Women's History Month : Part 2

 Nellie Bly

Muckraking stunt journalist, World Traveler

Nellie suggested to her editor that she take a trip around the world following the route in the novel Around the World in 80 Days.

On November 12, 1889, Nellie heard the good news- she was going on her trip! She packed two valises with only essentials: two traveling caps, three veils, a pair of slippers, a complete outfit of toilet articles, ink-stand, pens, pencils, and copy-paper, pins, needles and thread, a dressing gown, a tennis blazer, a small flask and a drinking cup, several complete changes of underwear, a liberal supply of handkerchiefs and fresh ruchings and most bulky and a jar of cold cream to keep my face from chapping "in the varied climates I should encounter." She purchased a blue travel gown, a Scotch ulster overcoat, a light raincoat, and a hat.  She was determined to show women could pack light and travel on their own without help.

Nellie packs for her trip

On Thursday November 14, 1889 Nellie left New York at 9:40 a.m. and boarded a steamer bound for London!

Goodbye New York!

There she heard Jules Verne wanted to meet her so she raced to Amiens. She didn't speak French and he didn't speak much English but Mr. Verne and his wife were quite delighted to meet her. He even showed Nellie his study and they compared her route to Phileas Fogg's.

[Susanna's note: Read an account of her journey with her own words and visuals at the Heinz History Center website.]

Nellie traveled by steamships and railroads sending back short dispatches that were often delayed by weeks. She faced seasickness at first but soon recovered and made many new friends. 

 

Ruth stands in for Samantha. Nellie Bly's trip did NOT take her on board Titanic!

Ruth stands in for Samantha.
Nellie Bly's trip did NOT take her on board Titanic!

Her trip went through England, France,  Brindisi, Italy, then through the Suez Canal, on to Asia through Colombo (Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. In Ceylon she tried the local food. In Singapore Nellie bought a macaque she named McGinty. He became her friend and traveling companion for the rest of the journey. 

Nellie Bly and McGinty

She faced a monsoon but still arrived in Hong Kong ahead of schedule! As her trip went on, Nellie became very famous back home. Officers on the Oceanic had written the following couplet all over the engine room:

“For Nellie Bly,
We’ll win or die.
January 20, 1890.”

Nellie arrived in San Francisco on January 21 only to learn blizzards stopped the Central Pacific Railroad. 

Nellie Bly and McGinty in San Francisco

No trains could get through for days. It was the worst snow the railroad had ever seen! 

Nellie was worried she wouldn't make it home in 80 days but she decided to go south through the desert across the new territories of Arizona and New Mexico with everyone cheering her on. She went through Kansas, Chicago, Indiana, Pennsylavia with crowds greeting her, cheering her on. She waved her cap and was soon on her way again. 

Nellie waves to the crowds

On January 25, 1890 at 3:51 p.m. Nellie's train chugged into Jersey City, New Jersey. Her journey was now over after 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds! Canons boomed at Battery Park and boats in the Hudson River tooted their whistles as Nellie beat her own goal by 3 days!

As Nellie travelled, the newspaper held a guessing contest to see how many days it would take Nellie to arrive home. 

Nellie was so popular, advertisers used her likeness to sell all manner of products, including this game from McLoughlin Brothers, based on a game board that appeared in the New York World. 

 

Around the World With Nellie Bly board game

Day 73. I win!

When Nellie returned home she was a hero to many people! She thought she would get paid more money but her male editors refused to pay her more. She said "I quit!" and walked away from the paper. She went on a lecture tour, wrote a book about her adventures, and wrote fiction serials for a the New York Family Story Paper. 

Three years later Nellie came back to work for the World writing about Pullman Palace car workers on strike. Then she took a job with the Chicago Times-Herald. Five weeks later she quit to get married! (Her husband is even older than my GrandMary. I think he tried to court GrandMary once but her heart belonged to Grandfather Samuel and now Admiral Beemis.) It was a big shock to all Nellie's friends and family. She kept writing for awhile and even interviewed Susan B. Anthony! Now she is living here in New York as a wealthy widow running a business of some sort. Perhaps my cousin Susanna will come and tell you about it. For now, that is all. 

