Vol. VI, No. 2, 2020 Surprise!! The famous Nellie Bly had a now-forgotten travel competitor. See “Nellie Bly vs. Elizabeth Bisland: The Race Around the World,” p. 2. © Corbis and © Getty Images. To be added to the Blackwell’s Almanac mailing list, email request to:
[email protected] RIHS needs your support. Become a member—visit rihs.us/?page_id=4 "1 Vol. VI, No. 2, 2020 Nellie Bly vs. Elizabeth Bisland: The Race Around the World You probably know that Nellie Bly was the intrepid woman journalist Contents who went undercover into the notorious Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum and later traveled around the world in a record- P 2. Nellie Bly vs. making 72 days. (See Blackwell’s Almanac, Vol. II, No. 3, 2016, at Elizabeth Bisland: The rihs.us.) What you almost certainly do not know is that Race Around the World another young lady departed the very same day in competition with her. P. 7 From the RIHS Author Matthew Goodman recounted this exciting story at February’s Archives: NY Times Ad, 1976 Roosevelt Island Historical Society library lecture. Based on his incredibly well-researched book, Eighty Days: P. 9. RI Inspires the Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the Visual Arts: Tom World, Goodman painted an intimate portrait of the Otterness’s “The two women who vied to outrun the 80-day ’round-the-world journey Marriage of Money and imagined by Jules Verne. Real Estate” P. 10. A Letter from the By 1889, when Bly embarked on her circumnavigation of the globe, RIHS President she had already demonstrated her utter fearlessness.