JoAnn Peterson of Kingwood, WV comes to the Hancock County Museum from the WV Humanities Council’s History Alive! Program to present Nellie Bly, pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochrane. Nellie Bly was a well-known investigative reporter in the late 1800’s who got a job as a reporter with the New York World by succeeding to have herself committed for 10 days to the infamous lunatic asylum known as Blackwell’s Island in NY, with no guarantee of her release. Her newspaper series on the conditions and treatment of the institutionalized women led to public outrage and improvements in the care of the mentally ill. She brought public attention to the plight of women, children, workers and the poor. In November of 1889, she started a highly publicized race around the world to better the fictional Phineas Fogg’s, of the Jules Verne book Around the World in Eighty Days, record. Alone, she sensationally made it in a little more than 72 days. Please call the Hancock County Museum, 304.564.4800 for more information.