"Nellie Bly" was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman, a pioneer of "stunt" journalism (an early form of investigative reporting). Bly's most important investigative pieces included detailing the miserable conditions of a mental asylum, exposing corruption in New York state government, and publicizing the plight of the families of workers during the Pullman Palace Car Company strike of 1894. She is perhaps most famous for her dash around the world in seventy-two days, a feat that boosted the circulation of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and made "Nellie Bly" a household name. She was the first woman to report from the Eastern Front in World War I, and she wrote an advice column chronicling her charitable efforts.

In 1885, The Pittsburgh Dispatch ran a series of columns by Erasmus Wilson decrying "restless dissatisfied females" and longing for women who make "home a little paradise...