Nell Nelson's Undercover Reporting

Abstract

On assignment for the Chicago Times in the late 1880s, Nell Nelson was commissioned by the newspaper to pose as a shop girl in Chicago factories. She was among many stunt girl reporters who were hired to do dangerous or unusual tasks then write about them. Stunt girls exposed corruption, at the same time providing entertainment for their readers. Nelson's firsthand accounts in “City Slave Girls of Chicago” detailed labor conditions of poor, working-class women. The Chicago series of twenty-one articles were collected into a book and resumed in the New York World. Nelson's sympathetic narratives attracted readers and inspired public debate for labor reform, which provided more evidence that women could write compelling investigative news stories.

Notes

1 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Lady Reporter's Experience in the Shops with Sewing Serfs,” Chicago Times, July 30, 1890. Nelson's series of Times articles was collected in the book The White Slave Girls of Chicago (Chicago: Barkley, 1888).

2 Ibid.

3 James McGrath Morris, The Rose Man of Sing Sing (New York: Fordham University Press, 2003), 85–86.

4 Brooke Kroeger, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist (New York: Times Books, 1994), 68–69.

5 Kroeger, Nellie Bly, 79–89.

6 Ishbel Ross, Ladies of the Press (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1936), 425.

7 Kroeger, Nellie Bly, 79–89.

8 Alice Fahs, Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 7.

9 Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States through 260 Years: 1690 to 1950 (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 436–38.

10 Kroeger, Nellie Bly, 100.

11 Cheryl Allison, “Villanova Prof Takes Readers ‘Around the World’ with Nellie Bly,” Delaware County (Pennsylvania) Daily Times, August 6, 2014, http://www.delcotimes.com/social-affairs/20140806/villanova-prof-takes-readers-around-the-world-with-nellie-bly.

12 Brooke Kroeger, “Nellie Bly and Other Stunt Girls (and Boys) of the Late 1880s–Early 1900s: Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database,” New York Libraries, November 19, 2015, http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/nellie-bly-and-other-stunt-girls-and-boys-late-1880s-early-1900s.

13 Kroeger, Nellie Bly, 100; Mott, American Journalism, 436–38.

14 Mott, American Journalism, 489–90.

15 Edirin Oputu, “Immersive Experience: Passing the Stunt Journalism Torch to a New Generation,” Columbia Journalism Review, May 1, 2014, http://www.cjr.org/currents/immersive_experience.php.

16 Lutes, Front-page Girls, 2.

17 Margherita Arlina Hamm, “Among the Newspaper Women,” The Journalist, May 28, 1892.

18 Kroeger, Nellie Bly, 68–70.

19 Eric W. Liguori, “Nell Nelson and the Chicago Times ‘City Slave Girls’ Series: Beginning a National Crusade for Labor Reform in the Late 1800s,” Journal of Management History 18, no. 1 (2012): 1–81.

20 Nellie Bly, “The Girls Who Make Boxes,” New York World, November 27, 1887; Alice Gregory, “Nellie Bly's Lessons in Writing What You Want To,” New Yorker, May 14, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/nellie-blys-lessons-in-writing-what-you-want-to; and Jean Marie Lutes, “Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late Nineteenth-century America,” American Quarterly 54, no. 2 (2002): 217–53.

21 James McGrath Morris, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 261; Denis Brian, Pulitzer: A Life (New York: Wiley, 2001); George Juergens, Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World (Princeton: Princeton Legacy Library, 1996); Martin Gitlin, Joseph Pulitzer: Historic Newspaper Publisher (Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing, 2010).

22 [No headline] Estherville (IA) Daily News, July 17, 1895.

23 Julius Chambers, “Walks and Talks: Women Admitted to School of Journalism,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 25, 1912.

24 Randall S. Sumpter, “Girl Reporter,” American Journalism 32, no 1 (2015): 60–77; Fannie B. Merrill, “Skillful Cigarette Girls,” New York World, November 20, 1887; Lutes, Front-page Girls, 13, 32–33; Voila Roseboro, “Begging as an Avocation,” New York World, December 11, 1887.

