Armstrong County native Nellie Bly takes place alongside Franco, Washington statues at Pittsburgh International
It was a birthday celebration fit for a pioneering journalist who shattered societal expectations for women and introduced investigative journalism as it is known today.
After a two-year wait, a life-size figure of writer Nellie Bly took its place near George Washington and Franco Harris near the Airside Terminal escalators at Pittsburgh International Airport.
It was unveiled Thursday, on what would have been Bly’s 158th birthday. She was born in 1864 near what is now Burrell Township in Armstrong County.
“This is a woman who made a big difference in the lives of women,” said Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority. “We should all know her name, and we should all see her every time we come back from a trip.”
We are excited to have another legendary figure at PIT! Today, trailblazing journalist and Pittsburgh native Nellie Bly joined Franco Harris and George Washington in our terminals on her 158th birthday. Welcome, Nellie! pic.twitter.com/RIm1N9vahJ
— Pittsburgh International Airport (@PITairport) May 5, 2022
The unveiling of the Bly statue was announced in March 2020, a collaboration between the Heinz History Center and the Allegheny County Airport Authority.
Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, she got her start at the former Pittsburg Dispatch in 1885 when she offered a biting rebuttal to a column that complained of women working outside the home.
“Nellie read this column and was incensed,” said Andy Masich, CEO of the Heinz History Center. “She wrote a rebuttal, and it was so articulate, so well-argued, that the editor of the paper said, ‘I’d like to hire you,’ and he did.”
She was 21 and made $5 a week.
Two years later, she spent time undercover in an asylum on Blackwell’s Island in Manhattan, publishing a news account that later would become a book. “Ten Days in a Mad-House” revealed a dysfunctional mental health system filled with abused and neglected patients. Considered the country’s first piece of investigative journalism, it led to massive changes within the public health system and its treatment of mental illness.
Her fame rose further in 1889 when she took on the fictional record set in Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” completing the around-the-world trip in 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.
“She went by boat, by horse, by carriage, by foot, by camel, by bicycle — she made it around the world,” Masich said. “So it’s altogether fitting and proper that Nellie Bly should represent us here at Pittsburgh International Airport.”
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