View source for Nellie Bly

{{short description|American investigative journalist (1864–1922)}}
{{For|the fictional character|Frankie and Johnny (song){{!}}"Frankie and Johnny"}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Nellie Bly
| image            = Nellie Bly 2.jpg
| caption          = Cochran at 26 years old, {{circa|1890}}
| pseudonym        = Elly Cochran, Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, and most commonly known by her pen-name Nellie Bly
| birth_name       = Elizabeth Jane Cochran
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1864|05|05}}
| birth_place      = [[Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania|Burrell Township, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1922|01|27|1864|05|05}}
| death_place      = [[New York City]], U.S.
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
* [[Journalist]]
* writer
* inventor
}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Robert Seaman]]|1895|1904|end=died}}
| awards           = [[National Women's Hall of Fame]] (1998)
| notable_works    = 
| language         = English
| signature        = Nellie Bly signature.svg
| signature_alt    = Signature reads: "Nellie Bly"
}}

'''Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman''' (born '''Elizabeth Jane Cochran'''; May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name '''Nellie Bly''', was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking [[circumnavigation|trip around the world]] in 72 days in emulation of [[Jules Verne]]'s fictional character [[Phileas Fogg]], and for an [[Exposé (journalism)|exposé]] in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within.<ref name="doodle">{{Cite news |last=Bernard |first=Diane |date=July 28, 2019 |title=She went undercover to expose an insane asylum's horrors. Now Nellie Bly is getting her due. |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/28/she-went-undercover-expose-an-insane-asylums-horrors-now-nellie-bly-is-getting-her-due/ }}</ref> She  ushered in the era of [[stunt girl]] reporting and helped advance a new kind of [[immersion journalism]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/world-nellie-and-other-19th-century-writers/ |title=American Experience |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305011608/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/peopleevents/pande01.html |archive-date=March 5, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Early life==
Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born May 5, 1864,{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|pp=3 & 5}} in Cochran's Mills, now part of [[Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pittsburghclo.org/files/file/NellieBlyStudentsGuide_v4%5B1%5D.pdf |title=Nellie Bly |publisher=Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera |access-date=July 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101091249/https://www.pittsburghclo.org/files/file/NellieBlyStudentsGuide_v4%5B1%5D.pdf#91;1&#93;.pdf |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-3C0 |title=Nellie Bly Historical Marker |website=Explore PA History |publisher=[[WITF-TV]] |access-date=July 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415215106/http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-3C0 |archive-date=April 15, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pghbridges.com/glassport/0587-4460/cochransmillrd_lickrun.htm |title=Cochran's Mill Rd over Licks Run |last=Cridlebaugh |first=Bruce S. |publisher=Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, PA |access-date=July 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828104706/http://pghbridges.com/glassport/0587-4460/cochransmillrd_lickrun.htm |archive-date=August 28, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Her father, Michael Cochran, born about 1810, started as a laborer and mill worker before buying the local mill and most of the land surrounding his family farmhouse.  He later became a merchant, postmaster, and associate justice at Cochran's Mills (named after him) in Pennsylvania. Cochran married twice. He had 10 children with his first wife, Catherine Murphy, and five more children, including Elizabeth, his thirteenth daughter, with his second wife, Mary Jane Kennedy.{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|p=3}} He died in 1870, when Elizabeth was 6.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.biography.com/activist/nellie-bly |title=Nellie Bly Biography |website=Biography.com |publisher=A&E Television Networks |access-date=January 27, 2021 }}</ref>

As a young girl, Elizabeth often was called "Pink" because she so frequently wore that color. As she became a teenager, she wanted to portray herself as more sophisticated, so she dropped the nickname and changed her surname to Cochrane.{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|p=25}} In 1879, she enrolled at Indiana Normal School (now [[Indiana University of Pennsylvania]]) for one term but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Englert|first1=John|last2=Houser|first2=Regan|year=1994|title=The New American Girl|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/iupmagazine124indi#page/4/mode/2up|journal=IUP Magazine|publisher=Indiana University of Pennsylvania|volume=12|issue=4|pages=4–7|access-date=April 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501220500/http://www.archive.org/stream/iupmagazine124indi#page/4/mode/2up|archive-date=May 1, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1880, Cochrane's mother moved her family to [[Allegheny, Pennsylvania|Allegheny City]], which was later annexed by the [[Pittsburgh|City of Pittsburgh]].<ref name="NBO" />

==Career==
[[File:Nellie Bly3.jpg|thumb|219x219px|Portrait of a 21-year-old Bly in Mexico]]

===''Pittsburgh Dispatch''===
In 1885, a column in the ''[[Pittsburgh Dispatch]]'' titled "What Girls Are Good For" stated that girls were principally for birthing children and keeping house. This prompted Elizabeth to write a response under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/youngandbrave/bly.html |title=Young and Brave: Girls Changing History |publisher=National Woman's History Museum |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906093341/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/youngandbrave/bly.html |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="NBO">{{Cite web|title=Nellie Bly, (1864–1922)|url=http://www.nellieblyonline.com/bio|last=Fritz|first=Arthur|website=Nellie Bly Online|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323195842/http://www.nellieblyonline.com/bio|archive-date=March 23, 2016|access-date=April 7, 2014}}</ref><ref name="About.com">{{Cite web |url=http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blynellie/p/Nellie-Bly.htm |title=Nellie Bly |last=Jone Johnson Lewis |publisher=[[About.com]] |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211034026/http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blynellie/p/Nellie-Bly.htm |archive-date=February 11, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The editor, George Madden, was impressed with her passion and ran an advertisement asking the author to identify herself. When Cochran introduced herself to the editor, he offered her the opportunity to write a piece for the newspaper, again under the pseudonym "Lonely Orphan Girl".<ref name="About.com" /> Her first article for the ''Dispatch'', titled "The Girl Puzzle", argued that not all women would marry and that what was needed were better jobs for women.<ref name=todd>{{Cite book |last=Todd |first=Kim |title=Sensational : the hidden history of America's "girl stunt reporters" |date=2021 |isbn=978-0062843616 |edition=1st |publisher=Harper |location=New York|oclc=1244546167 |author-link=Kim Todd | page=17}}</ref> 

