Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's fictional character

Phileas Fogg Phileas Fogg ( ) is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel '' Around the World in Eighty Days''. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg ...

, and for an

exposé Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website * ''Exeposé'', a student-run newspaper of the University of Exeter Film and TV F ...

in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She pioneered her field and launched a new kind of

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

Early life

Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born May 5, 1864, in Cochran's Mills, now part of

Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania Burrell Township is a township in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 659 at the 2020 census, a decrease from the figure of 689 tabulated in 2010. Geography Accor ...

. Her 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. He later became a merchant, postmaster, and associate justice at Cochran's Mills (named after him) in Pennsylvania. Michael married twice. He 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. Michael Cochran died in 1870, when Elizabeth was 6. As a young girl, Elizabeth often was called "Pink" because she so frequently wore that color. As she became a teenager, she wanted to portray herself as more sophisticated, and she dropped the nickname and changed her surname to Cochrane. In 1879, she enrolled at Indiana Normal School (now

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a Public university, public research university in Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and Carnegie Classification o ...

) for one term but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds. In 1880, Cochrane's mother moved her family to

Allegheny City Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. It was located north across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, with its southwest border formed by ...

, which was later annexed by the City of Pittsburgh.

Career

''Pittsburgh Dispatch''

In 1885, a column in the ''

Pittsburgh Dispatch The ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' was a leading newspaper in Pittsburgh, operating from 1846 to 1923. After being enlarged by publisher Daniel O'Neill (editor), Daniel O'Neill it was reportedly one of the largest and most prosperous newspapers in the Un ...

'' titled "What Girls Are Good For" stated that girls were principally for birthing children and keeping house. This prompted Elizabeth to write a response under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl". The editor, George Madden, was impressed with her passion and ran an advertisement asking the author to identify herself. When Cochran introduced herself to the editor, he offered her the opportunity to write a piece for the newspaper, again under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl". Her first article for the ''Dispatch'', titled "The Girl Puzzle", argued that not all women would marry and that what was needed were better jobs for women. Her second article, "Mad Marriages", was about how

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

affected women. In it, she argued for reform of divorce laws. "Mad Marriages" was published under the byline of Nellie Bly, rather than "Lonely Orphan Girl" because, at the time, it was customary for female journalists to use pen names to conceal their gender so that readers would not discredit them. The editor chose "Nellie Bly", after the African-American title character in the popular song "Nelly Bly" by

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

. Cochrane originally intended that her pseudonym be "Nelly Bly", but her editor wrote "Nellie" by mistake, and the error stuck. Madden was impressed again and offered her a full-time job. As a writer, Nellie Bly focused her early work for the ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' on the lives of working women, writing a series of investigative articles on female factory workers. Bly went undercover as a poor woman to get hired at a copper cable factory for a firsthand view of the working conditions that women and children faced in the typical factory setting. Her columns were applauded by factory workers for highlighting the bad working conditions. However, the newspaper soon received complaints from factory owners about her writing, and she was reassigned to

women's page The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as Society reporting, society pages and event ...

s to cover fashion, society, and gardening, the usual role for female journalists, and she became dissatisfied. Still only 21, she was determined "to do something no girl has done before." She then traveled to Mexico to serve as a

foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

, spending nearly half a year reporting on the lives and customs of the

Mexican people Mexicans () are the citizens and nationals of the Mexico, United Mexican States. The Mexican people have varied origins with the most spoken language being Spanish language, Spanish, but many also speak languages from 68 different Languages o ...

. Her dispatches later were published in book form as ''

Six Months in Mexico ''Six Months in Mexico'' is a book written by Elizabeth Jane Cochrane under her pen name Nellie Bly about her travels through Mexico around 1885. She took the initiative to work as a foreign correspondent at the age of 21. At that point she had b ...

.'' In one report, she protested the imprisonment of a local journalist for criticizing the Mexican government, then a dictatorship under

Porfirio Díaz José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a General (Mexico), Mexican general and politician who was the dictator of Mexico from 1876 until Mexican Revolution, his overthrow in 1911 seizing power in a Plan ...

. When Mexican authorities learned of Bly's report, they threatened her with arrest, prompting her to flee the country. Safely home, she accused Díaz of being a tyrannical czar suppressing the Mexican people and controlling the press.

