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My history hero: Marianna Spring chooses Nellie Bly (1864–1922)

My history hero: Marianna Spring chooses Nellie Bly (1864–1922)

Marianna Spring chooses Nellie Bly as a history hero

York Membery

Published: September 25, 2024 at 8:30 AM

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Born Elizabeth Cochran in Pennsylvania, Nellie Bly is most famous for her record-breaking 72-day trip around the world, emulating the journey taken by Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg. She was also known for her investigative journalism and was once mistaken for a British spy. She has been inducted into America’s National Women’s Hall of Fame and was one of four female journalists honoured on a set of US stamps.

When did you first hear about Bly?

A year or two ago, when a BBC editor half-jokingly said: “You’re a right Nellie Bly!” “Who?”, I replied, having never heard of her. So I looked her up, and ended up going down this rabbit hole and finding out everything I could about this remarkable woman.

What kind of woman was she?

Nellie was brave, principled and determined. You have to remember that she lived at a time when a lot of editors would not hire a woman as a reporter. She was not afraid to put herself out there and do things that were atypical for a woman then.

Just as importantly, she was willing to place herself in difficult situations – as I have done in my online, social media and conspiracy theory investigations – to do the sort of reporting she wanted to do.

Read more | 100 women who changed the world

What made her a hero?

She might be best known for emulating the fictional Phileas Fogg’s 80-day journey around the world. But I most admire her for her investigative journalism, very often exposing harms women faced at the time.

In one article she lambasted working conditions for women, and in another she argued for reform of America’s divorce laws. She was unafraid to take risks as a journalist, and was dissatisfied covering the sort of topics usually assigned to female reporters in those days, such as fashion, society and gardening.

What was Bly’s finest hour?

Many would no doubt single out her record-breaking, mostly solo trip around the world, but for me it’s the ‘Ten Days in a Mad-House’ series of articles that she wrote for a New York paper in the 1880s. Going undercover, she feigned insanity so as to investigate reports of brutality and neglect at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on the city’s Roosevelt Island.

Her revelations caused a sensation and resulted in the asylum introducing long-overdue reforms. Her journalism helped define what it meant to be a female investigative reporter.

On the podcast | Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers

Can you see parallels between Bly’s life and your own?

Yes, in our style of journalism and our principled approach. Sometimes people ask me why I do my kind of journalism, at the risk of being trolled. But I believe that there are things happening that need to be exposed, just as Nellie did. Like her, I’m also a great believer in giving voice to people whose stories would otherwise be unheard.

What would you ask Bly if you could meet her?

I’d love to know how she’d respond if she was in my shoes and had to deal with some of the trolls that I do online.

Marianna Spring is the BBC’s first disinformation specialist and social media correspondent. Her new book, Among the Trolls: My Journey Through Conspiracyland, is out now, published by Atlantic.

This article was first published in the October 2024 issue of BBC History Magazine

Authors

York MemberyJournalist

York Membery is a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine, the Daily Mail and Sunday Times among other publications. York, who lives in London, worked on the Mirror, Express and Times before turning freelance. He studied history at Cardiff University and the Institute of Historical Research, and has a History PhD from Maastricht University.