History in the Making

Research questions: How does Nellie Bly fit into the world of investigative journalism? What is the extent of her impact on society as such a reporter? How does Nellie Bly contribute to expanding women’s working roles in journalism during the Gilded Age?

Social history is very interesting as it studies people and not necessarily, famous people, but ordinary, everyday people. The Gilded Age is one of the most fascinating times in United States history as industrialization brings about huge changes, urbanization, new wealth and an upper elite, a hard-working class. It was a period riddles with corruption in business and government, each exploiting the other and both exploiting the people and resources. Middle-and-lower-class women during the Gilded Age faced many difficulties in society. According to societal norms, a woman’s position, once married, was in the home taking care of the children and tending to the home. However, the poor needed the extra income from women wage earners, yet were very limited in the positions by which women were allowed to hold. Middle-class single ladies could work as shop girls, teachers, librarians, and nurses. Universities were starting to accept women into law school and medical school. Yet, the poor generally worked in textile factories, in households, or as laundresses.

Historical Significance

Elizabeth Cochrane, better known as Nellie Bly, did not fit into the expected molds of society. She dropped out of university during her first semester from lack of funds. Bly began her career in news reporting replying to an article in a newspaper stating that women had limited capabilities. She wrote a letter to the editor which was published and was asked to continue writing for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Later she moved to New York and became an investigative journalist. She was an investigative reporter before the muckrakers of the Progressive Era took over. Bly wrote during the same period as Helen Campbell and Ida B. Wells yet is not as well-known historically. Nellie Bly is historically significant in the field of women journalism as she was one of the pioneers of women investigative journalism during a period where women lacked the respect of such a career. They were called stunt girls during the era, but also Bly’s reporting brought about reform in New York insane asylums as she exposed mistreated patients in the asylum. She revealed corrupt political officials, exposing their bribery scandals in order to kill bills in the New York legislature, and was a woman war correspondent during World War I, and an advocate for women’s rights to hold the same positions as men. Her contributions to the field of journalism are great, but doing so as a woman was not easy feat, and many tried to discredit her because of her gender.

Methodology

As an investigative reporter, Bly wrote hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles which were featured in newspapers across the United States. She worked for the Pittsburgh Dispatch and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World writing stories about women’s rights, fashion, beauty, uncover assignments in a New York insane asylum. As a result of her writing, pouring through her newspaper articles regarding the undercover work in the asylum, the war correspondence on the eastern front of World War I will help to prove her contributions to the field of journalism and her importance as an investigative reporter. Through further research, the next step will be to uncover the trial and meeting transcripts behind the outcome of the reform to the asylum and the political corruption and bribery scandal of the politicians as this was ran in the newspapers. This line of research may also uncover the files of the questioning of Nellie Bly about corrupt political officials in New York City which was exposed after the undercover work at the asylum. Not only will scouring through news articles be helpful in research and methodology, but Bly’s finding about the asylum and her findings about the corrupt Mexican government (a separate incident not related to the New York bribery scandal) were placed in a book which will provide other details necessary for research and provide clues to further details and research.

Throughout this whole dissertation, the research and methodology should reveal the extent of Bly’s news reporting. One hopes to reveal how much she contributed to the reforms in asylums in New York and how she uncovered political corruption within the city and state, but also the gains that she made for women working in male dominated industries. The investigative journalism, along with other women such as Ida B. Wells and Helen Campbell paved the way for the muckrakers of the Progressive Era.

Sheena Shaw has a B.A. in History from Sam Houston State University and a M.A.T. in History and Education from Liberty University and has been studying the Gilded Age in depth since 2014.