Undercover Reporter Nellie Bly: Ten Days at the Mad-House

As an undercover reporter Nellie Bly was one of the most influential American journalists of all time. Although that is not how she is best remembered today, Bly published numerous important and influential investigative newspaper articles.

Her series of articles uncovering the terrifying conditions at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York was personally dangerous and professionally groundbreaking.  In 1887, at the age of only 23, undercover reporter Nellie Bly revolutionized journalism.  It was more than”stunt journalism” – Nellie Bly’s chilling exposé of Blackwell’s Island horrified her readers and caused New York authorities to immediately implement reforms.  Adding to the importance of her work, public pressure and copycat investigations cause many municipalities to examine and improve the way they cared for indigent mentally ill people.

Nellie Bly: More Than A Race Around The World

Today, people who remember the name of Nellie Bly almost invariably associate it with her amazing race around the world.

In 1889/1890, Nellie Bly became the first person to be credibly credited with having traveled around the world in less than eighty days. On her mad dash to circumnavigate the globe, 25-year-old Nellie Bly even had the opportunity to meet Jules Verne and his wife!. Sixteen years earlier, Verne had written “Around The World In Eighty Days,” the brilliant novel that had initially suggested a person could circumnavigate the world that quickly using public transportation.

For his part, Jules Verne was completely charmed by young Nellie Bly and heartily congratulated her after the twenty-five-year-old accomplished her amazing goal!

In her native Pittsburgh, Nellie Bly had earned a reputation as an undercover reporter of real talent and courage.  After moving to New York City, the 23-year-old woman who had been born Elizabeth Cochrane, struggled to find work as a reporter. She was eventually hired by the New York World, which was for years the largest newspaper in the country’s largest city. In her first major undercover assignment, Nellie Bly took on one of the most difficult and harrowing tasks attempted by a journalist. Through a clever and diligent ruse, using a false name, she convinced first lodgers in a rooming house, then police, a judge, and psychiatrists that she was insane. With little problem, Nellie Bly got herself ordered to an insane asylum.

When undercover reporter Nellie Bly first entered the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, she did not know what she would find. Most frightening, Nellie Bly did not know how or when she would be released. Her editor, working directly under Joseph Pulitzer, had suggested that one week as a patient in the asylum would be enough. But when Nellie Bly asked the editor how he would get her out of Blackwell’s Island,  he merely shrugged. There was no specific exit plan. As the guard ushered her into the Asylum, Bly asked where they were. she was told, “An insane place where you will never get out.”

What Undercover Reporter Nellie Bly Found At The Asylum

 One of the first outrages Nellie Bly observed was that women who did not speak English had no opportunity to explain their behavior. No translator was available and no consideration was given to their cultural background. They were simply locked away and “treated” by people who couldn’t understand them.  Bly wrote that the women were treated worse than murderers. A killer, she explained, would at least be given a trial. These immigrant women were quickly just locked away. Nellie Bly’s reporting helped to bring an end to that inhumane practice. While standards and conditions vary across the USA today, much more attention is paid to differences in language and culture in assessing mental health.

Nationally recognized mental health expert Dr. Nicole Nugent, an Associate Professor at Brown University who serves as Director of Psychological Services at the Hasbro Pediatric Refugee Clinic explained to me:

“The first step, that we are absolutely striving toward is the barest minimum of having an interpreter available. This is critical. However, we need to do even more. Providers need to take A LOT of extra time with their families who have language and cultural differences. Providers need to check assumptions, assess family understanding, and then re-check again.” (Follow Dr. Nugent On Twitter by clicking here)

The conditions Nellie Bly found were horrifying. She encountered and witnessed degrading treatment of the inmates. Food was meager. The women were locked in individual tiny rooms, locked from the outside. Bly was terrified of fire. Patients were beaten, choked, waterboarded, and received fresh clothes once a month. Medical treatment was neither explained nor were patients allowed to ask for alternatives. The women were forced to sit on wooden benches, perfectly still, for hours at a time.In her blistering expose, undercover reporter Nellie Bly wrote”

“What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment? I would like the “experts physicians” to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up, and make her sit from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 pm on straight back benches, to not allow her talk or move during these hours, give her no reading, and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane.”

Nellie Bly In The Asylum

In the asylum, Bly acted perfectly sane. No nurse or physician took any notice of her perfectly normal behavior. She realized that some of the other women were likewise mentally healthy. But in the absence of real treatment, compassion, or objectivity, they were simply locked away. Put yourself in Nellie Bly’s shoes and you can understand her terror. She realized she would not be able to get herself released. And with no visits or news from the outside, undercover reporter Nellie Bly had no way of knowing whether the World would be able to get her out. When the one-week mark set by her editor had passed, Nellie Bly was still a prisoner. There was no means for her to reenter society and no real treatment for the women who did have mental health issues. Nellie Bly’s assignment had turned into a nightmare.

After ten harrowing days, The World managed to get a lawyer inside the asylum. Using a ruse, he got Nellie Bly out. She called it “the ten longest days of my life.” She felt guilty about leaving the other women, but after her release, she busily penned a series of scathing articles about the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island.  Hearings were held, a cover-up ensued, but reforms were ultimately enacted.

Nellie Bly was not the first woman to be a major reporter in America. Nor was her amazing trip around the world the most important of her accomplishments, as exciting and thrilling as it was. For undercover reporter Nellie Bly, the highlight of her career was helping America to remember the importance of protecting the most vulnerable among us. Those who are mentally ill, immigrants and refugees, those without education or influence must be protected. The lessons learned by Nellie Bly resonate today. Through the use of mental health courts, better-trained clinicians, and a constantly evolving understanding of mental health and culture, we see the lasting influence of Nellie Bly.

Afterword:

Interestingly, Nellie Bly’s most famous accomplishment – her race around the world – effectively ended her career as an undercover reporter! She had become, in 1890, the most famous woman in America. So great was the interest in Nellie Bly that the New York World felt compelled to publish pictures of her! After that, she could no longer go undercover as she had done for several years for the World!

One other note. After Nellie Bly retired, the next most famous female reporter in America was Dorothy Kilgallen. She was often called the “modern Nellie Bly!” In 1936, fifteen years after Bly’s death, Kilgallen entered an around the world race against two male reporters. She finished second. Unlike Bly, who, in 1889/1890 never once traveled by air, Dorothy Kilgallen crossed the Atlantic in the Hindenburg!  As she departed, Kilgallen wrote:

“Nell Bly, watch over me. You may be astonished by what you see – but watch anyway!”

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