She Exposed A Truth That Shocked The World

Elizabeth Jane Chochran didn’t set out to be a liberator. But her disdain of injustice drove her into the darker, hidden corners of life that were unseen by the public.

Known by her pen name, Nellie Bly, she aspired to work in New York as a serious news reporter, but women had their “place,” and no male editor would hire this twenty-three-year-old unless her articles pertained to homemaking  But Bly kept pushing until she got in the door at the New York World, where she was given an assignment that would expose an unimaginable, ugly truth.

It was 1887, and Bly agreed to investigate conditions inside Blackwell’s Island asylum. To do it, she feigned mental illness, admitted herself to the asylum, and spent ten days inside the institution. Her six-part series, Ten Days in the Madhouse, shocked the public and led to increased funding to improve the institution's conditions. 

Bly continued to report on corruption, exploitation, and the treatment of working people, often putting herself in uncomfortable and uncertain situations to harness the truth. Her in-depth work unearthed secrets and focused on people and issues that were previously concealed or dismissed. Her gutsy muckraking developed into what we now refer to as investigative journalism.

Nellie Bly earned her place in history and reminds us that change can happen when one person steps forward and speaks candidly about what they’ve seen, heard, and experienced.