Her second article, "Mad Marriages", was about how [[divorce]] affected women. In it, she argued for reform of divorce laws.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/world-nellie-milestones/  PBS website, ''Nellie’s Milestones'']</ref><ref>[https://the-big-archive.com/2023/09/05/mad-marriages-that-break-hearts-covered-by-calico-as-well-as-by-sealskin-sacques/  Historic American Journalism website, Archive section, ''Mad Marriages That Break Hearts Covered by Calico as Well as By Sealskin Sacques'', copy of original article by Nellie Bly, dated February 1, 1885 ]</ref> "Mad Marriages" was published under the byline of Nellie Bly, rather than "Lonely Orphan Girl" because, at the time,{{r|todd}} it was customary for female journalists to use pen names to conceal their gender so that readers would not discredit them. Cochrane chose "Nelly Bly", after the African-American title character in the popular song "Nelly Bly" by [[Stephen Foster]].<ref name="Room2010">{{Cite book |title=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins|edition=5th  |first=Adrian| last=Room |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0786457632 |page=182}}</ref> However, her editor wrote "Nellie" by mistake, and the error stuck.{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|pp=43–44}} Madden was impressed again and offered her a full-time job.<ref name="NBO" />

As a writer, Nellie Bly focused her early work for the ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' on the lives of working women, writing a series of investigative articles on female factory workers. Bly went undercover as a poor woman to get hired at a copper cable factory for a firsthand view of the poor working conditions that women and children faced in the typical factory setting. Her columns were applauded by factory workers for highlighting the hidden truth.<ref>Wildemuth, Susan. “Nellie Bly and the Power of the Press.” Cobblestone, vol. 20, no. 1, Jan. 1999, p. 16. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=1764c592-e2d7-3661-9c16-702e1f3b59e8.</ref> However, the newspaper soon received complaints from factory owners about her writing, and she was reassigned to [[women's page]]s to cover fashion, society, and gardening, the usual role for female journalists, and she became dissatisfied. Still only 21, she was determined "to do something no girl has done before."<ref name="Nellie on the Fly">{{Cite web |url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2019/1/26/around-the-world-with-nellie-bly |title=Nellie on the Fly |website=The Attic |date=January 26, 2019 |access-date=February 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423034603/https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2019/1/26/around-the-world-with-nellie-bly |archive-date=April 23, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> She then traveled to Mexico to serve as a [[foreign correspondent]], spending nearly half a year reporting on the lives and customs of the [[Mexican people]]. Her dispatches later were published in book form as ''[[Six Months in Mexico]].''<ref name="Spartacus">{{Cite web |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/USAWbly.htm |title=Nellie Bly |last=Simkin |first=John |date=September 1997 |publisher=[[Spartacus Educational]] |access-date=January 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403142341/https://spartacus-educational.com/USAWbly.htm |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> In one report, she protested the imprisonment of a local journalist for criticizing the Mexican government, then a dictatorship under [[Porfirio Díaz]].<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Six Months in Mexico |wslink=Six Months In Mexico/Chapter 26 |first=Nellie |last=Bly |year=1889 |publisher=American Publishers Corporation |location=New York |chapter=Chapter XXVI}}</ref> When Mexican authorities learned of Bly's report, they threatened her with arrest, prompting her to flee the country. Safely home, she accused Díaz of being a tyrannical czar suppressing the Mexican people and [[freedom of the press|controlling the press]].<ref name="NBO" />

===Asylum exposé===
{{Main|Ten Days in a Mad-House}}
[[File:468 NEW-YORK CITY ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE (WOMAN) BLACKWELL'S ISLAND.jpg|alt=Photograph of an old building.|thumb|The New York City Mental Health Hospital on [[Blackwell's Island]], c. 1893]]
[[File:Nellie Bly-Mad-House-07.png|thumb|Illustration of Bly being examined by a psychiatrist, from ''Ten Days in a Mad-House''|alt=An illustration of Nellie Bly sitting in a chair while a psychiatrist examines her]]

Burdened again with theater and arts reporting, Bly left the ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' in 1887 for New York City. Bly faced rejection after rejection as news editors would not consider hiring a woman.<ref name="Lutes 2002">{{Cite journal|last=Lutes|first=Jean Marie|date=2002|title=Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late Nineteenth-Century America|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2002.0017|journal=American Quarterly|volume=54|issue=2|pages=217–253|doi=10.1353/aq.2002.0017|s2cid=143667078|issn=1080-6490|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Penniless after four months, she talked her way into the offices of [[Joseph Pulitzer]]'s newspaper, the ''[[New York World]]'', and took an [[Undercover journalism|undercover assignment]] for which she agreed to feign [[insanity]] to investigate reports of [[wikt:brutality|brutality]] and [[neglect]] at the [[The Octagon (Roosevelt Island)|Women's Lunatic Asylum]] on Blackwell's Island, now named [[Roosevelt Island]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/nellie-blys-lessons-in-writing-what-you-want-to |title=Nellie Bly's Lessons in Writing What You Want To |last=Gregory |first=Alice |date=May 14, 2014 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719084012/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/nellie-blys-lessons-in-writing-what-you-want-to |archive-date=July 19, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

