Nellie Bly as a Reformer
Nellie Bly’s most notable works brought to light the many injustices experienced by people of varying social classes, and sparked discussion surrounding reform in New York. Arguably Bly’s most impressive works, her articles “Behind Asylum Bars” published October 9, 1887, and “Inside the Madhouse” published October 16, 1887, shed light on the horrific conditions mentally ill patients experienced. Bly writes of her character development, as she adopted the persona of a struggling poor woman who was mentally ill. Bly notes that her “acquaintance with the struggling poor, except my own self, was only very superficial,”1 however she committed to her character and sought shelter in a temporary home for working girls. It was here that Bly adopted an identity as Spanish, calling herself Nellie Moreno and separating herself from her middle-class white privilege,2 further identifying herself as a lower class individual. At this temporary home, Bly pretended to be truly insane, ultimately being collected by the police and taken to court where she was decidedly sent to Blackwell’s Island, the female insane asylum. Bly details that “from the moment I entered the insane ward on the island I made no attempt to keep up the assumed role of insanity,”3 she acted as herself, yet discovered the more she was her ordinary self, the more she was suspected to be crazy. Nellie Bly spent ten days on Blackwell’s Island, secretly taking note of every interaction with nurses, physicians, and the other patients at the asylum.
Bly goes to great lengths to address the foundational flaws of the Blackwell’s institution, beginning with discussion of the medical staff. Bly details that throughout her mental examinations, her physician would pay more attention to the nurse than to her, asking “her six questions to every one of me.”4 When Bly informed the physician that “‘I am not sick and I do not want to stay here. No one has a right to shut me up in this manner.’ He took no notice of my remarks, and having completed his writings, as well as his talk with the nurse for the moment, he said that would do.”5 When another patient was led into the same examination room, Bly remained outside the door, listening to the test of sanity progress exactly as hers had, as the patient was asked “if they saw faces on the wall, heard voices, and what they said.”6 Bly noted that each patient denied such sights or sounds. This complete disregard for the patients of this institution directly contributed to the mental, emotional, and physical abuse experienced by many of these patients as they were repeatedly denied the assistance they required. Bly writes of another interaction with the physician Dr. Field, who entered her room and demanded she talk. When Bly refused, Dr. Field proceeded to lay “his crutch on the side of the bed, and, getting up on it, he pinched me very severely in the ribs. I jumped up straight in bed, and said: ‘What do you mean by this?’ ‘I want to teach you to obey when I speak to you,’ he replied.”7 This abuse is further demonstrated in Bly’s account of an insane woman who was beaten by a nurse for being too noisy, as well as the fact that the nurses only spoke to the patients to scold, yell at, or taunt them.8 When Bly directly questioned a physician on the treatment of the patients, she was informed that it is their job to test the sanity of these women, to which Bly replied, “There are sixteen doctors on this island, and excepting two, I have never seen them pay any attention to the patients. How can a doctor judge a woman’s sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release?”9
Bly continues her analysis of Blackwell’s Island with a discussion of the bathing process, in which the women were corralled into a cold damp bathroom and forced to undress. Bly recounts that when she begged to remain clothed, the nurses said that “if I did not [undress] they would use force and that it would not be very gentle.”10 Furthermore, Bly speaks of patients being forced to complete chores around the asylum, as it “is not the attendants who keep the institution so nice for the poor patients… but the patients, who do it all themselves–even to cleaning the nurses’ bedrooms and caring for their clothing.”11 Additionally, Bly notes that in her attempts to ask for more clothing and more food, she was only met with comments that “You are in a public institution now, and you can’t expect to get anything. This is charity, and you should be thankful for what you get.”12
