Today in 1890 at 3:51 PM, Nellie Bly arrives in New Jersey

Completing a 72-day solo journey around the world!

1890: Nellie Bly arrives in New Jersey after a 72-day solo journey around the world.

Tell me, is there a SINGLE main stream investigative reporter who can hold a candle to this woman of 120+ years ago?

Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days had been published in 1873, and one day Bly came up with the idea to undertake a circumnavigation of the globe in attempt to turn it in to fact!

Born in 1864, Elizabeth Jane Cochran adopted the pseudonym Nellie Bly after securing a position as a journalist at the Pittsburgh Dispatch. However, she quickly became frustrated at being forced to write bland stories for the so-called ‘women’s pages’ and headed to New York.

While working in the city she proved herself to be a formidable investigative journalist after posing as a mental patient in order to report on the brutal and neglectful conditions inside the local Women's Lunatic Asylum. Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days had been published in 1873, and Bly came up with the idea to undertake a circumnavigation of the globe in attempt to turn it in to fact. In 1888 she met with John A. Cockerill, the managing editor of the New York World, and suggested that she should circumnavigate the world. She battled with the newspaper’s senior executives for over a year as they preferred to send a man instead. She responded by telling them to ‘start the man and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him’.

Eventually the board gave in. With £200 in English gold and banknotes, and a single bag that was smaller than modern carry-on luggage, Bly departed from Hoboken Pier in New Jersey on board the Augusta Victoria steamship on 14 November 1889. Bly sent short reports to the newspaper by cable throughout her journey, while the full account of her circumnavigation was later published as the book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days.

Bly had guts. She once got herself committed to a Victorian mental asylum in order to expose the dreadful conditions therein. Her real name was eventually revealed to be Elizabeth Cochran, but she was know her whole life as her pen name.

In 1850, Steven Foster wrote a song about her that is still sung to this day:

The gay men’s choir Chanticleer does the best rendition that I know:

Listen!

Here’s the rest of the album. They have a dozen CD’s and all are great!

BONUS!!!

The 1890's ~ Amazing Rare Footage of Cities Around the World in the time of Nelly Bly:

The start of motion pictures, late 1890's. Rare film of cities, towns and countries. High-quality remastered prints from the Lumiere archives and EYE Film Museum. Clips listed in order below video. ENJOY!!!

Film Clips... April 1897 - Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem 1897 - Group leaving church in Bohemia, Czech Republic August 6, 1899 - Ship departure in Livorno, Italy May 1896 - Tverskaya Street in Moscow, Russia 1897 - Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan 1898 - Early Rollercoaster, Britain (Restored Film) Feb 20, 1896 - Street Dance in Drury Lane, London June 1899 Victorian Era - Ladies Cycling Display in London 1899 - Town Parade in Selkirk, Scotland November 3, 1896 - The Melbourne Cup horse races in Australia May June 1896 - Group in Geneva, Switzerland 1896-1901 Visual tour of New York City 1896 - Frederick Street in Berlin Summer 1896 - Visual tour of Italy Milan & Venice 1898 - Ice Skaters in France Late 1890s - A Trip Through Paris, France 1897 - Arrival of a Two-Stage Train in France Apr 11, 1896 - High Street in Marseille, France c1898 - Avenue du Bois de Boulogne in Paris, France c1898 - President Félix Faure and crowd in France Sep 1898 - Scheveningen Boulevard in the Hague 1896 - Children's Marble Game in Lyon, France Venice and visit with Pope Leo XIII