Nellie Bly – Around the World in Seventy-Two Days

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When Jules Verne penned his novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, it would be seventeen years before anyone thought to challenge Phileas Fogg’s fictitious record. In 1889, two people set off to best this feat, both of them women. Seventy-two days later, Elizabeth Cochran, better known by her pen-name ‘Nellie Bly’, would arrive back in New Jersey, victorious, despite all doubts that a woman could complete such an arduous task.

Born in Cochran (a small Pennsylvanian town named after its founder – Bly’s father) in 1864, Nellie Bly was no stranger to hardship. Her father died when she was six and her mother’s subsequent re-marriage turned abusive and ended in divorce. Lacking a will, and thus a legal claim to the family estate, the Cochrans fell on financial troubles and Bly was forced to drop out of school, leaving behind her hopes of becoming a teacher. 

She was not to be beaten. Aged eighteen, Bly caught her break when she responded to an article in The Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled, ‘What Girls Are Good For’. The article criticised women who attempted to gain an education and suggested they should stick to domestic duties; Bly’s quick-witted response so impressed the editor, George Madden, that he printed it and offered her a position. Her follow-up article, ‘The Girl Puzzle’, secured Bly a full-time job.

Nellie Bly, photographed in her travel garb upon her return from her ground-breaking journey

Nevertheless, Bly was a woman in what was – and, to an extent, still is – a male-dominated field. Women writers were not afforded favour or respect and they were expected to cover ‘women’s topics’, i.e. fashion, gardening, and theatre.

Determined to be taken seriously, Bly shunned these assignments, setting out to prove that women could tackle serious topics just as well as men. Aside from her round-the-world trip, Bly’s greatest story was her time undercover in a women’s mental health institution during which she researched the cruelty women faced there, now writing for the New York World.

The report was a success. Her exposé resulted in a complete overhaul of the system, with a million dollars being granted to the asylum she had visited. Bly was famous.

Part of her fame came from her unique style of reporting. Instead of hiding her gender, Bly highlighted it, ensuring from the off that people knew she was a woman. She ran headlines such as ‘Trying to be Servant: Nellie Bly’s Strange Experience’. Bly created a specific brand of sensationalism; people read her articles because of her name, but she never compromised the accuracy or intent of her pieces. She was committed to improving society, and improve society she did.

By 1887, Bly was firmly established as a pioneer of what is now known as investigative journalism. She continued to make a name for herself by taking on the world’s injustices, for example the poor working conditions of factory women and the treatment of unwanted children.

However, her greatest success was still to come. After reading Verne’s novel, Bly pitched her idea of a round-the-world journey to the editor at the World. The response was typical of the time – no. Bly was told that she, as a woman, would need a protector; furthermore, the luggage she would take would prevent her from making rapid changes.

“No one but a man can do this,” John A. Cockerill, the World’s Managing Editor said.

“Very well,” Bly responded. “Start the man and I’ll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.”

On November 14th, 1889, Nellie Bly set off on a steamship to England on a journey that would make her a trailblazer for her sex. She carried a single bag, containing underwear, toiletries, writing materials, a dressing gown, a tennis blazer, a flask and cup, two caps, three veils, slippers, handkerchiefs, and a needle and thread. She refused to arm herself.

A drawing of Nellie Bly (L) and Elizabeth Bisland (R), published in the Jan 1890 edition of ‘Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper’

Bly faced a great many challenges on her route, not least the unwelcome surprise that a rival newspaper, the Cosmopolitan, had commissioned Elizabeth Bisland to attempt to beat Bly’s time. Bisland was another female journalist, and was travelling west instead of east like Bly. The competition generated more public interest in the story – something which was desperately needed as slow communication lines made keeping people updated difficult. 

Bly arrived back in New Jersey on 25th January 1890, 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds after she left. Despite poor weather, and a side-trip to meet Jules Verne himself, she beat Bisland’s time by five days and, more importantly, Fogg’s by more than seven. She was greeted as a hero.

Never having failed, I could not picture what failure meant.

Nellie Bly

In 1895, she married millionaire Robert Seaman, a man forty years her senior. Around this time, she also retired from journalism, and the couple shared a happy marriage until Seaman’s death in 1904, upon which Bly inherited his manufacturing company.

Bly’s desire for social reform saw her introduce several benefits to the staff there, including healthcare and gyms. Unfortunately, this was a drain on her finances, and she ended up re-entering journalism. 

A passionate feminist, she supported the suffrage movement and covered the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession. Showing odd prescience, she predicted in her article, ‘Suffragists Are Men’s Superiors’, that it would be 1920 before women were allowed to vote in America. She also reported from the Eastern Front during World War One, becoming the first woman to do so. 

Nellie Bly died of pneumonia on January 27, 1922. Her life had been spent breaking down societal barriers, creating a new perspective on women and their capabilities and forging a path for her successors in journalism. Above all else, she wanted to make a difference to other people’s lives; she managed this with a great deal of spirit and heart, and it is for this that she deserves a place amongst so many outstanding women of history.

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