The Nellie Bly game was first published in the New York World newspaper on Jan. 26, 1890. The same black and white design was used for a popular board game published later that year.
Nellie Bly game, NY World, 1890. Public Domain.
It’s a simple game where each player rolls the dice to see who can win the 73 day race. Its fun for history students to compete and to share what was known in 1890 about the people, countries and ideas reflected in the race.
- To get started, here’s a link to a Radford University COMS 300 game score
- To better read the details of the game board, click on the image for a larger version.
- The New York Historical Society has more information about the game itself.
- The American Antiquarian Society (Philadelphia) has more information about Nellie Bly’s race around the world.
- Public Broadcasting Service produced a documentary about Nellie Bly. Some clips from the documentary are available here.
Students: Be prepared to describe in class the location and people involved in the spaces where you land. This is meant as a casual exercise rather than a formal research prompt. However, some serious questions may come up, such as:
- Why did Jules Verne and other fiction writers from his era write about exploration as if people needed to learn more about geography? Can you think of other examples from the era where adventure stories were packed with educational information?
- How did Nellie Bly enhance the perception of women as capable, self-sufficient people?
- Was Nellie Bly already established as a journalist before she went on her round-the-world voyage?
- Were there other reporters like Nellie Bly at the time?