It was not easy for Bly to be admitted to the asylum: she first decided to check herself into a boarding house called "Temporary Homes for Females". She stayed up all night to give herself the wide-eyed look of a disturbed woman and began making accusations that the other boarders were insane. Bly told the assistant matron: "There are so many crazy people about, and one can never tell what they will do."<ref name="Ten Days in a Mad-House">{{Cite book |url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html |title=Ten Days in a Mad-House |last=Bly |first=Nellie |date=1887 |via=digital.library.upenn.edu |publisher=Ian L. Munro|location=New York |access-date=October 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040216024852/http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html |archive-date=February 16, 2004 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She refused to go to bed and eventually scared so many of the other boarders that the police were called to take her to the nearby courthouse. Once examined by a police officer, a judge, and a doctor, Bly was taken to [[Bellevue Hospital]] for a few days, then after evaluation was sent by boat to Blackwell's Island.<ref name="Ten Days in a Mad-House" />

Committed to the asylum, Bly experienced the deplorable conditions firsthand. After ten days, the asylum released Bly at ''The World''{{'}}s behest. Her report, published October 9, 1887<ref>{{Cite book | last1=Hershman | first1=Tania | last2=Bell | first2=Jo | last3=Holland | first3=Ailsa |title=On this day she : putting women back into history, one day at a time |date=2021 |others=Tania Hershman, Ailsa Holland |isbn=978-1789462715 |location=London | publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |page=313 |oclc=1250378425}}</ref> and later in book form as ''[[Ten Days in a Mad-House]]'', caused a sensation, prompted the asylum to implement reforms, and brought her lasting fame.<ref name="ten">{{Cite web|title=Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/29734/ten-days-madhouse-woman-who-got-herself-committed|last=DeMain|first=Bill|publisher=mental floss|access-date=May 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514211407/http://mentalfloss.com/article/29734/ten-days-madhouse-woman-who-got-herself-committed|archive-date=May 14, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Just twenty-three years old, Nellie Bly had a significant impact on American culture and shed light on the experiences of marginalized women beyond the bounds of the asylum as she ushered in the era of [[stunt girl]] journalism.<ref name="Lutes 2002" />

In 1893, Bly used the celebrity status she had gained from her asylum reporting skills to schedule an exclusive interview with the allegedly insane serial killer [[Lizzie Halliday]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Telfer|first=Tori|title=Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|year=2017|location=New York|pages=69}}</ref> 
[[File:BlyPlaque.jpg|thumb|United for Libraries Literary Landmark on [[Roosevelt Island]] (formerly Blackwell's Island) that mentions Bly's connection to the island]]

Biographer [[Brooke Kroeger]] argues:
{{blockquote|Her two-part series in October 1887 was a sensation, effectively launching the decade of "stunt" or "detective" reporting, a clear precursor to investigative journalism and one of Joseph Pulitzer's innovations that helped give "New Journalism" of the 1880s and 1890s its moniker. The employment of "stunt girls" has often been dismissed as a circulation-boosting gimmick of the sensationalist press. However, the genre also provided women with their first collective opportunity to demonstrate that, as a class, they had the skills necessary for the highest level of general reporting. The stunt girls, with Bly as their prototype, were the first women to enter the journalistic mainstream in the twentieth century.{{sfn|Kroeger|2000}}}}

===Around the world and general impact===
{{Main|Around the World in Seventy-Two Days}}
[[File:Nellie Bly journalist.jpg|thumb|upright|A publicity photograph taken by the ''[[New York World]]'' newspaper to promote Bly's [[Circumnavigation|around-the-world voyage]]]]

In 1888, Bly suggested to her editor at the ''New York World'' that she take a trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional ''[[Around the World in Eighty Days (novel)|Around the World in Eighty Days]]'' (1873) into fact for the first time. A year later, at 9:40&nbsp;a.m. on November 14, 1889, and with two days' notice,{{sfn|Ruddick|1999|p=4}}{{Clarify|date=January 2023|reason=Is it a year or two days later?}} she boarded the ''[[Augusta Victoria (ship)|Augusta Victoria]]'', a steamer of the [[Hamburg America Line]],{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|p=146}} and began her 24,898 mile (40,070 kilometer) journey.

To sustain interest in the story, the ''World'' organized a "Nellie Bly Guessing Match" in which readers were asked to estimate Bly's arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize consisting at first of a trip to Europe and, later on, spending money for the trip.{{sfn|Ruddick|1999|p=5}}{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|p=150}} During her travels around the world, Bly went through England, France (where she met [[Jules Verne]] in [[Amiens]]), [[Brindisi]], the [[Suez Canal]], [[Colombo]] (in [[British Ceylon|Ceylon]]), the [[Straits Settlements]] of [[Penang]] and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.

