Elizabeth Jane Cochrane 

 (May 5, 1864 -  January 27, 1922)

Nellie Bly

Born in Pennsylvania, Elizabeth took the pen name of Nellie Bly when writing for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. She covered social questions such as divorce and low wages and worked in factories to investigate child labour and unsafe working conditions. In 1887 Bly was recruited by Joseph Pulitzer to write for the New York World. She pioneered investigative journalism, involving undercover work such as feigning insanity to get into New York's notorious mental asylum. She was an outspoken critic of the death penalty. In 1889, mimicking Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days, Bly circumvented the globe, unaccompanied, in seventy-two days. A world record. She instantly became a national hero and a powerful role model for women everywhere. In 1914 she traveled to the Eastern Front as war correspondent for the New York Evening Journal.

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