Nellie Bly 1864 - 1922

The Best Reporter in America

By: Darci Williams & Betsy Heiser

Elizabeth Jane Cochran… ?

• Nellie Bly was not the name she was born with.• Elizabeth Jane Cochran was her name and was born on May 5,

1864. • Parents were Mary Jane and Judge Michael Cochran in Cochran's

of Mills, Pennsylvania.• She was given the nickname “Pink” by her mother because on

most occasions she was dressed in a pink gown.• Her father was a very prominent Judge of the town. – He died

shortly after her sixth birthday.• The family had to move because he died without leaving a will,

therefore this left his wife without a claim to the property and forced them to auction off his estate.

• Her mother re-married to a man that was very abusive. From then on she lived a sad childhood and had to take control of her siblings before the step-father did.

Young Start• When Pink was 18, she wrote and letter to the editor to the

Pittsburgh Dispatch in response to a sexist editorial. The editor was very impressed by the writing of the letter signed as “Lonely Orphan Girl,” that he put an ad into the Sunday paper asking for her to come in and introduce herself. Pink did so right away and landed herself a job in the Pittsburgh Dispatch.

• They then changed her name to Nellie Bly as a pen name. Suggested from a song written by Stephen Foster.

• Mainly wrote articles dealing with divorce, slum life, and conditions in Mexico. -- She continued to write articles dealing with poverty and political corruption in Mexico; these articles got her ejected from the country by the government.

New York World

• In 1887, Nellie traveled to New York, unemployed and penniless looking for a job.

• In short time, she landed a job with The New York World.

• First assignment: Be committed to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. -- This adventurous and daring stunt propelled Bly into

the limelight of New York journalism.

Why Is She So Special?• She launched the "stunt age" where women risked their

reputation alongside their lives to break into the men's world of the press.

• It was suggested at a round table meeting among the World's executives to send a man around the world in less than 80 days. Nellie, infuriated, threatened to do it in less time for another newspaper if they did not agree to send her instead.

• She traveled around the world in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds.

Life After• At the age of 30, she married a

70 year old industrialist named Robert Seaman.

• He died 10 years later – she suffered financially and went bankrupt.

• Turned back to reporting for The New York Journal in 1920.

• In 1922, she died of pneumonia at the age of 58.

Works Cited

• Library.csi.cuny.edu. 10 Dec. 1998. Nellie Bly 1864-1922. 5 Feb. 2007 http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/nellie.html.

• pbs.org. 2004-2006. Nellie Bly. 5 Feb. 2007 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wolrd/peopleevents/pande01.html.

• “Bly, Nellie.” The Britannica. Fifteenth ed. 1998.