Thank you for listening to my presentation! 

 

Women's History Month Part 1

 Nellie Bly

Muckraking stunt journalist, World Traveler

Good afternoon to everyone, once again Samantha has a school report to share with her class and everyone else who will listen. Let's see what she has to say this year.

This year I am reporting on another one of my journalist heroes, Nellie Bly! You may have heard of her, she was the first person to go around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days. I am going to share a bit more about her with you.

Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 8, 1864 in the village of Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. Why, yes, it was named after her family. Her father was a local politician, judge, made money from selling land and also owned a general store and ran a grist mill for grinding grain. The western Pennsylvania village of Pitt's Mills was renamed in his honor. When Elizabeth was born, she was the youngest of 16 children! 12 of her older siblings were half siblings and already grown when she was born. Her nickname was "Pink" or Pinkey because Elizabeth loved and often wore that color. 

Pink Cochran 

You can see I am wearing my pinkest dress today in her honor. (No, I don't own any other pink dresses, why do you ask? It is not a popular color for children). 

Here is the house where Nellie Bly was born, on Crooked Creek. It still stands today in 1906 but it may not exist if you try to find it in the future. 

Then when Pink was 5, she moved with her parents and three older brothers to a much nicer, custom built house in the town of Apollo. They brought their cow, two dogs and a horse when they moved because there was a large yard for the animals. 

Pink Cochran and animal companions

(No silly girls, this isn't a REAL cow. A cow wouldn't fit in the classroom. Please hold your questions until the end, thank you.)

Pink's father became ill and died whenwas only 6 years old without leaving a will. The court decided all surviving children, including Pink and her baby brother, were to get an even share, once their house was sold, with the money held for the little ones until they grew up. Mrs. Cochran's income was only $16 a month. Did you know many families like my friend Nellie's live on much less? Can you imagine any of your mothers making do with only $16 a month for herself and 5 small children? What would she do?

Well, Pink's mother did what anyone else back in our grandmothers' day would do- she married someone else. By 1870, Pink had a new stepfather, one she did not like because he was angry a lot and drank too much alcohol. He threatened and hit Pink's mother so she decided to divorce him. 

At 15, Pink was determined to go to work and help her family. She did not want to have to depend on any man to support her the way her mother did. So then Pink went to college to learn to be a teacher., studying reading, writing, arithmatic and grammar. She changed her name back to her birth name and added an e to the end of her surname, becoming Elizabeth J. Cochrane. Sadly she ran out of money before she finished college. She tried to sue the bank holding her father's money but the law suit went on too long and cost too much.

Elizabeth J. Cochrane at school

Her life changed forever in January 1885 when Elizabeth read a series of newspaper columns in the Pittsburgh Dispatch titled "What Girls Are Good For." The writer said girls were only good for keeping house and having babies!

Google Doodle Nellie Bly

Elizabeth saw red! She wrote a letter to the editor explaining how this is very untrue and how that idea hurt her family. Even though she wrote under the name "Lonely Orphan Girl," and not her real name, the male editor of the paper was impressed enough by Elizabeth's writing to track her down and offer her a job writing about the women's sphere. She urged people to think about what life was like for girls without money, talent or beauty. If they had the same jobs as men their "lives would be brighter, their health better, their pocketbooks fuller." She also wrote about (Samantha lowers her voice to a whisper), divorce! That article was published under her new nickname "Nelly Bly," after an old popular song.

Nellie Bly, journalist at last

Nellie Bly also wrote about the conditions of women working in factories. You all heard my speech about thread factories. Nellie Bly said it all first, before we were born! Unfortunately, poor Nellie was then forced to write about boring stuff like gardening, fashion and society. She didn't like that and left the paper to be a freelance writer.

