NELLIE BLY
"It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world."
— Nellie Bly (Ten Days in a Mad-House)
Elizabeth Jane Cochran, a pioneer woman journalist most famous for her series of articles, “Ten Days in a Madhouse”, was born on May 5th, 1864 in western Pennsylvania. Although she grew up when women did not have the constitutional right to vote, Elizabeth always voiced her opinion. Her father passed away when she was only six years old, leaving her widow mother alone to fend for her ten children. After dropping out of teaching school due to financial troubles, Cochran aspired to become a writer. One day, an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch delineated a woman’s domestic duties and bashed the workingwoman. Furious, she wrote back in a fierce letter. The newspaper, impressed with her passion for journalism, hired her, and gave her the pen name, Nellie Bly. Although her budding had career just started, she felt discriminated after her assignment to the women’s column at the Pittsburgh Dispatch.
Unhappy with her current employment, she sought newspaper jobs in New York City. Soon enough, she arranged a meeting with the New York World’s managing editor and proposed to him the idea of going undercover, traveling to Europe, and returning immigrant-style. However, he rejected her proposal because it was considered too far-fetched for her amount of work experience. Fortunately, the editor authorized Bly’s second idea of reporting on a women's insane asylum, Blackwell’s Island.
Nellie Bly committed herself into the mental institution by pleading insanity. During her stay as an impersonator and a girl stunt reporter, she discovered the poor living conditions and unfair treatment of patients. She accurately portrayed a mental patient while maintaining a reporter-like attitude in order to collect the facts for her exposé. Following her assignment, she wrote a series of articles known as “Ten Days in a Madhouse", catching the public’s attention. One of the articles recounts a very unpleasant breakfast she ate during her stay at Blackwell's Island. Bly describes the hardness of blackened bread as if it were dried dough and the appearance of a dead spider baked into the slice. Along with the unappealing meal, stories of ice-cold baths and terrible sleeping conditions fill her exposé. Bly's news stories brought much needed reform. Additionally, her piece sparked an increase of 850,000 dollars in the New York City budget towards mental facilities such as Blackwell’s Island.
"Ten Days in a MadHouse" - http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html
Unhappy with her current employment, she sought newspaper jobs in New York City. Soon enough, she arranged a meeting with the New York World’s managing editor and proposed to him the idea of going undercover, traveling to Europe, and returning immigrant-style. However, he rejected her proposal because it was considered too far-fetched for her amount of work experience. Fortunately, the editor authorized Bly’s second idea of reporting on a women's insane asylum, Blackwell’s Island.
Nellie Bly committed herself into the mental institution by pleading insanity. During her stay as an impersonator and a girl stunt reporter, she discovered the poor living conditions and unfair treatment of patients. She accurately portrayed a mental patient while maintaining a reporter-like attitude in order to collect the facts for her exposé. Following her assignment, she wrote a series of articles known as “Ten Days in a Madhouse", catching the public’s attention. One of the articles recounts a very unpleasant breakfast she ate during her stay at Blackwell's Island. Bly describes the hardness of blackened bread as if it were dried dough and the appearance of a dead spider baked into the slice. Along with the unappealing meal, stories of ice-cold baths and terrible sleeping conditions fill her exposé. Bly's news stories brought much needed reform. Additionally, her piece sparked an increase of 850,000 dollars in the New York City budget towards mental facilities such as Blackwell’s Island.
"Ten Days in a MadHouse" - http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html