Nellie Bly: Intrepid Reporter

Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a reporter for the New York World.

Nellie, who took her pen name from a song about a social reformer, won renown for her serious investigative reporting, such as her expose of conditions in a New York insane asylum (where she posed as an inmate) and her undercover work to expose conditions inside a sweatshop.

Nellie became even more famous when, inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, “Around the World In Eighty Days,” she proposed making a round-the-world trip in fewer than eighty days.  Joseph Pulitzer, the owner of the newspaper, was enchanted with the idea and in 1889, Nellie set out with a twenty-four hour watch, lots of money, and a small satchel.

Departing from New York, the intrepid reporter made stops in London, France (where she met Jules Verne), Hong Kong, Tokyo, Ceylon, San Francisco, Chicago, and numerous other locations.

The final trip took seventy-two days, six hours, and eleven minutes, and Nellie had earned the nickname, “the World’s Globe Circler.”

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