In early 1886 Nellie and her mother travelled to Mexico. They stayed in Mexico City and took train trips out to the country where Nellie showed off her independent spirit. She also wrote about the bad government which got her into trouble for defying censorship laws. Nellie and her mother had to return home. While in Mexico, Nellie posed for a photo in a fancy dress. 

Nellie Bly in Mexico

The real Nellie Bly in Mexico

 

Back home in the United States, Nellie was able to freely criticize the Mexican government in her articles. She later compiled them into a book. 

Nellie rejoined the Pittsburgh Dispatch when she ran out of stories about Mexico. She was given more women's topics: arts and theater. 

Nellie Bly still thought that was too boring for her so she packed her bags and headed east to New York City! 

Here in New York Nellie Bly couldn't get a job right away! It took awhile and more boring articles on fashion. The male editors were very rude to Nellie. Women were ONLY fit to write about all that silly society stuff and not real news. Nellie published a series of interviews she had with the male editors and her reputation grew. FINALLY, the editor of the New York World liked Nellie's story ideas and hired her. 

New York World Building c. 1900s

Her editor asked Nellie to investigate the conditions of the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island- from the inside! Nellie rented a room in a women's shelter for a night and pretended to act mad. She acted mad as she was examined by a police officer, a judge and a doctor who sent her to Blackwell's Island. During the next 10 days Nellie got a first hand look at the terrible conditions at the Asylum. The women were not treated well at all. Many became poor and weakened by illness or couldn't convince the doctor they were sane because they did not speak English. 

Illustration of women in the mental hospital 

Nellie vowed to help her "suffering sisters" once she got out. Her editor sent a lawyer to convince the doctors she was sane and should be let out. She then wrote a two part story on her experiences [editor's note: please be advised that this story appeared in 1887 and contains images and language that may be offensive to modern viewers]. It made front page news in October '87! Other newspapers picked up the stories and Nellie's work helped make conditions better for women in asylums!

Throughout '88 Nellie wrote other "stunt journalism" stories exposing all kinds of bad things happening in New York. At last she had a steady job and loyal readers but her best was yet to come! 

I need a drin of lemonade. I shall be right back with the rest of the story!

... Intermission... 

 

Women's History Month

Ida Tarbell

journalist, crusader, citizen reporter

Ida's career with McClure's came to an end in 1906 when the staff walked out. They were worried about Mr. McClure's morals. She helped buy The American Magazine and focused on writing about what was right. Ida became Associate Editor and stayed there until 1915 after the magazine was sold.

Ida Tarbell : citizen report hard at work

With the money from her book, Ida purchased a farm in Easton, Connecticut. She liked to go there to get away from the city. She also liked to stay there and write. Eventually, she retired to the farm.

Ida Tarbell on her farm 

Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil was such a success that people were outraged. In 1911 The Supreme Court declared Standard Oil was a monopoly which was against the law. They had Standard Oil broken up into smaller companies and Mr. Rockefeller's reputation was damaged. Ida became known as the woman who took down Standard Oil. Even so, Mr. Rockefeller was earning even more money than ever before. Ida was disappointed. She hoped to see Rockefeller out of business.

Ida became very busy with reforms. She wrote a new series of articles criticizing high protective tariff, traveled to Chicago to investigate their public transportation and stayed at Hull House with Jane Addams in 1908. They taught immigrants, like my friend Anita, how to speak English and gave them job and homemaking skills.

Ida Tarbell, reformer, visits Hull House

Ida traveled around the United States meeting with factory owners, workers and their families helping women who didn't have a choice but to work. (Like Samantha's friend Nellie). Ida investigated what factory owners were doing to make their workers' lives easier and safer. She wrote about workplace safety and factory conditions in the 1910s and teens.

