Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochrane)

"I was too impatient to work along at the usual duties assigned women at newspapers"Nellie Bly

     I chose Nellie Bly as a woman of historic value to do a report on because I had previously heard about her accomplishments in journalism.

Facts in Brief


Name: Elizabeth Jane Cochrane

Date of Birth: May 5, 1867

Location of Birth: Cochran Mills, PA

Date of Death: January 27, 1922

Parents:

Major Accomplishments: Nellie Bly sailed around the world in 72 days. She left New York on November 14, 1889. The New York World, The Paper she was working for at the time, had a contest to see who could guess the exact time it would take her to go all the way around the world. She did it in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds. She wrote a book about her experience so everyone could enjoy it.

     Elizabeth Jane Cochrane received very little formal schooling when she was young. She grew up and landed her first job as a journalist in 1885 at the age of 18. She obtained this job by sending an angry letter to an editor that had printed an article entitled "What Girls are Good For" in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. The editor was so impressed with the way she wrote the response, that he hired her on the spot.

     Elizabeth Cochrane chose the name Nellie Bly used as a pen name when she wrote articles for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. She picked this name out when she heard it in a Steven Foster Song.

     Nellie Bly wrote many articles on the life of women and she went to Mexico and reported on the condition of the poor in the country. In result though, Mexico didn’t like this and kicked her out of the country.

     A few years later she left the Pittsburgh Dispatch and was hired by the New York World newspaper. Nellie took a role as an undercover reporter for this paper. She pretended to be insane and got into an asylum on Blackwell’s Island, an institution for the mentally ill. In this institution she took note on the treatment of the patients and published it in the New York World. This led to a investigation of the asylum. She did this also with sweatshops, jails, and legislatures.

     

     I believe that Nellie Bly was important because she was, first of all, a great reporter, but she went into depth with the stories she covered. She went inside the story and found out what was really happening, not just what was on the outside and appeared most obvious.

 

Bibliography

Nellie Bly. 30 Mar. 2001 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=16006&tocid=0.

Nellie Bly 1864-1922. 29 Mar. 2001 http://www.greatwomen.org/profs/bly_n.php.

Miriam Schneir, Bly, Nellie., World Book Encyclopedia, 01-01-2000

"Nellie Bly." Encyclopedia of World Biographies. 1998 ed. 1998. 346-348.




Created by: Andy
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