Groundbreaking journalist and world traveler Elizabeth Jane Cochran, born in 1864 in western Pennsylvania, took the nom de plume Nellie Bly in the 1880s when she began reporting for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, then one of the country’s most influential newspapers. She had her first taste of international travel as the paper’s foreign correspondent in Mexico.
Her next stint as an investigative journalist took her to New York City, where she wrote for Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, New York World. Bly became a national sensation when she published an article about the harsh conditions and treatment of mentally ill patients at New York’s asylum on Blackwell’s Island.
In 1889, the newspaper sent Bly on a round-the-world trip. Her aim was to finish her journey in less time than Phileas Fogg, the main character in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. She beat the fictional Fogg’s record by eight days, and soon after wrote a successful book about her adventure.
In 1890, the McLoughlin Brothers Company created the board game “Around the World with Nellie Bly,” with players competing to be the first to travel the world in 72 days.