Nellie Bly’s 151st Birthday Today: Google Delivers Tribute

Today, May 5, is what would have been Nelly Bly’s 151st birthday, and though much of the world may have forgotten everything this woman has meant to America, Google certainly didn’t. In what Washington Post reporter Michael Cavna is calling Google’s “most artful musical doodle ever,” Google has paid an extremely respectful tribute to the pioneering journalist who did so much for women’s rights and other social injustices during her time.

In their cheerful tribute, Team Google Doodle sanctioned their first ever song as an honorable salute to Bly’s life. The team commissioned singer and songwriter Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (an indie trio) to create the catchy, cheerful song. To view Google’s first ever musical masterpiece, just take a look at the Google homepage today or view it on YouTube.

Google has been commemorating important events in history with their doodles since 1998, even before the company was officially incorporated. However, it began to consistently highlight events in history just a couple of years ago. One of the most popular doodle’s so far has been the year in review doodles featured at the end of last year, as reported previously on Inquistr.

However, we’ve never seen a doodle quite like this one. What kind of woman would merit such a sensational tribute?

Nelly Bly is actually a pseudonym for the American journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman who was born on May 5, 1864. She is perhaps most famous for her trip around the world in just 72 days, a record-breaking feat for the time of steamboats and trains. Her adventure was inspired by the classic fiction novel Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. She traveled solo for the bulk of the journey with multiple modes of transportation including boat, motor car, train, and even donkey.

Bly is also known for her inspirational journalism, which often featured justice for the oppressed and advocated women’s rights. She began working as a journalist at the Pittsburgh Dispatch when she was 21, but when she was only allowed to report on theater and arts, she became extremely dissatisfied with her career and began looking for a bigger story to publish.

This unrest led her to do research on the women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island by pretending to be deranged herself. She was committed to the asylum and experienced the conditions and mistreatment first hand. Her expose on the extremely poor living quarters, abuse, and misdiagnosed patients gave her the boost she needed to begin her career as a social activist that people actually listened to.

From then on, she traveled the world, saw many injustices, and knew that there was a need for social change. Now she is recognized as one of the most important figures in history for pioneering the field of woman writer, industrialist, inventor, and charity worker.

After marrying a millionaire and contributing even more to society, Nelly Bly died of pneumonia at age 57.

[Image via Search Engine Land]