[[File:Nellie Bly Reception 1890.jpg|thumb|left|A woodcut image of Nellie Bly's homecoming reception in [[Jersey City]] printed in ''[[Frank Leslie's Weekly|Frank Leslie's Illustrated News]]'' on February 8, 1890]]

Just over seventy-two days after her initial departure, Bly arrived in New York on January 25, 1890, completing her circumnavigation of the globe.{{Sfn|Linford|2022|pp=72–77}} She had traveled alone for almost the entire journey.{{sfn|Kroeger|1994|p=146}} Bly was not the only woman attempting to circumnavigate for newspaper sensation: [[Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore]] was attempting the journey in the opposite direction, for the ''Cosmopolitan''. Bly's journey was a [[Circumnavigation world record progression|world record]], though it only stood for a few months, until [[George Francis Train]] lowered it to 67 days.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/george-francis-train-one-of-few-sane-men-mad-mad-world/ |title=George Francis Train, One of the Few Sane Men in a Mad, Mad World |website=New England Historical Society|date=March 2015 }}</ref>

===Novelist===
After the fanfare of her trip around the world, Bly quit reporting and took a lucrative job writing serial novels for publisher [[Norman Munro]]'s weekly ''New York Family Story Paper.'' The first chapters of ''Eva The Adventuress,'' based on the real-life trial of Eva Hamilton, appeared in print before Bly returned to New York. Between 1889 and 1895 she wrote eleven novels. As few copies of the paper survived, these novels were thought lost until 2021, when author [[David Blixt]] announced the discovery of 11 lost novels in Munro's British weekly ''The London Story Paper.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/almost-100-years-after-her-death-nellie-bly-is-back/Content?oid=86169777|author=Reid, Kerry|title=Almost 100 Years After Her Death, Nellie Bly Is Back|publisher=Chicago Reader|date=February 2, 2021|access-date=April 10, 2021|archive-date=August 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809132642/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/almost-100-years-after-her-death-nellie-bly-is-back/Content?oid=86169777|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1893, though still writing novels, she returned to reporting for the ''World''.

===Later work===
[[File:Nelly Bly patent.png|thumb|upright|Patent for an improved milk can]]
[[File:Nellie Bly in Poland.jpg|thumb|upright|Bly speaking to a military officer in Poland during [[World War I]]  c. 1914]]

In 1895, Bly married millionaire manufacturer [[Robert Seaman]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Nellie Bly {{!}} American journalist|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nellie-Bly|language=en|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823170657/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nellie-Bly|archive-date=August 23, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Bly was 31 and Seaman was 73.<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news|date=January 28, 1922|title=Nellie Bly, journalist, Dies of Pneumonia|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0505.html|url-status=live|work=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115224129/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0505.html|archive-date=November 15, 2011|access-date=November 29, 2011}}</ref> Due to her husband's failing health, she left journalism and succeeded her husband as head of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., which made steel containers such as milk cans and boilers. Seaman died in 1904.<ref name="AmericanOilGas">{{Cite web|title=The Remarkable Nellie Bly|url=http://aoghs.org/technology/the-remarkable-nellie-bly/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004215247/http://aoghs.org/technology/the-remarkable-nellie-bly/|archive-date=October 4, 2011|access-date=July 20, 2013|publisher=American Oil & Gas Historical Society}}</ref>

That same year, Iron Clad began manufacturing the steel barrel that was the model for the 55-gallon [[Drum (container)|oil drum]] still in widespread use in the United States. There have been claims that Bly was responsible for the design,<ref name=AmericanOilGas/> but the inventor was registered as Henry Wehrhahn (U.S. Patents 808,327 and 808,413).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.businesshistory.com/ind._oil2.php |title=Industries – Business History of Oil Drillers, Refiners |publisher=Business History |access-date=July 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006045411/http://www.businesshistory.com/ind._oil2.php |archive-date=October 6, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bly was also an inventor in her own right, receiving {{US patent|697553}} for a novel milk can and {{US patent|703711}} for a stacking garbage can, both under her married name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman. For a time, she was one of the leading women industrialists in the United States. But her negligence, and embezzlement by a factory manager, resulted in the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. going bankrupt.<ref name="LAT">{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-28-vw-39454-story.html |title=Nellie Bly, Girl Reporter : Daredevil journalist |last=Garrison |first=Jayne |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508180815/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-28/news/vw-39454_1_real-nellie-bly/2 |archive-date=May 8, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to biographer Brooke Kroeger:

{{blockquote|She ran her company as a model of social welfare, replete with health benefits and recreational facilities. But Bly was hopeless at understanding the financial aspects of her business and ultimately lost everything. Unscrupulous employees bilked the firm of hundreds of thousands of dollars, troubles compounded by protracted and costly bankruptcy litigation.{{sfn|Kroeger|2000}}}}

Back in reporting, she covered the [[Woman Suffrage Procession]] of 1913 for the [[New York Journal-American|''New York Evening Journal'']]. Her article's headline was "Suffragists Are Men's Superiors", and in its text she accurately predicted that women in the United States would be given the right to vote in 1920.<ref name="Harvey">{{Cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/aw01e/aw01e.html#ack |title=Marching for the Vote: Remembering the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 |last=Harvey |first=Sheridan |year=2001 |website=American Women |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=March 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210230748/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/aw01e/aw01e.html#ack |archive-date=February 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bly wrote stories on Europe's [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]] during [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The remarkable Nellie Bly, inventor of the metal oil drum |magazine=Petroleum Age |date=December 2006 |page=5}}</ref> Bly was the first woman and one of the first foreigners to visit the war zone between Serbia and Austria. She was arrested when she was mistaken for a British spy.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bly|first=Nellie|date=January 12, 1915|title=American Woman Imprisoned in Austria; Liberated When Identified by Dr. Friedman|page=2|work=Los Angeles Herald|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19150112.2.23&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|access-date=May 13, 2020}}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:The Grave of Nellie Bly in Woodlawn Cemetery.JPG|thumb|Bly's grave in Woodlawn Cemetery]]

Bly died of [[pneumonia]] on January 27, 1922, at St. Mark's Hospital, New York City, aged 57.{{sfn|Kroeger|2000}} She was interred at [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[The Bronx]], New York City.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/23/archives/woodlawn-bronxs-other-hall-of-fame-hitching-posts-available.html |title=Woodlawn, Bronx's Other Hall of Fame |last=Dunning |first=Jennifer |date=February 23, 1979 |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 29, 2011 |author-link=Jennifer Dunning |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180110234051/http://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/23/archives/woodlawn-bronxs-other-hall-of-fame-hitching-posts-available.html |archive-date=January 10, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Legacy==