Asylum exposé

Burdened again with theater and arts reporting, Bly left the ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' in 1887 for New York City. Bly faced rejection after rejection as news editors would not consider hiring a woman. Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born , ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and a newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in the U.S. Democ ...

's newspaper, the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'', and took an undercover assignment for which she agreed to feign

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors caused by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to other ...

to investigate reports of brutality and

neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness and ...

at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, now named

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the Borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. It is about long, wit ...

. It was not easy for Bly to be admitted to the asylum: she first decided to check herself into a boarding house called "Temporary Homes for Females". She 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. Bly told the assistant matron: "There are so many crazy people about, and one can never tell what they will do." She refused to go to bed and eventually scared so many of the other boarders that the police were called to take her to the nearby courthouse. Once examined by a police officer, a judge, and a doctor, Bly was taken to

Bellevue Hospital Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...

for a few days, then after evaluation was sent by boat to Blackwell's Island. Committed to the asylum, Bly experienced the deplorable conditions firsthand. After ten days, the asylum released Bly at ''The World''s behest. Her report, published October 9, 1887 and later in book form as ''

Ten Days in a Mad-House ''Ten Days in a Mad-House'' is a book by American journalist Nellie Bly. It was initially published as a series of articles for the ''New York World''. Bly later compiled the articles into a book, being published by Norman Munro in New York City ...

'', 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, 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 Lizzie Halliday (born Eliza Margaret McNally; – June 28, 1918) was an Irish-American serial killer responsible for the deaths of four people in upstate New York during the 1890s. In 1894, she became the first woman to be sentenced to death b ...

Biographer

Brooke Kroeger Brooke Kroeger is a journalist, writer, and professor emerita at New York University. She has written books on Nellie Bly, Fannie Hurst, and most recently a 2023 book on women in journalism. Education and career Kroeger as a B.S. in journalis ...

argues: :Her two-part series in October 1887 was a sensation, effectively launching the decade of "stunt" or "detective" reporting, a clear precursor to investigative journalism and one of Joseph Pulitzer's innovations that helped give "New Journalism" of the 1880s and 1890s its moniker. The employment of "stunt girls" has often been dismissed as a circulation-boosting gimmick of the sensationalist press. However, the genre also provided women with their first collective opportunity to demonstrate that, as a class, they had the skills necessary for the highest level of general reporting. The stunt girls, with Bly as their prototype, were the first women to enter the journalistic mainstream in the twentieth century.

Around the world and general impact

In 1888, 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 ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...

'' (1873) into fact for the first time. A year later, at 9:40 a.m. on November 14, 1889, and with two days' notice, she boarded the '' Augusta Victoria'', a steamer of the

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent Germ ...

, and began her 24,898 mile (40,070 kilometer) journey. To sustain interest in the story, the ''World'' organized a "Nellie Bly Guessing Match" in which readers were asked to estimate Bly's arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip. During her travels around the world, Bly went through England, France (where she met

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

Brindisi Brindisi ( ; ) is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position ...

, the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

(in

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

), the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Nellie Bly Reception 1890

Just over seventy-two days after her initial departure, Bly arrived in New York on January 25, 1890, completing her circumnavigation of the globe. She had traveled alone for almost the entire journey. Bly was not the only woman attempting to circumnavigate for newspaper sensation, a competitor named Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore was also attempting the journey in the opposite direction, for the Cosmopolitan. Ultimately, Bly triumphed over Bisland. Bly's journey was a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

, though it only stood for a few months, until

George Francis Train George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 18, 1904) was an American businessman who organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he also organized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in the ...

completed the journey in 67 days.

Novelist

After the fanfare of her trip around the world, Bly quit reporting and took a lucrative job writing serial novels for publisher

Norman Munro Norman Leslie Munro (1842–1894) was a Canadian- American publisher. In 1873 Munro established the New York ''Family Story Paper'', which gained a weekly circulation of 325,000. He also published ''Boys of New York'', ''Our Boys'', ''Munro ...

's weekly ''New York Family Story Paper.'' The first chapters of ''Eva The Adventuress,'' based on the real-life trial of Eva Hamilton, appeared in print before Bly returned to New York. Between 1889 and 1895 she wrote eleven novels. As few copies of the paper survived, these novels were thought lost until 2021, when author David Blixt announced the discovery of 11 lost novels in Munro's British weekly ''The London Story Paper.'' In 1893, though still writing novels, she returned to reporting for the ''World''.

