“Travels, Triumphs, and Tribulations of Nellie Bly”

A one-woman show with Mary Hobein.

Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was an investigative reporter, world traveler, business owner, patent holder, suffragist, war correspondent, and advocate for abandoned children and single mothers. A woman ahead of her times!

Co-Hosted by DG Area Branch of AAUW, Lombard Area Branch of AAUW,  and LWV DG, Lisle & Woodridge

Register for the event HERE by Monday, February 1.

All those registered will receive the Zoom link on Tuesday, February 2.

Shortened text sent by Ms. Hobein:  Nelly Bly (1864-1922) was an investigative reporter, world traveler, business owner, patent holder, suffragist, war correspondent, and advocate for abandoned children and single mothers.  She rode a horse in the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. and covered Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.  A woman ahead of her times!   If this is still too long, you may want to skip the third sentence as the first one mentions that she was a suffragist.

Original text sent by Ms. Hobein:  Nelly Bly (1864-1922) was an investigative reporter in an era when female reporters were few and mostly confined to writing for the society pages.  Not Nelly! It all began when she read an 1885 column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch titled "What Girls Are Good For," which argued that working women were immoral. Eighteen-year-old Bly wrote an anonymous letter to the editor, passionately arguing that women could help support a family in need.  After an interview with the editor, she was hired.  After writing about her travels to Mexico, she left Pittsburgh to work for the New York World.  Her first big story exposed the cruel treatment of inmates and corruption in a New York insane asylum.  Next, inspired by the Jules Verne novel, she made a bet with her editor that she could travel around the world in less than 80 days.  Among the famous people she interviewed for the paper were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eugene Debs, Susan B. Anthony, Illinois governor John Altgeld, and prize fighter James Corbett.  She rode a horse in the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. and covered Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.  In August of 1914, she went to Austria to visit a friend and wound up staying a whole lot longer covering battles of World War I.  (Not to mention, she ran a manufacturing business and had some of her products patented!) In her final years, she used her column to help orphans and single mothers.  Truly, a self made woman.

Nellie Bly flyer from Ms. Hobein.