Nellie
Bly
1864-1922
Elizabeth Cochrane, better known by her pen name
Nellie Bly, was an American
pioneer in investigative journalism. She was widely known for her
record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules
Verne's
fictional character Phileas Fogg.
When she landed a job at Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, the New York
World in 1887, her
first assignment was to feign insanity in order to be admitted to the
Women’s Lunatic Asylum. During
her 10-day stay in the asylum, Bly witnessed horrifying conditions of
neglect and abuse of the patients, some of whom were mentally ill and
needed professional care, but others had been sent there merely for
embarrassing their family, while others were suffering from obvious
physical ailments that were being ignored.
"From
the moment I entered the insane ward I made no attempt to keep up the
assumed role of insanity. I talked and acted just as I do in normal
life. Yet, strange to say, the more sanely I talked and acted, the
crazier I was thought to be."
Husband: Robert Seaman (m. 1895, died 1904)
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