Nellie Bly

Elizabeth Jane Cochran (May 5, 1864 - January 27, 1922), born in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania, and called "Pink". (Her nickname alluded to a bright pink dress in which she was christened.) Cochran was best known under her pen name Nellie Bly. An early investigative journalist, she pioneered undercover reporting. Apparently she changed her last name to Cochrane (with an added 'e') later.

Related Topics:
May 5 - 1864 - January 27 - 1922 - Cochran's Mills - Pennsylvania - Investigative journalist - Undercover reporting

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A sexist column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch prompted her to write a venomous rebuttal to the editor. The quality of the letter caused the editor to ask Cochran, who was desperately looking for a job, to join the paper as a reporter. The editor also gave Pink her pen name, Nellie Bly, after the title character in a popular song by Stephen Foster.

Related Topics:
Pittsburgh Dispatch - Stephen Foster

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Bly wrote several investigative articles, before she was banished to the women's pages. She then left the Dispatch and went to New York City, where she applied for a job at Joseph Pulitzer's sensationalist newspaper, the New York World. Pulitzer hired her, and her first assignment was to write a story about the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island. She let herself be committed and exposed the horrible conditions under which patients were treated at the asylum. This form of journalism, going undercover to get a story, would become her trademark.

Related Topics:
New York City - Joseph Pulitzer - Newspaper - New York World - Women's Lunatic Asylum - Blackwell's Island

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In 1888, it was suggested that the World should send a reporter on a trip around the world, mimicking Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days. It was decided that Nellie Bly should be that reporter, and on November 14, 1889 she left New York on her 24,899-mile journey.

Related Topics:
1888 - Jules Verne - Around the World in Eighty Days - November 14 - 1889

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"Seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds after her Hoboken departure" (January 25, 1890) Nellie arrived in New York. This was a world record for circling the earth, which would stand until 1929, when the Graf Zeppelin did it in "20 days, four hours and fourteen minutes".

Related Topics:
Hoboken - January 25 - 1890 - 1929 - Graf Zeppelin

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On her travels around the world, she visited not only England, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and others but also the home of Jules Verne, Brindisi, Colombo, and San Fransisco. She was also the first women to travel around the world unaccompanied at all times by a man, and became a role model for women everywhere.

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Nellie Bly married millionaire Robert Seaman in 1895, and retired from journalism for a time. She took over management of his companies after he died in 1904. She returned to filing news stories later in life, covering a women's suffrage convention in 1913 and reporting on World War I from Europe's eastern front.

Related Topics:
Robert Seaman - 1895 - 1904 - Women's suffrage - 1913 - World War I

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At the age of 57, Elizabeth "Pink" Cochrane died of pneumonia.

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There is a small amusement park in Brooklyn, New York City named after her, taking as its theme Around the World in Eighty Days.

Related Topics:
Amusement park - Brooklyn - New York City

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