Nelly Bly (1864 - 1922)

Nellie Bly, born on May 5, 1864 in Pennsylvania, was the pen name of American pioneer female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochrane.

In 1880, Cochrane and her family moved to Pittsburgh. A sexist column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch prompted her to write a fiery rebuttal to the editor. He was so impressed with her earnestness and spirit, that he asked her to join the paper. Female newspaper writers at that time customarily used pen names, and for Cochrane the editor chose "Nellie Bly", adopted from the title character in the popular song "Nelly Bly".

Still only 21, she spent nearly half a year in Mexico reporting the lives and customs of the people. The Mexican authorities threatened her with arrest, prompting her to leave the country. Safely home, she denounced Díaz as a tyrannical czar suppressing the Mexican people and controlling the press.

Bly left the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1887 for New York City. Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pullitzer’s newspaper, the New York World, and took an underccover assignment for which she agreed to feign insanity to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

After ten days, Bly was released from the asylum. Her report, later published in book form as Ten Days in a Mad-House, caused a sensation and brought her lasting fame. A grand jury launched its own investigation into the conditions at the asylum, inviting Bly to assist. They increased funds for care of the insane.

In 1888, Nellie suggested to her editor 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.

In 1895 Nellie Bly married a millionaire manufacturer. She retired from journalism, and became the president of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. For a time she was one of the leading female industrialists in the United States, but embezzlement by employees forced her into bankruptcy.

Forced back into reporting, she covered such events as the women’s suffrage convention in 1913, and stories on Europe's Eastern Front during World War I.

She died of bronchopneumonia at St. Mark's Hospital in New York City in 1922, at age 57.