Immigrant 

In  January 1915, Ida Tarbell published her findings in a series she titled Sticking to the Old Ways: the Golden Rule in Business A Story of Some Recent Dramatic Events. One of the photos is a Slav mother, one of many immigrants interviewed for the piece. Ida found immigrant families were living on $1.60 a day and still managed to save a bit and send their children to school when they were thrifty.

factory girl (the real mill was unavailable at this time)

                                       
One thing Ida Tarbell was NOT interested in was women's suffrage. Don't tell Samantha! She'll be crushed! Ida did not like the militant movement of the 1910s. She called it anti-male. She may have worried women would lose the power to do good works. Ida wrote a bunch of anti-suffrage essays and collected them in a book called The Business of Being a Woman. It was not a success.

Ida Tarbell was an anti! 

After women won the right to vote in 1920, she changed her mind.

During World War I, Ida served on the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. The organization worked to help women on the homefront. They encouraged women to plant vegetable gardens, dry and can food, knit, sew and make bandages. They also opened daycare centers for factory women.

Wrong war, same information: can your food

After the war Ida continued writing and social work. She helped working women by suggested a shorter work day. She wrote one novel, a biography and many more articles. She even wrote an autobiography, All in a Day's Work, in 1939 when she was 82.

Ida Tarbell lived all the way to World War II! She died on January 6, 1944 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Since her death, Ida Tarbell has received many awards and honors. She helped invent modern journalism.

Miss Tarbell Before the Industrial Commission, American Magazine, Vol. 79, p. 6, 1915.

We hope you enjoyed our presentation and learned a lot. Thank you!
Samantha & Susanna

Women's History Month

Ida Tarbell

journalist, crusader, citizen reporter

This year I am teaming up with my friend Samantha in 1904 to share a story about a great woman from her time. Ida Tarbell (1857-1939)

I will let Samantha begin.

Dear friends,

I am here today to tell you about one of my heroes or should I shall heroines? Ida Tarbell. Let me begin with some background information. Way back before I can remember, in the 90s, newspapers competed to tell the most sensational, but maybe not the most truthful stories. Mr. Pulitzer in New York and Mr. Hurst in California filled their papers with "yellow journalism." 

Then some journalists aspired to tell the truth about all the bad things that are happening. President Roosevelt calls these journalists "muckrakers." The subject of my presentation and essay is Ida Tarbell, a muckraker or citizen reporter for McClure's magazine.

Ida Tarbell was born in a log cabin on November 5, 1857 on a farm in Eerie County, Pennsylvania.  That same year Ida was born, her family lost their money in the Panic of 1857. A few years later their fortunes would change. In '69, the family moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania following the oil rush. her father made oil derricks and Ida spent her days playing in the oil fields.

Young Ida Tarbell poses for a fancy photograph

In the '70s, something big happened that would change Ida's life and shape her future career. Ida's father's business was crushed by the South Improvement Company, owned by John D. Rockefeller. Any small companies that tried to compete failed. Ida's hometown was destroyed. Many friends, including her father's business partner, lost everything. She says, “There was born in me a hatred of privilege.”

early oilfield in Titusville, Pa.

Ida attended school, discovered science and went on to graduate college with a degree in science. She was first in her class and the only woman!

Young Ida Tarbell studies natural science and biology

After college and teaching school for a bit, Ida wrote for The Chautauquan, a teaching supplement for home study courses at Chautauqua, New York, encouraging adult education and self-study. She became managing editor in 1886, proofreading, answering reader questions, providing proper pronunciation of certain words, translating foreign phrases, identifying characters, and defining words. She began writing short pieces and then longer ones, always imbued with moral content, grounded in unwavering rectitude.

Ida Tarbell teaches school

At this time, Ida began investigating. She started with a claim in an article in The Chautauquan claiming only 300 women held patents and women would never become successful businesswomen.

Ida Tarbell leaves the classroom, gathers her notebooks and pencils
and heads to Washington, DC to do research

Ida investigated and discovered there were actually more than 10 times that number!

