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About

Connecting the Past and Present to Inspire the Future
Welcome to our transmedia project for curious people of all ages who love footnotes in Victorian Era history.

Racing Nellie Bly, the core story, is based on two famous women in history, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. In 1890, these rivaling journalists from New York City raced each other in opposite directions to beat the record around the world in eighty days. Join the adventures in this fictional account, based on true events.

A Transmedia Project
Racing Nellie Bly includes: a WEIRD SCIENCE blog, a STRANGE TIMES blog, MOBILE GAME, interactive pages where YOU CHOOSE the direction of the action, sample chapters of the BOOK, and by request, the Feature Film Script.

The Life and Times of Bisland and BLy
The Victorian Era (also known as the Technological Revolution) was a time of extraordinary imagination. Mind-bending ideas and inventions surfaced daily from visionaries including Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and many more. It was a time when bizarre gadgets and modern devices were revolutionizing daily life.

It was also a time of scoundrels, swindlers, stick-ups and scams. Newspapers battled daily for the juiciest stories to win readers’ attention. Forward thinkers defied society and questioned authority. It was a time of monumental change.

Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly embraced the changes. She pushed the envelope of investigative reporting and stunt journalism, making front-page headlines. Bly loved the electric excitement in the air. Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of The New York World, found in her his secret weapon to compete for outrageous headlines. Nellie Bly masterminded incredible schemes, donned elaborate disguises, aked exotic accents — in short, she stopped at nothing to get her story.

Elizabeth Bisland
Elizabeth Bisland, on the other hand, loved things the way they were. She was a beautiful, snooty, high-society essayist who believed in ladylike behavior and did not allow her byline to appear on her scholarly articles. Bisland resented and feared the changes Bly was spearheading.

Elizabeth Bisland vs. Nellie Bly
From the time they met, Bisland and Bly became arch rivals. Racing Nellie Bly is the untold story, based on true events, of how they ended up sharing some of the greatest adventures of all time. The first of these was a highly publicized race in opposite directions around the world – a feat that made daily headlines across America and around the world.

Join the Adventures
In The Adventures of Nellie Bly, Bisland grudgingly gives in to Bly’s unladylike schemes because she can’t deny “that Bly woman” whetted her own repressed appetite for adventure and intrigue. Despite their numerous differences and non-stop banter, they make a dynamic team as they uncover stories and meet some of the great characters who made the times so incredibly dynamic.

About Racing Nellie Bly

Rival journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland raced around the world in 1889. Facing treacherous…

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