Yes — let’s go deeper into Nellie Bly’s asylum investigation, since it’s the work that first made her famous and remains a landmark in the history of journalism.
Background & Motivation
In the late 19th century, “muckraking” journalism was still developing, and women journalists were usually confined to writing society columns or advice for the home. Bly wanted to take on serious, hard-hitting stories. In 1887, while working for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, she proposed to go undercover inside the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Rumors circulated of mistreatment there, but few outsiders had access.
Method
-
Bly feigned insanity by checking into a boarding house, behaving erratically, and claiming to suffer from amnesia and paranoia.
-
Doctors quickly declared her insane, and a judge committed her to the asylum. This showed how easily women could be institutionalized with minimal scrutiny.
-
Once inside, she carefully observed and memorized details—since she could not bring writing tools.
Conditions She Found
Bly reported horrifying neglect and abuse:
-
Patients were forced to bathe in ice-cold water and wear thin clothes in freezing conditions.
-
Food was spoiled, often little more than broth with scraps of meat and bread crawling with insects.
-
Nurses were abusive—beating or mocking patients—and indifferent to suffering.
-
Many women inside were not insane at all but immigrants or poor people who had nowhere else to go, trapped indefinitely.
-
The atmosphere itself was enough to “drive sane people insane.”
Reception & Impact
When Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House was published:
-
It created an immediate public scandal. Readers were shocked that this was happening in New York City, the nation’s most modern metropolis.
-
Authorities could not dismiss her claims because she had lived through them directly.
-
A grand jury investigated, confirming her findings.
Reforms Achieved
Her exposé led to tangible reforms:
-
The city allocated an additional $1 million (a huge sum at the time) to improve care at public institutions.
-
Better training for nurses was mandated.
-
Procedures for examining patients before institutionalization became stricter.
-
Bly herself became a symbol of journalistic courage, proving that undercover reporting could expose systemic abuse.
Legacy
This investigation set the stage for later muckrakers like Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) and Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil exposés). But Bly’s approach—immersive, undercover, first-person journalism—was distinctive and helped define investigative reporting as we know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment