Nellie Bly Research Paper

Nellie Bly As described by Brook Kroeger, “Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist,” Nellie Bly was arguably the most famous reporter and woman of her time. She was born Elizabeth Cochran on May 5, 1864, to Michael and Mary Jane Cochran. Her full name came to be Elizabeth Cochrane-Seaman after her mother remarried, and she added an e to her last name, “feeling that ‘Cochrane’ had a more elegant air.” Nellie Bly later became her widely known pen name. She lived in Cochran Mills, Pennsylvania, for most of her childhood. Bly did not perform well in school, but was a skilled writer. In 1880, when Bly was 16, she moved to Pittsburgh with her mother in hopes of becoming a teacher. Though her teaching career proved mildly unsuccessful, Bly got her break at …show more content…
Instead, she decided to focus on implementing improved working conditions for the people in her husband’s steel factories and companies. She inherited the companies in his death and “during a twenty-year period, she created social reforms that were unheard of for workers at the time, like healthcare.” She took over as president of his companies for a time. Even after retiring, Bly was committed to the well-being and rights of the working class. However, one of her most famous stories and best examples of her commitment was her trip to Blackwell’s Island, where her first book was written. On an assignment given to her by Joseph Pulitzer, a leading publisher of his time, she was committed to Blackwell’s Island Asylum by pretending to have amnesia. “Inside the asylum, she found other patients who had been committed when they were also healthy. Many of these patients could not speak fluent English, so they could not convince the nurses that they were actually sane.” The conditions in which the patients were institutionalized and living were outrageous. She documented physical and mental abuse by staff, neglect, spoiled food, and more all through real

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