Nellie Bly

The “Original Girl” Reporter

"‘A hero is someone who rises above his or her fears and limitations to achieve something extraordinary . . . a hero embodies what we believe is best in ourselves’” (Fleming). In his review of “Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society” by Danny Fingeroth, James Fleming argues that a hero is someone who conquers her fears to achieve her goal. This statement could not be more true, but what other traits might a hero possess? A hero can be defined in many ways: a first responder at a disaster, a single mother using her wits at multiple jobs to support her family, or a child who stands up for someone who cannot stand up for herself. Heroes are everywhere, all the time. The man that is bagging groceries works part-time to take care of his sick mother. The little boy who spent his first allowance in one day bought dinner for a homeless woman. A hero must be as selfless as the little boy, as courageous as the first responder, and as intelligent as the single mother.

Elizabeth Cochran, "Nellie Bly"The United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_BlyEveryday heroes are commonplace, but some rise above the rest and go on to accomplish greatness. On May 5, 1864, Elizabeth Cochran was born in Cochran Mills, Pennsylvania. As the youngest and only girl among her siblings, Cochran needed to stand out. She accomplished this by wearing bright pink clothes, earning her the nickname, “Pink,” but she refused to be overshadowed by her brothers. She ran the same races and climbed the same trees to prove she was their equal. Sadly, at the age of six, Cochran lost her father. With her father being the main source of income, the family was unable to keep the land or their house, and they moved to Pittsburgh. During this time, Cochran’s mother married a man who was an abusive alcoholic. By the time she was sixteen, Cochran no longer went by her childhood nickname of Pink, and her mother divorced her second husband. When she later attended Indiana Teacher’s College, she added an “e” to her last name to sound higher-class, becoming Elizabeth Cochrane. However, not long afterwards, she had to drop out of school to help her mother run a boarding house. One day, Cochrane was reading the local newspaper, The Pittsburgh Dispatch, when she saw an article called, “What Girls Are Good For.” The article stated that women were only useful for marriage and nothing else. An enraged Cochrane wrote a letter to the editor of the Dispatch. She was hired on the spot, earning a salary of five dollars a week and the pen name, Nellie Bly. To be a hero, Nellie Bly must possess intelligence, courage, and selflessness. Indeed, Nellie Bly portrays these three characteristics through her actions of “breaking the glass ceiling,” setting the world record for fastest travel around the world, and risking her life by going undercover for first-hand stories. Nellie Bly represents a strong female role model and a hero for all.

A “glass ceiling” is defined as “an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women or minorities from obtaining upper-level positions” (Merriam-Webster). “Breaking the glass ceiling” is the act of breaking through that barrier. As a woman in the 1800’s, Nellie Bly faced glass ceilings at every turn and had to use her intelligence to break through them. Trying to get a start in New York City, Bly wrote an article for The Pittsburgh Dispatch about women in journalism. Bly went to the office of the six big newspaper companies and interviewed the editors about women in journalism. Not surprisingly, they all gave similar answers, complaining that women did not want to write the articles that fit them best: society, fashion, and gossip. Bly kept her cool and wrote an article that perfectly summed up their views:

“‘We have more women now than we want. . . . Women are no good, anyway.’ Her article, ‘Women Journalists,’ traveled out from Pittsburgh to New York and Boston and received notice in The Journalist, a national trade magazine. Her choice of subject matter was a brilliant strategy: it put Nellie Bly in the right place at almost the right time” (Noyes).

 By uncovering the truth and exposing the misogynistic tendencies of her potential employers, she knew she would be noticed. Bly used her intelligence to publish a newsworthy, controversial article that showed her not only breaking the glass ceiling of women in media but also using the notoriety to get her name out there for all the world, especially the editors, to see.

Nellie Bly aluminum advertising cardHagley’s Audiovisual Collections, https://hagleyvault.org/After ten whirlwind years of field-reporting and going undercover for news assignments, Bly married millionaire Robert Seamen at age 30 and retired from the world of journalism. But, when her husband died six years later in 1903, she was flung back into the world of being a leading lady, putting her intelligence to the test once again. Her husband willed her the “control of a massive manufacturing company. In business, her curiosity and independent spirit flourished. Bly went on to patent several inventions related to oil manufacturing, many of which are still used today” (Norwood).