Later work

In 1895, Bly married millionaire manufacturer Robert Seaman. Bly was 31 and Seaman was 73 when they married. Due to her husband's failing health, she left journalism and succeeded her husband as head of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., which made steel containers such as milk cans and boilers. Seaman died in 1904. That same year, Iron Clad began manufacturing the steel barrel that was the model for the 55-gallon oil drum still in widespread use in the United States. There have been claims that Bly invented the barrel, but the inventor was registered as Henry Wehrhahn (U.S. Patents 808,327 and 808,413). Bly was also 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. For a time, she was one of the leading women industrialists in the United States. But her negligence, and embezzlement by a factory manager, resulted in the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. going bankrupt. According to biographer Brooke Kroeger: Back in reporting, she covered the

Woman Suffrage Procession The Woman Suffrage Procession on March 3, 1913, was the first Women's suffrage, suffragist parade in Washington, D.C. It was also the first large, organized march on Washington for political purposes. The procession was organized by the suffra ...

of 1913 for the ''New York Evening Journal''. Her article's headline was "Suffragists Are Men's Superiors" and in its text she accurately predicted that women in the United States would be given the right to vote in 1920. Bly wrote stories on Europe's Eastern Front during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Bly was the first woman and one of the first foreigners to visit the war zone between Serbia and Austria. She was arrested when she was mistaken for a British spy.

Death

The Grave of Nellie Bly in Woodlawn Cemetery

On January 27, 1922, Bly died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

at St. Mark's Hospital, New York City, aged 57. She was interred at

Woodlawn Cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery is the name of several cemeteries, including: Canada * Woodlawn Cemetery (Saskatoon) * Woodlawn Cemetery (Nova Scotia) United States ''(by state then city or town)'' * Woodlawn Cemetery (Ocala, Florida), where Isaac Rice and fa ...

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York City.

Legacy

Honors

In 1998, Bly was inducted into the

National Women's Hall of Fame The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution founded to honor and recognize women. It was incorporated in 1969 in Seneca Falls, New York, and first inducted honorees in 1973. As of 2024, the Hall has honored 312 inducte ...

. Bly was one of four journalists honored with a US postage stamp in a "Women in Journalism" set in 2002. In 2019, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation put out an open call for artists to create a Nellie Bly Memorial art installation on

. The winning proposal, ''

The Girl Puzzle ''The Girl Puzzle'' Monument honoring activist and journalist Nellie Bly, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, pen name Nellie Bly (1864-1922), is a public sculptural installation by American artist Amanda Matthews, CEO/Partner of Prometheus Art Bronze Fo ...

'' by Amanda Matthews, was announced on October 16, 2019. ''The Girl Puzzle'' opened to the public in December 2021. Nellie Bly - The Girl Puzzle

The

New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a nonprofit membership organization that promotes journalism in the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from ...

confers an annual Nellie Bly Cub Reporter journalism award to acknowledge the best journalistic effort by an individual with three years or fewer of professional experience. In 2020, it was awarded to Claudia Irizarry Aponte, of ''THE CITY.'' Since 2017, the Museum of Political Corruption annually has honored journalists with the Nellie Bly award for investigative reporting.

Theater

Bly was the subject of the 1946

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...

''Nellie Bly'' by Johnny Burke and

Jimmy Van Heusen James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television, and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Award for Best Original Song, Academy Awards for ...

. The show ran for 16 performances. During the 1990s, playwright Lynn Schrichte wrote and toured ''Did You Lie, Nellie Bly?'', a one-woman show about Bly. An opera based on 10 Days in a Madhouse premiered in Philadelphia, PA in September 2023. The music was by Rene Orth and the libretto by Hannah Moscovitch.

Film and television

Bly has been portrayed in the films ''

The Adventures of Nellie Bly ''The Adventures of Nellie Bly'' is a 1981 American television film, made-for-television drama (film and television), drama film starring Linda Purl as 19th century journalist Nellie Bly and human rights crusader. The film was directed by Henning ...

'' (1981), ''

10 Days in a Madhouse 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

'' (2015), and '' Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story'' (2019). In 2019, the

Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California. CIR was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization. It subsequently grew into a multi ...

released ''Nellie Bly Makes the News'', a short animated biographical film. A fictionalized version of Bly as a mouse named Nellie Brie appears as a central character in the animated children's film '' An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster''. The character of Lana Winters (

Sarah Paulson Sarah Catharine Paulson (born December 17, 1974) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award. In 2017, ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 1 ...

