31 Facts About Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly pioneered her field and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.

Nellie Bly's father, Michael Cochran, born about 1810, started as a laborer and mill worker before buying the local mill and most of the land surrounding his family farmhouse.

Nellie Bly later became a merchant, postmaster, and associate justice at Cochran's Mills in Pennsylvania.

Nellie Bly had 10 children with his first wife, Catherine Murphy, and five more children, including Elizabeth, his thirteenth daughter, with his second wife, Mary Jane Kennedy.

Nellie Bly's columns were applauded by factory workers for highlighting the bad working conditions.

Nellie Bly faced rejection after rejection as news editors would not consider hiring a woman.

Nellie Bly stayed up all night to give herself the wide-eyed look of a disturbed woman and began making accusations that the other boarders were insane.

Once examined by a police officer, a judge, and a doctor, Nellie Bly was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a few days, then after evaluation was sent by boat to Blackwell's Island.

Nellie Bly's report, published October 9,1887 and later in book form as Ten Days in a Mad-House, caused a sensation, prompted the asylum to implement reforms, and brought her lasting fame.

Nellie Bly had a significant impact on American culture and shed light on the experiences of marginalized women beyond the bounds of the asylum as she ushered in the era of stunt girl journalism.

In 1893, Nellie Bly used the celebrity status she had gained from her asylum reporting skills to schedule an exclusive interview with the allegedly insane serial killer Lizzie Halliday.

In 1888, Nellie Bly suggested to her editor at the New York World that she take a trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional Around the World in Eighty Days into fact for the first time.

Just over seventy-two days after her initial departure, Nellie Bly arrived in New York on January 25,1890, completing her circumnavigation of the globe.

Nellie Bly had traveled alone for almost the entire journey.

Nellie Bly was not the only woman attempting to circumnavigate for newspaper sensation, a competitor named Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore was attempting the journey in the opposite direction, for the Cosmopolitan.

Nellie Bly's journey was a world record, though it only stood for a few months, until George Francis Train completed the journey in 67 days.

The first chapters of Eva The Adventuress, based on the real-life trial of Eva Hamilton, appeared in print before Nellie Bly returned to New York.

Nellie Bly was an inventor in her own right, receiving for a novel milk can and for a stacking garbage can, both under her married name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman.

Nellie Bly ran her company as a model of social welfare, replete with health benefits and recreational facilities.

Bly wrote stories on Europe's Eastern Front during World War I Bly was the first woman and one of the first foreigners to visit the war zone between Serbia and Austria.

Nellie Bly was arrested when she was mistaken for a British spy.

On January 27,1922, Nellie Bly died of pneumonia at St Mark's Hospital, New York City, aged 57.

Nellie Bly was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

In 1998, Nellie Bly was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Nellie Bly was one of four journalists honored with a US postage stamp in a "Women in Journalism" set in 2002.

In 2019, the Center for Investigative Reporting released Nellie Bly Makes the News, a short animated biographical film.

Bly was a subject of Season 2 Episode 5 of The West Wing in which First Lady Abbey Bartlet dedicates a memorial in Pennsylvania in honor of Nellie Bly and convinces the president to mention her and other female historic figures during his weekly radio address.

Nellie Bly's story was adapted into a Doctor Who audio drama by Big Finish Productions, released on September 8,2021.

The Perils of Nellie Bly was the second story in a three story box set, and was written by Sarah Ward.

The board game Round the World with Nellie Bly created in 1890 is named in recognition of her trip.

Between 1889 and 1895, Nellie Bly penned twelve novels for The New York Family Story Paper.