===Honors===
In 1998, Bly was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Elizabeth Jane Cochran – National Women's Hall of Fame| url= http://www.greatwomen.org/component/fabrik/details/2/22|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924181010/http://www.greatwomen.org/component/fabrik/details/2/22|archive-date=September 24, 2013|access-date=July 20, 2013|publisher=Greatwomen.org}}</ref>

Bly was one of four journalists honored with a US postage stamp in a "Women in Journalism" set in 2002.<ref>{{cite press release | website= about.com| publisher=USPS | date= September 14, 2002| url= http://womenshistory.about.com/library/news/pr/blpr_stamp_journalists.htm| title= Four Accomplished Journalists Honored on U.S. Postage Stamps |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016141356/http://womenshistory.about.com/library/news/pr/blpr_stamp_journalists.htm| archive-date=October 16, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Fletcher, Bertram Julian|title=Nellie Bly Marguerite Higgins Ethel L. Payne Ida M. Tarbell March Women's History Month Lady Journalists on Postage Stamps |url= http://slideplayer.com/slide/9446515/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209122243/http://slideplayer.com/slide/9446515/|archive-date=February 9, 2018|access-date=February 9, 2018}}</ref>

In 2019, the [[Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation]] put out an open call for artists to create a Nellie Bly Memorial art installation on [[Roosevelt Island]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Nellie Bly Memorial Call for Artists |url=https://rioc.ny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2371/Nellie-Bly-Memorial-Call-for-Artsts?bidId= |website=Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of New York |publisher=New York State |access-date=March 2, 2021}}</ref> The winning proposal, ''[[The Girl Puzzle]]'' by [[Amanda Matthews]], was announced on October 16, 2019.<ref>{{cite web |title=Amanda Matthews of Prometheus Art Selected to Create Monument to Journalist Nelly Bly on Roosevelt Island, Press Release |url=http://rioc.ny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2902/Amanda-Matthews-of-Prometheus-Art-Selected-to-Create-Nellie-Bly-Monument---10-16-19 |website=Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of New York |publisher=New York State |access-date=March 2, 2021}}</ref> ''The Girl Puzzle'' opened to the public in December 2021.<ref>{{cite web | title=Monument honoring journalist Nellie Bly opens: "This installation is spiritual" | website=CBS News | date=December 11, 2021 | url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nellie-bly-monument-opens/ | access-date=March 24, 2022}}</ref>
[[File:Nellie Bly - The Girl Puzzle.jpg|alt=very large sculpture of Nellie Bly's head|thumb|Nellie Bly depicted as part of ''The Girl Puzzle'' ''Monument Honoring Nellie Bly'', by artist [[Amanda Matthews]], located in Lighthouse Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City]]
The [[New York Press Club]] confers an annual Nellie Bly Cub Reporter [[New York Press Club#Awards for Journalism|journalism award]] to acknowledge the best journalistic effort by an individual with three years or fewer of professional experience. In 2020, it was awarded to Claudia Irizarry Aponte, of ''THE CITY.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=New York Press Club Announces its 2020 Journalism Award Winners|url=https://www.nypressclub.org/new-york-press-club-announces-its-2020-journalism-award-winners/|access-date=November 5, 2021|website=www.nypressclub.org|date=August 19, 2020 }}</ref>

Since 2017, the [[Museum of Political Corruption]] annually has honored journalists with the Nellie Bly award for investigative reporting.<ref>{{cite news|title=ProPublica Wins Nellie Bly Award for Supreme Court Coverage|url=https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/propublica-wins-nellie-bly-award-for-supreme-court-coverage|publisher=Pro Publica|date=5 May 2025}}</ref>

===Theater===
Bly was the subject of the 1946 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway musical]] ''Nellie Bly'' by [[Johnny Burke (lyricist)|Johnny Burke]] and [[Jimmy Van Heusen]]. The show ran for just 16 performances.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dietz|first=Dan|title=Off Broadway Musicals, 1910–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows|publisher=McFarland|year=2010|isbn=978-0786457311}}</ref>{{Rp|310}}

During the 1990s, playwright Lynn Schrichte wrote and toured ''Did You Lie, Nellie Bly?'', a one-woman show about Bly.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.loc.gov/rr/women/schrichte.html |title=Lynn Schrichte |website=Resourceful Women |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date= January 24, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180125015902/https://www.loc.gov/rr/women/schrichte.html |archive-date=January 25, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

An opera based on ''10 Days in a Madhouse'' premiered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September 2023. The music was by Rene Orth and the libretto by Hannah Moscovitch.<ref>{{cite news | last=Brodeur | first=Michael Andor | title=A reporter feigned madness to expose abuse. Now it's an unnerving opera. | newspaper=Washington Post | date=September 22, 2023 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/09/22/opera-philadelphia-madhouse-review/ | access-date=October 1, 2023}}</ref>