) in '' American Horror Story: Asylum'' is inspired by Bly's experience in the asylum. Bly was a subject of Season 2 Episode 5 of ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...

'' 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. On May 5, 2015, the Google search engine produced an interactive "Google Doodle" for Bly; for the "Google Doodle"

Karen O Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter. She is best known as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Early life Karen Lee Orzolek was born in Seoul, So ...

wrote, composed, and recorded an original song about Bly, and Katy Wu created an animation set to Karen O's music.

Audio drama

Nellie'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.

Literature

Bly has been featured as the protagonist of novels by David Blixt, Marshall Goldberg, Dan Jorgensen, Carol McCleary, Pearry Reginald Teo, Maya Rodale, Christine Converse and Louisa Treger David Blixt also appeared on a March 10, 2021, episode of the podcast Broads You Should Know as a Nellie Bly expert. A fictionalized account of Bly's around-the-world trip was used in the 2010 comic book ''Julie Walker Is The Phantom'' published by Moonstone Books (Story: Elizabeth Massie, art: Paul Daly, colors: Stephen Downer). Bly is one of 100 women featured in the first version of the book '' Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls'' written by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo.

Eponyms and namesakes

The board game ''Round the World with Nellie Bly'' created in 1890 is named in recognition of her trip. The Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York City, was named after her, taking as its theme ''Around the World in Eighty Days''. The park reopened in 2007 under new management, renamed "Adventurers Amusement Park". A large species of

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

from

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, ''Pamphobeteus nellieblyae'' Sherwood ''et al.'', 2022, was named in her honour by arachnologists. A

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...

named ''Nellie Bly'' operated in

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, in the first decade of the 20th century. From early in the twentieth century until 1961, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

operated an

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes few or no stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, providing faster service than local trains that stop at many or all of the stations along their ...

named the ''Nellie Bly'' on a route between New York and

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

, bypassing Philadelphia. File:Tugboat and part-time fireboat Nellie Bly, in Toronto, in 1908.jpg, A steam tug named after Bly served as a

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada. File:RoundTheWorldWithNellieBly.jpg, Cover of the 1890 board game ''Round the World with Nellie Bly''

Works

Within her lifetime, Nellie Bly published three non-fiction books (compilations of her newspaper reportage) and one novel in book form. * * * * Between 1889 and 1895, Nellie Bly also penned twelve novels for ''The New York Family Story Paper.'' Thought lost, these novels were not collected in book form until their re-discovery in 2021. * ''Eva The Adventuress'' (1889) * ''New York By Night'' (1890) * ''Alta Lynn, M.D.'' (1891) * ''Wayne's Faithful Sweetheart'' (1891) * ''Little Luckie, or Playing For Hearts'' (1892) * ''Dolly The Coquette'' (1892) * ''In Love With A Stranger, or Through Fire And Water To Win Him'' (1893) * ''The Love Of Three Girls'' (1893) * ''Little Penny, Child Of The Streets'' (1893) * ''Pretty Merribelle'' (1894) * ''Twins & Rivals'' (1895)

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

* Information, photos and original Nellie Bly articles a
Nellie Bly Online

Library of Congress "Nellie Bly: A Resource Guide"
* Nellie Bly's collected journalism a

* Norwood, Arlisha
"Nellie Bly"
National Women's History Museum. 2017. *
The Daring Nellie Bly: America's Star Reporter
' illustrated biography by Bonnie Christensen, reviewed by

Maria Popova Maria Popova (; born 28 July 1984) is a Bulgarian-born, American-based essayist, book author, poet, and writer of literary and arts commentary and cultural criticism that has found wide appeal both for her writing and for the visual stylistics th ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bly, Nellie 1864 births 1922 deaths 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American women journalists 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers American investigative journalists 19th-century American memoirists American women memoirists American people of Scotch-Irish descent American suffragists Around the World in Eighty Days Boxing writers Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Indiana University of Pennsylvania alumni Jules Verne New York World people Novelists from Pennsylvania People from Roosevelt Island Pseudonymous women writers Psychiatric false diagnosis Undercover journalists Writers from Pittsburgh Journalists from Pittsburgh American women sportswriters New York Journal-American people