Bly’s experiences on Blackwell’s Island were published again and again, bringing attention to the many forms of abuse that over 1600 women endured there. Bly wrote that “not to be confined alone, but to be a companion, day and night, of senseless, chattering lunatics; to sleep with them, to eat with them, to be considered one of them, was an uncomfortable position,”13 and it was through this lens that she addressed the emotional, mental, and physical abuse that sparked reform. Bly’s honest investigative style brought her readers with her as she relived her experiences in the mental institution. As Bly concluded in her article, “the Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.”14 Furthermore, her ability to transcend class and gender lines, portraying herself as a lower class individual, and an insane woman, directly demonstrated the poorer treatment of these groups within society. Bly’s feminine voice brought about a unique perspective regarding the public discussion of insane asylums, as she was not afraid to reveal her male physicians and female nurse abusers. Bly writes an honest narrative that capitalizes on her femininity, questioning how any woman could be treated this way, and inspiring action by the government, leading to a “complete overhaul and reform of the system.”15 Not only did Bly’s stunt reporting define this genre of journalism,16 it sparked conversation between competing newspapers around the topic of female involvement in headlining news stories. As the New York World wrote, this act of reform by Bly resulted in “a large appropriation that has meant comfort to many helpless insane creatures.”17 Bly’s feminine voice and reform efforts were recognized outside of New York as well, as the Trenton Evening Times on October 15, 1887 wrote:
"MISS NELLIE BLY, a New York World reporter, fooled all the medical experts of insanity in the New York hospitals. She was in quest of information as to how insane patients are treated in the charity hospitals for the demented in New York. She got the information and published it to the world. The facts published are not very complimentary to some people. That is the whole truth of the matter. The thing to do for those whose toes have been trod upon is to make amends in the future for the shortcomings, not to say inhumanities and brutalities, of the past."18
In another article published by the Trenton Evening Times, Nellie Bly is recognized for her stunt that “induced the authorities of New York to increase its appropriation for the care of the insane one million of dollars. This is an excellent record for a young lady journalist.”19 Evident, throughout the Trenton Evening Times, Bly capitalizes on her womanhood, making it integral to her reform efforts and seeking to provide a voice for women in a place where they did not have one before. Bly drew necessary attention to inequalities experienced across society, and continually motivated the public to take action.
While Bly’s investigative journalism at Blackwell’s Island is her most significant example of reform, she did much more for her community, “entering a woman’s jail undercover, she reported on the ways women inmates were treated; posing as a maid looking for work, she reported on unethical practices of employment agencies; as an unwed mother with a newborn child, she examined the illegal traffic in babies; as a factory girl, she investigated the horrendous working conditions such girls faced; as a petty thief, she experienced the treatment of women in prison.”20
Nellie Bly challenged what it meant to be a woman in journalism, and gave women a voice within news media, offering a space for female discussion surrounding their role in the community and the treatment they deserve.
Footnotes
1. Nellie Bly, “Behind Asylum Bars,” The New York World, October 9, 1887, https://thegrandarchive.wordpress.com/behind-asylum-bars/.
2. Lutes, “Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly,” 226-227.
3. Bly, “Behind Asylum Bars,” October 9, 1887.
4. Nellie Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” The New York World, October 16, 1887, https://thegrandarchive.wordpress.com/inside-the-madhouse/.
5. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
6. Bly, “Behind Asylum Bars,” October 9, 1887.
7. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
8. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
9. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
10. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
11. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
12. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
13. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
14. Bly, “Inside the Madhouse,” October 16, 1887.
15. Vengadasalam, “Dislocating the Masculine: How Nellie Bly Feminised Her Reports,” 454.
16. Lutes, “Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly,” 220.
17. Denver Post, March 23, 1895.
18. [Miss Nellie Bly; New York; Medical; Experts; Information; Complimentary]." Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), October 15, 1887: 2. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2%3A1236872C1F6A0AE3%40EANX-123E817B0AC7F6C8%402410560-123D8C2BC4364710%401-1255A0F1D24A2AB7%40%255BMiss%2BNellie%2BBly%253B%2BNew%2BYork%253B%2BMedical%253B%2BExperts%253B%2BInformation%253B%2BComplimentary%255D.
19. "[New York; Trying; Journalist]." Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), December 5, 1887: 2. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2%3A1236872C1F6A0AE3%40EANX-123E81C6CF316780%402410611-123D8C2C77C6EE40%401-1255F4D743ED2024%40%255BNew%2BYork%253B%2BTrying%253B%2BJournalist%255D.
20. Vengadasalam, “Dislocating the Masculine: How Nellie Bly Feminised Her Reports,” 454.