===Film and television===
Bly has been portrayed in the films ''[[The Adventures of Nellie Bly]]'' (1981),<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | date=March 4, 2016 | title=The Adventures of Nellie Bly (1981) | url=http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/982/The-Adventures-of-Nellie-Bly/overview | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304144451/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/982/The-Adventures-of-Nellie-Bly/overview}}</ref> ''[[10 Days in a Madhouse (Film)|10 Days in a Madhouse]]'' (2015),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fearless Feminist Reporter Nellie Bly Hits the Big Screen | work= Ms. Magazine| date= November 11, 2015| url=https://msmagazine.com/2015/11/11/fearless-feminist-reporter-nellie-bly-hits-the-big-screen/|access-date=July 20, 2020}}</ref> and ''[[Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story]]'' (2019).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bentley|first=Rick|title=Judith Light hopes 'The Nellie Bly Story' will prompt mental health discussions| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-ent-nellie-bly-judith-light-0117-story.html|access-date=July 20, 2020|website=Chicago Tribune|date=January 17, 2019 }}</ref> In 2019, the [[Center for Investigative Reporting]] released ''Nellie Bly Makes the News'', a short animated biographical film.{{sfn|Reveal|2017}} A fictionalized version of Bly as a mouse named Nellie Brie appears as a central character in the animated children's film ''[[An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 11, 2015|title=Nellie Bly |url= https://popularpittsburgh.com/nellie-bly/|access-date=July 20, 2020|website=Popular Pittsburgh|language=en-US}}</ref> The character of Lana Winters ([[Sarah Paulson]]) in ''[[American Horror Story: Asylum]]'' is inspired by Bly's experience in the asylum.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Eidell|first=Lynsey|date=October 7, 2015 |title=All the Real-Life Scary Stories Told on American Horror Story| url= https://www.glamour.com/story/all-of-the-real-life-scary-sto|magazine=Glamour|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619063553/https://www.glamour.com/story/all-of-the-real-life-scary-sto|archive-date=June 19, 2018|access-date=January 24, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Bly was a subject of Season 2 Episode 5 of ''[[The West Wing]]'' in which First Lady Abbey Bartlet dedicates a memorial in Pennsylvania in honor of Nellie Bly and convinces the president to mention her and other female historic figures during his weekly radio address.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last= MacIntosh|first=Selena|date=July 2011|title=Ladyghosts: The West Wing 2.05, 'And It's Surely to Their Credit' |url= http://persephonemagazine.com/2011/07/ladyghosts-the-west-wing-2-05-and-its-surely-to-their-credit/|magazine=Persephone|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205045243/http://persephonemagazine.com/2011/07/ladyghosts-the-west-wing-2-05-and-its-surely-to-their-credit/|archive-date=February 5, 2012|access-date=January 24, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> On May 5, 2015, the Google search engine produced an interactive "Google Doodle" for Bly; for the "Google Doodle" [[Karen O]] wrote, composed, and recorded an original song about Bly, and Katy Wu created an animation set to Karen O's music.<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 4, 2015|title=What Girls are Good For: Happy birthday Nellie Bly| url= http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/what-girls-are-good-for-happy-birthday.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507224547/http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/what-girls-are-good-for-happy-birthday.html|archive-date=May 7, 2015|access-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref>

===Audio drama===

Nellie's story was adapted into a Doctor Who audio drama by Big Finish Productions, released on September 8, 2021. ''The Perils of Nellie Bly'' was the second story in a three story box set, and was written by Sarah Ward.<ref>{{cite web |  title=Many happy returns, Peter Davison! | website=Big Finish | date=April 13, 2021 | url=https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/many-happy-returns-peter-davison | access-date=May 10, 2024}}</ref>

===Literature===
Bly has been featured as the protagonist of novels by [[David Blixt]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=What Girls Are Good For - A Novel Of Nellie Bly|url=https://www.nextchapter.pub/books/what-girls-are-good-for-novel-nellie-bly|access-date=April 28, 2021|website=Next Chapter|date=September 20, 2019|language=en-US|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415204754/https://www.nextchapter.pub/books/what-girls-are-good-for-novel-nellie-bly|url-status=dead}}</ref> Marshall Goldberg,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://diversionbooks.com/ebooks/new-colossus |title=The New Colossus |website=diversionbooks.com/ebooks/new-colossus |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424100418/http://diversionbooks.com/ebooks/new-colossus |archive-date=April 24, 2014 |access-date=April 29, 2014 }}</ref> Dan Jorgensen,<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://www.usatoday.com/story/jillcallison/2015/03/23/dan-jorgensen-wind-whispered-black-hills-history-nellie-bly--gold/70325778/ |title= Author: There's gold in them thar southern Black Hills |last=Callison |first=Jill |date=March 23, 2015 |work=[[USA Today]] |access-date=January 24, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180125032351/https://www.usatoday.com/story/jillcallison/2015/03/23/dan-jorgensen-wind-whispered-black-hills-history-nellie-bly--gold/70325778/ |archive-date=January 25, 2018 |url-status= live }}</ref> Carol McCleary,<ref>{{Cite web| title=Books |url= http://www.carolmccleary.com/Books.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514200741/http://www.carolmccleary.com/Books.html|archive-date=May 14, 2016|access-date=January 24, 2018|publisher=Carol McCleary}}</ref> [[Pearry Reginald Teo]], Maya Rodale,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mad Girls of New York: A Nellie Bly Novel |url=https://www.mayarodale.com/mad-girls-new-york |access-date=January 11, 2023 |website=Maya Rodale |language=en-US}}</ref> Christine Converse<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bedlam Stories |url= http://www.bedlamstories.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001155736/http://www.bedlamstories.com/|archive-date=October 1, 2013|access-date=September 24, 2013}}</ref> and Louisa Treger<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/madwoman-9781526637161/|title=Madwoman|website=Bloomsbury}}</ref> [[David Blixt]] also appeared on a March 10, 2021, episode of the podcast Broads You Should Know as a Nellie Bly expert.<ref name="Broads You Should Know">{{cite web|author=Broads You Should Know|title=Nellie Bly|url= https://broadsyoushouldknow.com/nellie-bly/|year=2021}}</ref>

