Nellie Bly Report

Nellie Bly was an American journalist who was known for her investigative reporting. She is vastly famous for her 1887 work when she wrote about the conditions of asylum patients at Blackwell's Island in New York City, by going undercover as a patient herself. But Nellie Bly is most well-known for her famous trip around the world in 1889, where many told her she couldn’t do it, she proved them wrong. Nellie was born in the suburb of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania under the name Elizabeth Jane Cochran. Her father, Michael Cochran, a hard working mill employee, eventually bought the mill and the surrounding land, showing his children that hard work pays off and that nothing is impossible. As a young girl, Nellie attended boarding school for only one term, because she unfortunately was forced to drop out due to lack of funds.
In 1880, Nellie and her family moved to Pittsburgh. During her stay here, Nellie read an editorial in The Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled "What Girls Are Good For." The article was about how women should not have an education or career, suggesting they should stray no further than the home and motherly duties. This, of course infuriated Nellie, as it did many women. She wrote a reply to the editor, George Madden signed "Little Orphan Girl." Madden was so impressed by the reply, he offered her a full-time job writing under the name Nellie Bly. Which is where the name came from, and stuck.
Nellie Bly avoided the normal topics women normally wrote about such as gardening or fashion in that time and wrote about topics such as the poor and troubled. She also focused her early work on the difficulty of working women.
Nellie was next sent on a six month trip to Mexico. She wrote of her travels to Madden, who published her reports in the Dispatch. However, what started out as a simple travel piece soon turned into a horrible review of the Mexican government and their policies.
After this report, Nellie traveled back in the United States and decided that her next piece would be in New York City. After months of unemployment, Nellie was assigned to go under-cover as a patient in the asylum on Blackwell's Island. She convinced both doctors and judges that she was insane and needed to be committed.
During this time she suffered though filthy sleeping settings, rotten food to little food, if any at all and physical abuse from not only other patients but from doctors as well. Following this, she wrote two articles of her ten days inside the walls titled "Behind Asylum Bars" and "Inside The Mad-House". After these articles survived, New York officials changed the conditions for the people at the asylum.
Nellie Bly is most famous for her proposed idea to travel around the world. She wanted to take the fictional story of “Around the World in 80 Days” and make it a reality. Many people were very skeptical of this idea because women did not travel without escorts. One of the biggest debates was who would carry the luggage.
In her book, “Around the world in 72 days” Nellie writes about speaking with a fellow reporter. He claims "It is impossible for you to do it, in the first place you are a woman and would need a protector, and even if it were possible for you to travel alone you would need to carry so much baggage that it would detain you in making rapid changes. Besides you speak nothing but English, so there is no use talking about it; no one but a man can do this." In which she replies, "Very well, start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him." Even with all the negative feedback Nellie Bly continued with her proposed idea and embarked on the ocean liner Augusta Victoria without an escort on November 14, 1889 carrying only two small pieces of luggage with her essentials. These essential included item such as two traveling caps, three veils, a pair of slippers, toilet articles, an ink stand, pens, pencils, paper, pins, needles, thread, a dressing gown, a tennis blazer, a small flask, a drinking cup, a few changes of underwear, handkerchiefs and a jar of cold cream.
Her editor gave her 200 pounds in English gold, which went into her pockets, and bank notes that she stored in a chamois-skin bag. She also took along some American money to see who in the world would accept it.
Bly stopped in many places during her journey including New York, London, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco,
Bly left journalism in 1895 to marry Robert Seaman, a 70-year-old New York millionaire. Upon his death she took over his manufacturing business and built a bowling alley, two libraries and even a clinic for the workers. But unfortunately, the business went bankrupt, leaving Bly broke and returning to journalism as an advice columnist. She died of a heart attack in 1922. The more research I did about Nellie Bly the more I realized how she opened the doors to allow women to play like the boys do. Her articles, especially those about her time spent in the asylum and her investigative stories resulted in a heightened awareness of social problems. Over her years Nellie Bly wrote articles that helped to expose dirty politicians and lobbyists, helping conditions for workers in a box making factory, and help track the dilemma of unwanted babies and their mothers.
Although today, few Americans recognize the name, Nellie Bly helped to change the way reporters did their jobs. Bly also was an outstanding example of why women deserve the same opportunities as men. This heightened awareness helped to opened the way in many cases to real change. As a woman going against the normal beliefs and writing about her travels around the world, she opened doors for other women to lead heroic lives and achieve ambitious goals.