25 S. J. Stevenson, “A Woman in the Steerage,” New York World, March 16, 1890; E.M.S., “In the Guise of a Beggar,” New York World, March 16, 1890; W.P.H., “A Month in the Workhouse,” New York World, June 10, 1888; C.S.S., “Working for Uncle Sam,” New York World, March 16, 1890 and Lutes, Front-page Girls, 171.

26 [No title], St. Paul Daily Globe, December 24, 1888.

27 Lutes, Front-page Girls, 171 (in notes section).

28 [No title], St. Paul Daily Globe.

29 Bly, “The Girls Who Make Boxes.”

30 Eva Gay, “Eva Gay's Travels,” St. Paul (MN) Globe, April 22, 1888; Eva Gay, “Working in the Wet,” St. Paul Globe, April 15, 1888; Eva Gay, “Song of the Shirt,” St. Paul Globe, April 8, 1888; Eva Gay, “The Toiling Women,” St. Paul Globe, April 1, 1888.

31 1920 US census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, Plainfield, p. 11, dwelling 123, family 129, Solomon S. Carvolho and Helen C.; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed March 8, 2016; 1930 US census, Union County, New Jersey, population schedule, Plainfield, p. 27, dwelling 290, family 307, Solomon S. Carvolho and Helen C.; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed March 8, 2016. In the 1920 Census, Nell Nelson claimed her age was sixty, and in the 1930 census she was sixty-seven.

32 “Both Wield the Pen: Carvalho of the World and ‘Nell Nelson’ Wedded,” Boston Post, June 21, 1895.

33 James McGrath Morris, The Rose Man of Sing Sing (New York: Fordham University Press, 2003), 85–86.

34 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Lady Reporter's Experience in the Shops with Sewing Serfs.”

35 “The Court Record,” Daily Inter Ocean (Illinois), August 1, 1888.

36 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Second Investigation by Request of Some of the Places Already Visited,” Chicago Times, August 6, 1888.

37 “Life among the Slave Girls of Chicago [Advertisement],” Chicago Times, July 30, 1888.

38 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Second Investigation by Request of Some of the Places Already Visited,” Chicago Times, August 6, 1888.

39 Ibid.

40 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Further Details of the Factory Investigation Conducted by ‘The Times’ Lady Reporter,” Chicago Times, July 31, 1888.

41 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Spends an Hour in the Factory of Henry W. King & Co., on Union Street,” Chicago Times, August 17, 1888.

42 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Investigates the Boston Store and Is Shocked at What She Finds,” Chicago Times, August 8, 1888.

43 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: The Times Lady Reporter Spends a Day in Goldsmith's Tailor-shop at 258 Rumsey Street,” Chicago Times, August 4, 1888.

44 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Puts in a Whole Day with Pardrige and Company on State Street,” Chicago Times, August 5, 1888.

45 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Spends a Day among the Serfs and Bondwomen in the Shops of Little Hell,” Chicago Times, August 9, 1888.

46 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: While among Chicago's Weak Serfs the Times’ Lady Reporter Finds Mr. Goss’ ‘Good Jew,’” Chicago Times, August 3, 1888.

47 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Investigates the Boston Store and Is Shocked at What She Finds.”

48 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Spends a Day among the Serfs and Bondwomen in the Shops of Little Hell.”

49 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Continues to Expose the Slave-grinding Hell-holes of Chicago,” Chicago Times, August 12, 1888.

50 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Startling Experiences of ‘The Times’ Lady Reporter in the factory of Julius Stein & Co.,” Chicago Times, August 1, 1888.

51 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Take a Trip with a Times Reporter through a Mattress and Pillow Manufactory,” Chicago Times, August 16, 1888.

52 Ibid.

53 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Spends a Half-day in the Princes Knitting Company's Unwholesome Factory,” Chicago Times, August 18, 1888.

54 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: They Want Neither Pity, Charity, nor Tracts, but Practical Instruction,” Chicago Times, August 26, 1888.