A fictionalized account of Bly's around-the-world trip was used in the 2010 comic book ''Julie Walker Is The Phantom'' published by Moonstone Books (Story: [[Elizabeth Massie]], art: Paul Daly, colors: Stephen Downer).<ref>{{Cite web|title=024. Julie Walker: The Phantom (A)| url=http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=500|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729115453/http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=500|archive-date=July 29, 2013|access-date=July 20, 2013| website=Moonstonebooks.com}}</ref>

Bly is one of 100 women featured in the first version of the book ''[[Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls]]'' written by Elena Favilli & Francesca Cavallo.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Establishment|first=The|date=May 22, 2016|title=New Book Gives Rebel Girls The Bedtime Tales They Deserve|url=https://theestablishment.co/new-book-gives-rebel-girls-the-bedtime-tales-they-deserve-e832506af968/|access-date=November 5, 2021|website=The Establishment|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Eponyms and namesakes===
The board game ''Round the World with Nellie Bly'' created in 1890 is named in recognition of her trip.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Round the world with Nellie Bly – The Worlds globe circler| year= 1890| url= https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002716792/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125015842/http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002716792/|archive-date=January 25, 2018|access-date=January 24, 2018|publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref>

The Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, New York City, was named after her, taking as its theme ''Around the World in Eighty Days''. The park reopened in 2007<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/themeparks/nelliebly_ny/ |title= Adventurer's Amusement Park|publisher=UltimaterollerCoaster.com |access-date= May 5, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150728011039/http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/themeparks/nelliebly_ny |archive-date=July 28, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> under new management, renamed "Adventurers Amusement Park".<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.adventurerspark.com/index.php |title=Adventurer's Park Family Entertainment Center – Brooklyn, NY |website=adventurerspark.com |access-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150503225626/http://www.adventurerspark.com/index.php |archive-date=May 3, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A large species of [[tarantula]] from [[Ecuador]], ''Pamphobeteus nellieblyae'' Sherwood ''et al.'', 2022, was named in her honour by arachnologists.<ref>Sherwood, D., Gabriel, R., Brescovit, A. D. & Lucas, S. M. (2022). "On the species of Pamphobeteus Pocock, 1901 deposited in the Natural History Museum, London, with redescriptions of type material, the first record of P. grandis Bertani, Fukushima & Silva, 2008 from Peru, and the description of four new species". ''Arachnology'' 19(3): 650–674. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364738566_On_the_species_of_Pamphobeteus_Pocock_1901_deposited_in_the_Natural_History_Museum_London_with_redescriptions_of_type_material_the_first_record_of_P_grandis_Bertani_Fukushima_Silva_2008_from_Peru_and_ Online]</ref>

A [[fireboat]] named [[Nellie Bly (fireboat)|''Nellie Bly'']] operated in [[Toronto, Canada]], in the first decade of the 20th century.<ref name="BlogTO2013-01" /> From early in the twentieth century until 1961, the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] operated an [[express train]] named the ''Nellie Bly'' on a route between New York and [[Atlantic City]], bypassing Philadelphia.

{{gallery |align=center | width=200px | height=200px
|File:Tugboat and part-time fireboat Nellie Bly, in Toronto, in 1908.jpg| A steam tug named after Bly served as a [[fireboat]] in |[[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada.<ref name=BlogTO2013-01/>
|File:RoundTheWorldWithNellieBly.jpg|Cover of the 1890 board game ''Round the World with Nellie Bly''
}}

==Works==
Within her lifetime, Nellie Bly published three non-fiction books (compilations of her newspaper reportage) and one novel in book form.

* {{Cite book|last=Bly|first=Nellie|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html|title=Ten Days in a Mad-House|publisher=Ian L. Munro|year=1887|location=New York}} 
* {{Cite book|last=Bly|first=Nellie|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/mexico/mexico.html|title=Six Months in Mexico|publisher=American Publishers Corporation|year=1888|location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bly|first=Nellie|title=The Mystery of Central Park|year=1889|location=New York|publisher=G. W. Dillingham|url=https://archive.org/details/mysteryofcentral00coch/page/n7/}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bly|first=Nellie|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html|title=Nellie Bly's Book: Around the World in Seventy-two Days|publisher=The Pictorial Weeklies Company|year=1890|location=New York}}

Between 1889 and 1895, Nellie Bly also penned twelve novels for ''The New York Family Story Paper.'' Thought lost, these novels were not collected in book form until their re-discovery in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://pulp.aadl.org/node/576976 |title=Ann Arbor Native David Blixt Discovered a Cache of Long Lost Novels by Journalist-Adventurer Nellie Bly |first=Jenn |last=McKee |date=February 3, 2021 |work=Pulp &#124; Arts Around Ann Arbor |access-date=November 21, 2022}}</ref>

* ''Eva The Adventuress'' (1889)
* ''New York By Night'' (1890)
* ''Alta Lynn, M.D.'' (1891)
* ''Wayne's Faithful Sweetheart'' (1891) 
* ''Little Luckie, or Playing For Hearts'' (1892)
* ''Dolly The Coquette'' (1892)
* ''In Love With A Stranger, or Through Fire And Water To Win Him'' (1893)
* ''The Love Of Three Girls'' (1893)
* ''Little Penny, Child Of The Streets'' (1893) 
* ''Pretty Merribelle'' (1894)
* ''Twins & Rivals'' (1895)

