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Retro news: Nellie Bly travels around the world in 72 days

14.11.2023

Translation: machine translated

The 25-year-old journalist set off on an excursion on 14 November 1889. The plan: round the world in less than 80 days. Her luggage: just a small handbag.

To New York - that's what Nellie Bly thought exactly 134 years ago. The special thing about it: her destination is also her starting point and her journey takes her around the globe. She wanted to beat the expedition from Jules Vernes' novel "Around the World in 80 Days".

The US-American, whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, was a courageous and unusual woman for her time. Accordingly, the reporter for the "New York World" had already made a name for herself. During extensive undercover research, for example, Nellie had uncovered inhumane conditions in a psychiatric ward on Blackwell's Island.

Blackwell's Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, was home to prisons, psychiatric wards and almshouses to house those who had been cast out of society. For her research, the journalist simulated a mental disorder and had herself committed for ten days. Humiliation, corporal punishment and a lack of treatment were the order of the day there. Nellie's report, which made this public, improved conditions in (psychiatric) hospitals across the country.

The bet is on

Women journalists conducting investigative research or writing travel reports was unusual at the time. True to her motto "If you want to do it, you can do it!", Nellie nevertheless set off on her trip around the world on 14 November 1889 - without a male companion. Hard to imagine at the time, even though Nellie's route was set and the paths around the world had already been trodden. So it was less about adventure in the wilderness and more about time pressure. And the fact that a woman was travelling alone.

The route she had set out: from New York to London, from there to Calais, via Brindisi, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, Aden, to Colombo. Then on to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, finally San Francisco, to the starting and finishing point of New York.
Although bad weather jeopardised her plan, she successfully completed the circumnavigation of the globe by train and steamship after 72 days. This was also due to her ambition: "I'd rather go back to NY dead, than not a winner!" As the bet was widely publicised by the "New York World", her arrival at the finish line resembled a spectacle: the crowd was so large and heated that the police intervened at the end.

Today, Nellie's character and her diary-like travelogue are controversial. Many passages reflect contemporary, racist views - especially in the section on China. If you still want to take a look, you can find the notes in the Swiss shop:

Around the World in 72 Days (German, Martin Wagner, Josefine Haubold, Nellie Bly, 2013)

Fiction

EUR22,–

Around the World in 72 Days

German, Martin Wagner, Josefine Haubold, Nellie Bly, 2013

Travel in style when travelling alone ...

. certainly applies to the journalist's travel outfit. She kept all her belongings in a small handbag. It's amazing how little you can get by with when travelling around the world. For example, she didn't take the revolver that she had been given for her own protection. Perhaps for reasons of space. You'd probably like to take a curious look inside her small travelling bag and see what she was carrying just as much as I would? Incidentally, one model that looks similar to her Doctor Bag is this vintage bag from Greenburry. It is available in the Swiss shop:

Handbag

EUR149,95

Greenburry Handbag Vintage 1584

Cover image: Shutterstock

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Maike Schuldt-Jensen

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Maike.Schuldt-Jensen@galaxus.de

Cat lady and coffee lover from up north. Always on the lookout for «News and Trends».

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