventually the company went bankrupt and Bly returned to the newspaper industry.
In her old age, she worked for the New York Evening Journal covering events such as World War I and the women’s suffrage movement.
Nellie Bly – Death
America lost one of its best investigative journalists on January 27, 1922. Nellie Bly was 57 years old when she died of pneumonia at St. Mark’s Hospital in New York City. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
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Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn