Amanda Golby 'Woman of Recognition'

Born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran in 1864, Nellie Bly was the thirteenth child of her father. She was born in his second marriage. Her father was the owner of one of the mills surrounding the land that Nellie grew up on. As a child, she would often wear the color pink, giving her a childhood nickname. After growing up some, Nellie wanted to be seen as more sophisticated and decided to start going by her own name.

In 1879, Nellie enrolled in what became Indiana University of Pennsylvania but only stayed there for one term due to a lack of funds. 

Nellie began her career as a journalist in 1885. The Pittsburgh Dispatch ran an article titled "What Girls are Good For" which stated that women were most adept at becoming wives, mothers, and homemakers. Nellie strongly disagreed with this idea of womanhood, and wrote her own response to it titled under the pseudonym The Lonely Orphan. The editors of the newspaper were so impressed by Nellie that they urged the author to come forward. Nellie stepped forward and was offered to draft an additional article for the newspaper, this one titled "The Girl Puzzle" in which she writes that not all women feel the need to marry and instead there should be better jobs offered to women.

Nellie continued to write for the newspaper, continued to write for the newspaper, adopting the pen name of Nellie Bly after the title character of a Stephen Foster song. Nellie wrote about how the lives of working women could be improved, writing a series of investigative pieces on women in factory work. After a few articles had been published in this line, women in the factories became upset at Nellie's writing, and she was given a new assignment in the women's pages covering fashion, society, and gardening. 

By this time, Nellie was only 21 years old was had grown bored of writing puff pieces, so she began to serve as a foreign correspondent in Mexico. She spent six months there writing about the lives and cultures of the Mexican people. When Nellie drafted an article about the unjust arrest of a Mexican citizen for speaking out against the Mexican dictatorship, the country threatened to arrest her, causing her to flee the country.

After returning to the United States, Nellie once again grew bored with writing in the women's column. She moved to New York and approached New York World for an undercover investigation series. Nellie faked insanity to be admitted to an insane asylum to learn firsthand what women in these institutions faced. Nellie was kept at the Blackwell Island asylum for ten days before the newspaper had her released under their orders. 

Nellie wrote a report of her time in the asylum that was published on October 9, 1887. Her report was also later turned into a book titled "Ten Days in a Mad House". Nellie's report caused such a sensation in the public eye that reforms were made and put in place that changed the treatment that women faced in asylums.

Nellie did not stop there. She continued to write as a journalist, going as far as to be allowed to interview the notorious serial killer, Lizzie Halliday. Nellie also continued her travels, in 1888 she wanted to prove whether it actually took eighty days to cross the globe as author Jules Verne had predicted in his book, "Around the World in Eighty Days". Nellie set out in New York and returned a mere 72 days later. This feat caused her to set a record for the fastest time to go around the world.

Nellie continued writing until she got married to a wealthy man named Robert Seaman, who was several years older than Nellie was. When Robert's health started to decline, Nellie left writing to succeed him in taking over and running his business, the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. Nellie became one of the leading female industrialists in the United States. The company eventually went bankrupt and Nellie returned to writing and worked as a journalist until her death in 1922.

-March 2025