May 5: Birthday of Nellie Bly (1864)
Prayer Idea
Pray for journalists who seek to draw attention to people who are suffering and marginalized.
History Note
Elizabeth Cochrane was born on May 5, 1864, in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania. In 1885 the Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article entitled “What Girls Are Good For.” Elizabeth wrote a letter to the editor arguing for greater educational and economic opportunities for women. Though she had received limited formal education herself, the newspaper editor was impressed with her writing ability and offered her a job as a reporter.
Taking the pen name “Nellie Bly” from a Stephen Foster song, Cochrane wrote about the lives of working girls in Pittsburgh, the condition of the poor in Mexico, and similar topics. She moved to New York to work for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World in 1887.
After going undercover in a mental health facility, she published an exposé that led to changes in how patients were treated. She also brought attention to sweatshops, jails, and bribery by lobbyists in the state legislature.
Jules Verne had published the novel Around the World in Eighty Days in 1873. In 1889 the New York World sponsored Cochrane to take her own trip around the world to see if she could beat that time. Going east from New York, she returned to that city in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds. While Cochrane was on her journey, she learned that another woman, Elizabeth Bisland, was also attempting to circumnavigate the world, traveling in the opposite direction. Bisland ended up completing her journey in 76 days.
Elizabeth Cochrane married a wealthy businessman, Robert Seaman, in 1895. After his death in 1904, she ran his business and received patents for a milk can and a stacking garbage can. She continued to work as a journalist, too, writing about women’s suffrage and visiting the Eastern Front during World War I.
Nellie Bly (also known as Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman) died in 1922.
The McLoughlin Brothers published a board game in 1890 celebrating Nellie Bly’s journey around the world. Photo courtesy the New-York Historical Society.
Learn More
Watch this brief video about Nellie Bly’s trip around the world.
Find a more detailed report of her trip and other resources at Homeschool History.
