Bly

and set a world record. She traveled almost 25,000 miles, the vast majority of it solo. Her subsequent book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days solidified her celebrity status as a journalist.

After her trip around the world, Bly took a break from reporting and wrote 11 novels in six years. In 1895, Bly married millionaire manufacturer Robert Seaman. Bly was 31 and Seaman was 73. Following Seaman’s death in 1904, Bly took over the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company and is said to have invented a steel barrel that is still used all over the United States. Bly did receive patents for her inventions of a milk can and a stacking garbage can. However, Bly’s philanthropic goals and embezzlement by a factory manager caused Iron Clad to go bankrupt.

Nellie Bly continued to be a pioneer of journalism. She covered the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913 and wrote stories on Europe’s Eastern Front in World War I. Bly was the first woman and one of the first foreigners to visit the war zone between Serbia and Austria. She was arrested when she was mistaken for a British spy. Nellie Bly died of pneumonia in New York City on January 27, 1922, at age 57.