Elizabeth Cochran Seaman

Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born on May 5, 1864, in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania and moved to Pittsburgh in 1880. After being offended by a sexist column in the "Pittsburgh Dispatch," she wrote a fiery letter to the paper's editor. Impressed by her character, he hired her as a journalist, giving her the pen name "Nellie Bly," after a popular Stephen Foster song. After covering topics from women's rights to theater, Nellie moved to New York City, talking her way into a journalist position at Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, the "New York World." Earning her fame by going undercover and outing the deplorable conditions at a women's mental health facility, Nellie convinced her editor to allow her to travel around the world, a la Jules Verne's novel, "Around the World in 80 Days." On November 14, 1889, she left NYC, traveling just under 25,000 miles, and returning 72 days later on January 25, 1890. Nellie became a role model for all women, for she completed her trek independently, without a male companion. Four years later, she retired from journalism and married; after her husband died, she returned to reporting on women's suffrage and European events prior to World War I. At the age of 57, she died of pneumonia on January 27, 1922.