Nellie's trip was featured in a board game, "Around the World with Nellie Bly,"
and on numerous
Victorian trade cards. Songwriter Joe Hart wrote
"Globe Trotting Nellie Bly" in honor of her trip.
Nellie Bly started her career as a journalist in Pittsburgh, when she wrote a
letter to the editor of The Pittsburg Dispatch in response to a column
called "Women's Sphere", and signed the letter "Lonely Orphan Girl".
Impressed by her forthright style, Editor George Madden published an announcement
on January 17, 1885, asking "Lonely Orphan Girl" to send her name and address to the
office. Instead, she showed up in person and persuaded him to let her write for the paper.
Not interested in writing pleasant social pieces, Nellie immediately tackled social issues in
her columns on working women, reform of divorce laws and factory conditions.
After her first few columns, she was hired by the Dispatchas a staff member
at $5 a week.
After her first series was complete, the editors assigned her to "women's interest" stories on fashion, gardening, and culture. Frustrated, she quit her job, but was persuaded to return with an assignment to write from Mexico. She spent six months in Mexico, and sent back stories published under the headline "Nellie in Mexico."