Many people belittle Bly’s accomplishments in business because she inherited her husband's company. Although she did inherit it, she made the decision to improve the business and related technologies rather than letting the business drown and die under her watch. In the early 1900’s, there were little to no female business owners, let alone successful ones. By taking her husband’s company by the reigns, she broke the glass ceiling that said women could not be in positions of power. Bly’s intelligence prospered, and she created great and innovative inventions. Nellie Bly’s intelligence proved to the world that women could do anything if they put their mind to it.
Bly was courageous in pushing and exceeding the boundaries in the worlds of journalism and business but also in the world of adventure.

Prior to January 25, 1890, the fastest travel around the world was “accomplished” by a fictional character, Phineas Fogg, from the book, Around the World in 80 Days. Yet, on that chilly January day, Nellie Bly set the world record for fastest time traveled around the world at 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds. She had to brave misogyny, bad weather, lack of modern vehicles, and even competition, but Bly had the courage to persevere through the tough times and succeed. By late 1889, Bly had become famous enough that she could no longer effectively work undercover in journalism and sought a new endeavor. After reading Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, Bly was enchanted with the idea of traveling around the world:

The World article about Nellie BlyFirst In Their Field: Nellie Bly, https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/“Since 1873, French novelist Jules Verne's best seller Around the World in 80 Days and its quick-witted protagonist, Phineas Fogg, had fascinated readers. One night...Bly exclaimed, ‘I wish I was at the other end of the earth!’ The next day she pitched a real-world circumnavigation that would beat the fictional Fogg's time. Her editors, who wanted to send a male reporter, resisted. The paper's business manager explained how a man could travel the globe unaccompanied but not a woman, and that, like other female travelers, Bly would carry so much luggage as to defeat herself. "Besides," he mansplained. ‘You speak nothing but English!’ ‘Very well,’ Bly said. ‘Start the man. I'll start the same day for another newspaper and beat him!’ The World caved” (Bradner).

 Bly was courageous when confronting her male editors, which was rare for a woman at that time. She shows courage by not only pitching an incredibly challenging idea, but by defending the idea and herself to her misogynistic bosses. When Bly proposed the idea of circumnavigating the world, her editor refused her, wanting to send a man instead. Bly responded with a witty remark, challenging them to send a man and that she would race him under the name of another newspaper and win. When her editor conceded and agreed to sponsor her, Bly set off. She survived through smallpox scares, monsoons, delays, and even an unknown adversary:

“When Bly arrived in Hong Kong on Christmas day, she reported to the office of the “Oriental and Occidental Steamship Company” to set up her departure for Japan. There, the man in the office told her she was going to lose her race. Bly writes:

‘Lose it? I don’t understand. What do you mean?’ I demanded, beginning to think he was mad.

‘Aren’t you having a race around the world?’ he asked, as if he thought I was not Nellie Bly.

‘Yes; quite right. I am running a race with Time,’ I replied.

‘Time? I don’t think that’s her name.’

‘Her! Her!!’ I repeated, thinking, ‘Poor fellow, he is quite unbalanced,’ and wondering if I dared wink at the doctor to suggest to him the advisability of our making good our escape.

‘Yes, the other woman; she is going to win. She left here three days ago.’

Bly was shocked to discover that Bisland was traveling, as well, but she pressed forward, toward Japan (but not without a small detour to buy a monkey, while she waited for the steamship to be ready)” (Fessenden).

 Bly overcame many hurdles during her world-record-breaking circumnavigation of the world, but she plowed through them all. She showed courage by refusing to give up even after being told she was losing a race she never knew she was in. Despite experiencing almost every adversity the world could throw at her, she never gave up.