The first page of the Patent Office’s list of women patentees, 1888. 

She wrote an article titled "Women as Inventors". She stated three important truths 1) that women have invented a large number of useful articles, 2) that these patents are not confined to clothes and kitchen devices and 3) that invention is a field in which women have large possibilities.

Ida uncovered women like Mary Walton, a New Yorker who tried to rid her neighborhood of the bad air and loud noise from the elevated railroads. She succeeded where Thomas Edison failed.

Mary Walton, inventor and two-time patent holder

Ida then wrote another article on women in journalism arguing that journalism was a field wide open for women. (GrandMary was quite shocked, I assure you but Aunt Cornelia believes women can do anything they set their minds to.) 

Ida decided she was tired of being a pen for hire and it was better to work for oneself than to be a hired man (or woman). She took her savings and headed to Paris, France!

Ida Tarbell packs her bag and heads to Paris in the gay 90s

(This is me in Paris but long after Ida Tarbell was there).

In Paris, Ida lived alone with friends from The Chautauquan. How scandalous! She researched great women writers of the past to rescue them from obscurity. She also enjoyed exhibitions of those new impressionist paintings.

 "The blues and greens fairly howl they are so bright and intense." Ida Tarbell

To earn money, Ida went back to writing for hire for several American newspapers.

Ida Tarbell writes for American newspapers

                                               
She was still learning how to write and research like French historians.

Researching and writing 

While working on the biography of French revolutionary leader Madame Roland, Ida discovered this woman was not really a modern hero. Madame Roland behaved as badly as the men during the French Revolution and echoed her husband's beliefs. Ida's eyes were opened to a new worldview. She began to idolize independent thinkers.

Ida Tarbell's biography of Madame Roland

While Ida was in Paris, she received a visit from a publisher named Samuel McClure who tried to woo her to be an editor his fledgling magazine, McClure's. Instead, Ida decided to write freelance articles. In the early 90s she wrote articles about women intellectuals and writers in Paris as well as scientists. She hoped her articles would provide a blueprint for women journalists and writers.

Ida Tarbell writes for McClure's magazine

Ida moved here to New York in '93. She began researching and writing a series on Napoleon Bonaparte to scoop a rival publication. This series launched her professional career and doubled, then quadrupled the circulation of McClure's. Later, the series was turned into an illustrated book that became a best seller. Grandfather Samuel had a copy on his bookshelf. Uncle Gard let me borrow it to show you.

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Ida M. Tarbell

Ida's next opus was a 20-part series on Abraham Lincoln researching deep into the backwoods and talking to people who once knew him. Again the articles were collected in a book and made Ida Tarbell's reputation.

Grandfather Samuel had this one too.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Ida M. Tarbell

Then she got into writing about current events during the Spanish-American War. After that, in '99, Ida moved permanently to New York working as an editor for McClure's. The magazine decided it was time to expose the ills of American society. At that time she began writing the most important piece of her career, a piece that exposed the not very nice business practices of Standard Oil. She got first-hand information on how the company never played fair. They kept crushing the little businesses to get big and powerful. Through interviews and research, Ida learned how Standard Oil secretly conspired, spied and lied.

Ida Tarbell's series on John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil Nov. '02 and Jan. '03

 Two years ago, in '04, the 19 articles were published in a book The History of the Standard Oil Company. The book is a huge best seller and changed journalism from "yellow" to mucraking. People are outraged and demanding change. Ida Tarbell has become the most influential woman in the country.

Uncle Gard's copy of The History of the Standard Oil Company
by Ida M. Tarbell

Ida Tarbell is one of my heroes because she has an important career informing the public about past present issues. She's a muckraker! I also admire her because she shows women are smart, can think independently, have careers and don't need a man to tell them what to do. Ida is working hard in a man's world and surviving and thriving. I want to be like her when I grow up! I already wrote an essay about child labor in the thread factories, after all.

Thanks Samantha! I'll take it from here.