Nellie Bly begins her around-the-world journey in 1889
On 14 November 1889, journalist Nellie Bly sailed from Hoboken to attempt a journey around the world in fewer than eighty days. Her famously small luggage made a practical argument against the claim that a woman could not travel quickly and independently.
A fictional challenge becomes a real assignment
Nellie Bly, the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran, was already an inventive newspaper reporter when she proposed racing around the globe. Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days supplied the challenge. In her own account, a manager at the New York World objected that a woman would need protection and so much baggage that connections would become impossible. Bly insisted she could do the assignment herself.
Departure on 14 November
Bly’s memoir dates her departure precisely to the morning of 14 November 1889. She boarded the steamship Augusta Victoria at Hoboken, New Jersey, and headed toward Europe. Her immediate transportation arrangements were much less comprehensive than a modern round-the-world booking: she had a ticket to London and expected to adapt as connections demanded. Her newspaper’s support supplied money and publicity, but the transfers, delays and encounters would become her responsibility.
The small bag that made the point
Bly bought one hand satchel and resolved to fit her belongings inside it. She packed writing materials, toiletries, slippers, underwear and other necessities. An extra dress would not fit, so she left it behind; a jar of cold cream proved particularly troublesome to squeeze into place. Her luggage was therefore more than a charming publicity detail. It reduced the practical burden of changing trains and ships and directly challenged the assumptions used to discourage her.
A journey shared through newspapers
She returned to New Jersey on 25 January 1890 after just over seventy-two days. Steamships, railways and newspaper communication turned the expedition into a public story unfolding across continents. Her account also reflects the prejudices of her time, which should not be mistaken for neutral descriptions of the people she met. The accompanying illustration interprets her departure and traveling clothes; it does not reproduce a photograph of that morning.
Nelly Bly
True Concord
A modern choral performance of the Stephen Foster song that supplied the reporter’s pen name. This is not an 1889 recording or music documented aboard her ship.
Listen on SoundCloud ↗Follow the evidence.
- Nellie Bly: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, chapters I–II ↗
- Library of Congress: Nellie Bly timeline ↗
- Heinz History Center: Nellie Bly around the world ↗
- True Concord: Stephen Foster — Nelly Bly ↗
AI-assisted writing, with institutional and primary sources. Illustration is a reconstruction, not an archival photograph. Published October 31, 2026; updated October 31, 2026. Our approach