Nellie Bly also showed the hero’s trait of selflessness by giving up her education to help support her mother and siblings and by putting herself in danger while undercover to report on important topics. As a child, Bly had the perfect life: wonderful parents, charming brothers, many friends, and financial stability, until that all came crashing down:

“Being a mill owner and later a county judge, her father provided well for their family until his death when Elizabeth was only six. With this sad event, financial troubles set in. Any attempt to finish her schooling met with the reality that she needed to work to help support her mother and younger siblings” (Stevenson).

Bly showed an interest in learning from a young age, but she selflessly sacrificed a higher education at the Indiana’s Teacher’s College to help her family survive. When she became a journalist, she continued to show selfless behavior. If she felt covering a certain topic for the newspaper was the right thing to do, Bly dove headfirst into danger, with no regard for her own self-interest. When Bly was assigned to act as an insane person to gain admittance into Blackwell Asylum, she was nervous, but she knew that if her article went well, she could help all the poor souls contained there:

“For who could tell but that the strain of playing crazy, and being shut up with a crowd of mad people, might turn my own brain, and I would never get back. But not once did I think of shirking my mission” (Bly).

Formal portrait photo of Nellie Bly, facing lefthttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nellie_Bly.jpgThis quote shows that she was not reckless, was well-aware of the danger and faced it bravely, even battling her own fears. She was nervous but persevered because it was for the greater good. Bly knew the assignment could end badly for her, but she accepted that risk because of her selfless nature. She always put others and her work before herself. Because of her selflessness, Bly was able to improve the lives of many people.

Intelligence, courage, and selflessness are all important qualities of a hero, and all qualities Nellie Bly possesses. Throughout her life, Bly had many impressive accomplishments. She fought as a women's rights pioneer, breaking glass ceilings left and right. She traveled the world and broke a world record for fastest travel. She also worked as an undercover journalist, saving lives in the process. Nellie Bly inspires me to fight for the things I believe in. Bly was a powerful female activist in her time, climbing the corporate ladder in professions where only males were supposed to succeed, and she did this twice! Because of Bly’s inspiration, I decided to join NAU, a student activist organization. We do not specialize in only one field of activism, but instead we take our activism to any area where we believe we can make a difference. For example, we organized a rally during the April 20th walk-out where we: honored the victims of the worst school shootings of the past nineteen years, had speakers talk to the gathered students, gave people the resources needed to register to vote, and provided the necessary resources to reach out to congressmen and PUSD board members. Also, part of our group attended the PUSD school board meeting to protest the PUSD decision of only adding more fencing and cameras to deter school shootings and to propose an alternative of hiring more school counselors. While gun violence has been a main focus recently, we are now switching to LGBTQ+ visibility, starting off with participating in the day of silence. Nellie Bly fought for those who could not fight for themselves, and now, so am I. Regular heroes are not hard to come by, but true heroes are few and far between. Nellie Bly was a true hero. She proved this with her intelligence, courageousness, and selflessness, putting others before herself. Nellie Bly inspired many after her and will continue to inspire more.

Works Cited

Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-House. Ian L. Munro, 1887.

Bradner, Liesl. "Trouble Maker: Journalism took reporter Nellie Bly undercover and around the world in 72 days." American History, Feb. 2018, p. 42+. Biography In Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A515974806/BIC?u=powa9245&sid=BIC&xid=a5adc7c4. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018.

Fessenden, Marissa. “Nellie Bly's Record-Breaking Trip Around the World Was, to Her Surprise, A Race.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Jan. 2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nellie-blys-record-breaking-trip-around-world-was-to-her-surprise-race-180957910/.

Fleming, James. "Review of Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society by Danny Fingeroth." . ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 2.2 (2006). Dept of English, University of Florida. 23 Apr 2018.

Kroeger, Brooke. Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. Times Books, 1994.

Norwood, Arlisha. "Nellie Bly." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018

Noyes, Deborah. Ten Days a Madwoman: The Daring Life and Turbulent Times of the Original Girl Reporter Nellie Bly. Puffin Books, 2016.

Stevenson, Keira. "Nellie Bly." Nellie Bly, 8/1/2017, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=b6h&AN=18053383&site=brc-live.