55 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: The Times’ Lady Reporter, in the Guise of a Factory Bondwoman, Is Insulted by a Scoundrel,” Chicago Times, August 2, 1888.

56 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: The Times Lady Reporter Spends a Day in Goldsmith's Tailor-shop at 258 Rumsey Street,” Chicago Times, August 4, 1888.

57 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Spends a Day among the Serfs and Bondwomen in the Shops of Little Hell.”

58 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Their Condition in the Shoe Shops as Described by the Times Lady Reporter,” Chicago Times, August 15, 1888.

59 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Second Investigation.”

60 The Seventh Circuit Court Library in Chicago, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, and Chicago were contacted, but no records of the case were found.

61 Unknown, “City Slave Girls: The Times Reporter Wanders into the Loud-smelling Tailor-shops on Twelfth Street,” Chicago Times, August 11, 1888.

62 Unknown, “City Slave Girls: Places Where Virtue Counts for Nothing and Is Not Tolerated by the Employer”; Unknown, “City Slave Girls: Factory Investigation”; Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Times Reporter Accompanies a Health Officer on Another Visit to the Slave-pens,” Chicago Times, August 13, 1888; Unknown, “City Slave Girls: A Times Reporter Gets into a Paper-box Manufactory that Puzzles and Bewilders Him,” Chicago Times, August 19, 1888.

63 Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Times Reporter Accompanies a Health Officer on Another Visit to the Slave-pens.”

64 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: Nell Nelson Spends an Hour in the Factory of Henry W. King & Co., on Union Street,” Chicago Times, August 17, 1888.

65 Nell Nelson, “City Slave Girls: A Poor Sewing Woman's Story of Pain, Poverty, and Privation, Sickness and Sorry,” Chicago Times, August 27, 1888.

66 Ibid.

67 Nell Nelson, “They Work in an Inferno,” New York World, October 7, 1888.

68 James McGrath Morris, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 261.

69 [No headline] New York World, February 14, 1890.

70 Nelson, “They Work in an Inferno.”

71 Nell Nelson, “Ribbon Girls,” New York World, February 21, 1890.

72 [Advertisement] “Nell Nelson Interviews and Assassin's Bride,” New York World, November 2, 1889 and [advertisement] “Nell Nelson's Ride in a Locomotive Cab,” New York World, January 4, 1890.

73 [Advertisement] “Her Midnight Ride,” St. Louis Republic, August 22, 1896.

74 Nell Nelson, “Girl Toilers,” New York World, February 18, 1890.

75 Nell Nelson, “Cigar Girls,” New York World, February 19, 1890.

76 Nell Nelson, “Sewing Girls,” New York World, February 20, 1890.

77 Nelson, “Ribbon Girls.”

78 Nell Nelson, “A Factory Need,” New York World, February 25, 1890.

79 Unknown, “Make It a Law,” The (New York) Evening World, March 3, 1890; Unknown, “Factory Inspection,” New York Times, January 28, 1890; “Bills That Have Become Law,” New York Times, May 22, 1890.

80 Nell Nelson, “Women Inspectors,” New York World, February 27, 1890.

81 “Some Women Writers” (Grand Rapids, Michigan) Telegram Herald, November 11, 1890.

82 “Miss Virginia Cusack, a Well-known Teacher in the Chicago Schools,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1890.

83 Liguori, “Nell Nelson and the Chicago Times ‘City Slave Girls’ Series.’”

84 “Both Wield the Pen.”

85 Ibid.

86 “Mrs. S. S. Carvalho Was Widow of Former General Manager of Hearst Papers,” New York Times, October 28, 1945.

87 “Our Pretty Babies: More Competitors for the Prizes for Good Looks,” New York World, September 17, 1889.

88 “Mrs. S. S. Carvalho Was Widow of Former General Manager of Hearst Papers.”

89 Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samantha Peko

Samantha Peko is a doctoral student and Michael S. Sweeney is a professor at the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, 231 Schoonover Center, Athens, OH 45701, [email protected].