Ten Days in a Mad House: Nellie Bly's Exploration of Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum
Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Cochrane, was a prominent figure in American history. Bly worked for multiple publications throughout her career, such as the Pittsburgh Dispatch and The New York World. During her time with these publications, Bly worked on many smaller journalistic projects, but one of her major achievements was the publication of Ten Days in a Mad House, an exposé in which Bly details her experiences in getting herself admitted to an insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island where she documents the conditions, behaviors, and occurrences that she witnessed within the walls of this mental institution. Published in 1887, Ten Days in a Mad-House was a focal point of Bly’s journalistic career. This particular piece of writing forced American mental institutions to undergo reforms after being exposed for harboring mental patients in such terrible conditions.
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Nellie Bly’s career as a journalist kicked off in an unconventional way. One day, an upset Bly wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Dispatch about the publication’s negative representation of women. “The editor not only read Bly’s response, he printed her rebuttal, and offered Bly a job as columnist.” In her new position, Bly gained recognition and became a popular columnist for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. However, she was only assigned to pieces that addressed women. In response, Bly left the Pittsburgh Dispatch and moved to New York City in search of better, more fulfilling work. However, as a woman in the late nineteenth century, finding decent work in her field was not an easy task. Eventually, Bly found and secured a position as a journalist for The New York World. Through Bly’s career at The New York World, she continued to build up her reputation as a writer and a journalist, and eventually pushed herself to the point where the publication began to entrust Bly with bigger, more detailed projects. Through these new opportunities, one of the biggest projects in Bly’s career, Ten Days in a Mad-House, was born.
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Published in 1887, Ten Days in a Mad-House involved Bly taking on the role of a mental patient in order to explore Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum in New York to expose the harsh treatment of the patients as well as the conditions of the environment in which they lived. At the start of the novel, Bly introduces her mission:
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On the 22nd of September I was asked by the World if I could have myself committed to one of the asylums for the insane in New York, with a view to writing a plain an unvarnished narrative of the treatment of the patients therein and the methods of management, etc.
However, this was not an easy task. There were doubts and questions that plagued both Bly and The New York World as to how going undercover in such an environment would work, or if it even could. Despite these questions and doubts, however, Bly remained confident in her ability to complete this task. She took this opportunity not only to further expand and legitimize her journalistic career, but also to expose the harsh treatment of mental patients in insane asylums and bring about change in that medical field.
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Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum was established in 1828, when New York City purchased an island in the East River from the Blackwell family. The intent for this newly purchased land was to build a jail and an asylum, in order to accommodate the mass amounts of immigrants coming into America at this point in time. When Blackwell’s Island opened in 1839, the asylum was New York’s first mental hospital that was publicly funded by the government. According to Boardman and Makari’s findings, Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, based on its original model, was intended to be an institution based on theories of moral treatment. This extended to the design of the asylum itself, which had an intended focus on freedom of the patients. “The design for the new asylum was free of barricades and iron bars and allowed for easy access to the outdoors.” However, this model asylum was never built due to lack of funds. “Because of financial constraints, only two wings were completed and almost immediately proved inadequate.” Moreover, convicts from the nearby penitentiary were assigned to act as guards and attendants of the patients.
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Ten Days in a Mad-House starts off by introducing the project proposed to Bly by The New York World, and quickly moves into a detailed account of Bly’s journey through her project. “After receiving my instructions I returned to my boardinghouse, and when evening came I began to practice the role in which I was to make my debut on the morrow.” Bly began by practicing in front of a mirror at widening her eyes so as to make them look wild and crazed. From there, she began reading “snatches of impossible and improbable ghost stories,” so that when the time came to embark on her journey, she felt prepared for the mission ahead of her.
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The next step for Bly to take was to leave home and go to a boarding-house for working women. After some searching, Bly discovered the Temporary Home for Females. This boarding-home was ideal for the task at hand because, as Bly put it, “I knew, if once I made a houseful of women believe me crazy, that they would never rest until I was out of their reach and in secure quarters.” Bly made many attempts at portraying an air of insanity over the course of her stay at the Temporary Home for Females. By sitting alone and staring off into space, speaking in a sad, depressed manner, accusing the women around her of being crazy, and keeping herself awake throughout the night, Bly gave off a suspicious aura that deeply alarmed the other women in the house.
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Next, Bly moved further along in her plan by beginning to cry out for her lost luggage. When, in an attempt to distract her from her lost trunks, Bly was asked if she had any friends, she responded: “‘I have no friends, but I have some trunks. Where are they? I want them.’” As Bly kept this up, Mrs. Stanard, the assistant matron of the house, became more and more concerned about having Bly inside the house, as she believed her to be utterly insane. Bly, upon realizing this, refused to move but continued to lament on her lost trunks. Mrs. Stanard decided to take action in order to rid the house of Bly’s unstable, frightening presence. And so, in order to dispose of Bly’s unsettling presence, Mrs. Stanard left the house and returned a short while later, bringing two policemen along with her.
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Bly was then removed from the house, cushioned by Mrs. Stanard and Mrs. Craine, a woman who had taken it upon herself to care for Bly, who she thought to be hopelessly insane. Bly was brought to the station house, where she was told that she was in the express office to find her missing trunks. Mrs. Stanard, Mrs. Craine, and the policemen brought Bly to face a judge, where she claimed not to know anything about who she was or where she came from. The judge, believing that Bly had been drugged and kidnapped from her home country, took pity on her and chose to send her to be examined by a professional at Bellevue Hospital, rather than having her go straight to “the Island,” as Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum was called. During this examination, the doctor declared Bly to be in need of help, after which she was loaded into an ambulance to be taken to Bellevue Hospital for further examination. However, instead of being taken for further examination, an unsuspecting Bly was immediately committed to an insane asylum at Bellevue.
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From this point forward, Bly begins to describe the harsh treatment that she faced in the mental ward. Almost immediately after being committed, Bly faced an altercation with a nurse, and then subsequently faced a cold, meager dinner during which the patients shivered as they scarfed down their food.
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All the windows in the hall were open and the cold air began to tell on my Southern blood. It grew so cold indeed as to be almost unbearable, and I complained of it to Miss Scott and Miss Ball. But they answered curtly that as I was in a charity place I could not expect much else.
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As the night wears on, Bly describe her surroundings further, which continue to grow grimmer and grimmer. She witnessed other patients, who looked haggard, worn out, and malnourished; she listened to accounts of life in the asylum from those around her, which provided a harsh, unforgiving depiction of the environment between those walls; at night while the patients were meant to be sleeping, the authorities would walk up and down the halls every half hour, checking on the patients. “Every half-hour or hour they would walk heavily down the halls, their boot-heels resounding like the march of a private of dragoons, and take a look at every patient.” This made it all the more difficult for the patients to fall asleep, therefore keeping them awake and contributing to the deterioration of their mental and physical health.
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After a few days in the insane asylum at Bellevue Hospital, certain patients who were deemed to be beyond help were rounded up to be sent to Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, including Nellie Bly. These individuals were loaded into a carriage to be taken to a dock, where they boarded an old, deteriorating ship of poor condition. The patients were given no information as to where they were going, when they would get there, or how long they would be there until the boat arrived. Upon arrival, Bly and her fellow passengers were met with a brusque introduction to their new location: “‘What is this place?’ I asked of the man, who had his fingers sunk into the flesh of my arm. ‘Blackwell’s Island, an insane place, where you’ll never get out of.’” With that, Bly was shoved into an ambulance and whisked off to the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum...