From Aluminum City Terrace to Yellow Dog Village, there’s a story behind every little town in the Alle-Kiski Valley. Writer George Guido of Lower Burrell has collected many of them in his new book, “Neighborhoods of the Alle-Kiski Valley: 30 Communities Full of Unique History.” He’ll be selling copies from
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May 5, 1867
Nellie Bly, American journalist, was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran to Irish immigrants in Pennsylvania. Born in Cochran Mill’s, an area named for her father Michael who began as a mill laborer and ended up owning the mill. Bly once faked insanity to expose inhumane practices in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. In doing so she spawned a new form of “investigative” journalism. It was custom at the time for female writers to use pen names and Cochran’s first editor suggested Nelly Bly from the Stephen Foster song. At age 25, she took a trip around the world in 72 days, beating Phileas Fogg, the fictional hero of Jules Verne’s
America s first investigative journalist got her start in an asylum
Trailblazer Nellie Bly first went undercover in a New York psychiatric hospital in 1887, when she exposed its horrific conditions.
Nellie Bly, 1890 photographBRIDGEMAN/ACI
ByGiorgio Pirazzini
In 1885 the
Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article entitled “What Girls Are Good For,” which claimed a working woman was “a monstrosity.” The feature provoked a fiery rebuke from a 21-year-old reader, Elizabeth Jane Cochran, whose argument so impressed the editor that he published an advertisement asking the author to come forward so he could meet her.
She did, and he hired her on the spot, her first article appearing under the name “Orphan Girl.” Soon after, she changed her pen name to the title of a popular song by Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster, and so “Nellie Bly” was born a name forever associated with her pioneering role in investigative journalism.
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Nellie Bly was one of the most influential American journalists. As an intrepid young reporter who wanted to make a difference in the world, Bly inspired changes to the nation’s mental health care system.
In 1887, Bly went undercover to investigate the conditions at Blackwell’s Island Asylum in New York. Bly had herself committed to the institution, spent 10 days speaking to patients and documented the horrific treatment they endured. Her exposé grabbed the world’s attention and pioneered a new style of reporting.