Nellie Bly and Public Sentiment

Nellie Bly circa 1890

Bly was recognized by newspapers across the county for her acts of stunt journalism, some positive and some negative. For example, the The Daily Picayune of New Orleans, published September 29, 1894, asserted that Nellie Bly was a “sprightly female reporter,”² while the Kansas City Times published April 6, 1888, noted that Bly is “undoubtedly a very clever and talented woman, but she is not enhancing her reputation by doing detective slopwork. That sort of thing is bad enough in a man; it is revolting in a woman.”³ Corroborated by the Galveston Daily News of Houston, published April 10, 1888, it is claimed that Nellie Bly “pays dearly for her fame. It is bad enough for a man to do such things but it is simply outrageous for a woman to do the low detective work, she has recently been engaged in, and no woman can long retain her self-respect or the respect of others who engages in such undertakings.”⁴ While newspapers across the country tended to admonish Bly, pointing out the inappropriate behavior in which she was undertaking, Bly utilized this press as a broader stage on which to challenge gender and class ideals, and support her reform efforts. While these primarily male newspapers held Bly in a negative light, other publications of the time such as Godey’s Lady’s Book, originally published by Louis Antoine Godey and edited by Sarah Josepha Hale, were directed toward the growing audience of American women, republished Nellie Bly’s articles, and offered a place of discussion for female readers.⁵ Nellie Bly continued to be a controversial figure throughout the entire career, however as the New York World detailed, it was her personality that made her an effective investigative journalist. The World wrote in an article published in the Denver Post on March 23, 1895, “in most cases the personality of the individual who writes for a newspaper is not important. All that the public care to know about him it finds in the columns which he produces, but it is different with Nellie Bly. She is as much a personality as Grover Cleveland or the Queen of Sheba. The people want to know about her.”⁶

Nellie Bly is one of the most well-known stunt reporters of the Progressive era, recognized for her wide spread reform efforts and the undercover investigations she experienced to bring a new feminine perspective to the public. The development of this feminine perspective, and her continued challenging of traditional gender and class roles throughout her career, established a new realm for female involvement in the public sphere.