==See also==
{{Portal|New York City|Journalism|Biography}}
* [[Eleanor Riese]], a psychiatric patient who sued over non-consensual administration of anti-psychotic medicine
* [[Elizabeth Bisland]], who raced Nellie around the globe for a competing publisher
* [[Frances Farmer]], actress who was involuntarily committed to mental hospitals
* [[List of American print journalists]]
* [[List of female explorers and travelers]]
* [[New York Press Club#Awards for Journalism|Nellie Bly Cub Reporter Award]]
* [[Women in journalism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
<ref name=BlogTO2013-01>{{cite news
 |url          = https://www.blogto.com/city/2013/01/the_nautical_adventures_of_the_trillium_ferry_in_toronto/
 |title        = The nautical adventures of the Trillium ferry in Toronto
 |work         = [[Blog TO]]
 |author       = Chris Bateman
 |date         = 2013
 |access-date   = August 11, 2018
|quote        = A second fire boat, the Nellie Bly, presumably named after the American journalist famous for her round-the-world trip and exposé piece of US mental health practices, was also involved. {{'}}Their combined efforts prevented the fire from spreading,{{'}} noted the Star.
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20180828001819/https://www.blogto.com/city/2013/01/the_nautical_adventures_of_the_trillium_ferry_in_toronto/
 |archive-date = August 28, 2018
|url-status   = live
}}</ref>
}}

=== Sources ===
* {{Cite book |title=Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist |last=Kroeger |first=Brooke |author-link=Brooke Kroeger|publisher=Three Rivers Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0812925258 }}
* {{Cite journal|title=Bly, Nellie|last=Kroeger|first=Brooke|date=February 2000|journal=American National Biography|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601472}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Linford |first=Autumn Lorimer |date=2022 |title=Nellie Bly Merchandise and the Changing American Woman: A Material Culture Study |journal=[[American Journalism (journal)|American Journalism]] |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=72–91 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2022.2026195}}
* {{Cite web|ref={{harvid|Reveal|2017}}|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Nellie Bly Makes the News|url=https://www.revealnews.org/article/nellie-bly-makes-the-news/|date=2017|website=Reveal|publisher=The Center for Investigative Reporting|access-date=May 11, 2020}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Ruddick|first=Nicholas|year=1999|title=Nellie Bly, Jules Verne, and the World on the Threshold of the American Age|journal=Canadian Review of American Studies|volume=29|issue=1|pages=1–12|doi=10.3138/CRAS-029-01-01|s2cid=159883003}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=816475}}
* {{Cite book|title=Following Nellie Bly: Her Record-Breaking Race Around the World |last=Brown |first=Rosemary J. |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Ltd |year=2021 |isbn=978-1526761408 }}
* {{Cite book|title=Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World|last=Goodman|first=Matthew|year=2013|publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=978-0345527264}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Lutes|first=Jean Marie|date=June 2002|title=Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late Nineteenth-Century America|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/2536|journal=American Quarterly|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=54|issue=2|pages=217–253|doi=10.1353/aq.2002.0017|s2cid=143667078|via=Project MUSE|url-access=subscription}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Mahoney|first=Ellen|date=Summer 2017|title=Nellie Bly: Pioneer journalist extraordinaire|url=https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/view/60927/60658|journal=Western Pennsylvania History|pages=32–45}}
* {{Cite thesis|last=Parham|first=Stacey Gaines|title=Nellie Bly, "the best reporter in America": one woman's rhetorical legacy|year=2010|degree=PhD|publisher=The University of Alabama|url=https://ir.ua.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/793/file_1.pdf?sequence=1}}
* {{Cite book|last=Randall|first=David|title=The Great Reporters|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2005|isbn=0745322972|location=London|pages=93–113|chapter=Nellie Bly: The best undercover reporter in history}}
* {{Cite book|last=Rittenhouse|first=Mignon|title=The Amazing Nellie Bly|publisher=Dutton|year=1956 | oclc=299483}}
* {{Cite book|last=Roggenkamp|first=Karen|title=Sympathy, Madness, and Crime: How Four Nineteenth-century Journalists Made the Newspaper Women's Business|publisher=Kent State University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1606352878}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Vengadasalam|first=Puja|date=September 10, 2018|title=Dislocating the Masculine: How Nellie Bly Feminised Her Reports|journal=Social Change|volume=48|issue=3|pages=451–458|doi=10.1177/0049085718781597|s2cid=149576773|doi-access=free}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|d=Q230299|n=no|s=Author:Elizabeth Jane Cochrane|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|q=no|species=no|wikt=no|b=no}}
* Information, photos and original Nellie Bly articles at [http://www.nellieblyonline.com/ Nellie Bly Online]
* [https://guides.loc.gov/nellie-bly Library of Congress "Nellie Bly: A Resource Guide"]
* Nellie Bly's collected journalism at [http://www.historicjournalism.com/nellie-bly.html The Archive of American Journalism]
* Norwood, Arlisha. [https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly "Nellie Bly"]. National Women's History Museum. 2017.
* ''[http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/17/the-daring-nellie-bly-bonnie-christensen/ The Daring Nellie Bly: America's Star Reporter]'' illustrated biography by [[Bonnie Christensen]], reviewed by [[Maria Popova]]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=9648 | name=Nellie Bly}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Nellie Bly}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4117}}

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bly, Nellie}}
[[Category:1864 births]]
[[Category:1922 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century American memoirists]]
[[Category:19th-century American women journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:American investigative journalists]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American suffragists]]
[[Category:American women memoirists]]
[[Category:American women sportswriters]]
[[Category:Around the World in Eighty Days]]
[[Category:Boxing writers]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City]]
[[Category:Indiana University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:Journalists from Pittsburgh]]
[[Category:Jules Verne]]
[[Category:New York Journal-American people]]
[[Category:New York World people]]
[[Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:People from Roosevelt Island]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:Psychiatric false diagnosis]]
[[Category:Undercover journalists]]
[[Category:Writers from Pittsburgh]]