This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and I'm Holly Fry.

Today's episode is on journalist and writer Elizabeth Bisland,

and I moved her up to the top of my shortlist

because of her trip around the world, which started in 1889,

somehow I got it into my head that this trip involved a hot air balloon.

And I don't know about everybody else, but there have been some moments lately when the idea of getting into a balloon and just floating away and having a break from everything going on.

That has sound very appealing.

There were no hot air balloons on this trip.

It was called a flying trip for its speed, not for its altitude.

There was also no balloon travel in the partial inspiration from this trip, which was

Jules Verne's 1872 novel,

Around the World in 80 Days.

Hot Air balloons didn't start showing up in around the world in 80 days until movie adaptations

of it.

The book, No Balloon Travel.

I say partially because it was Nellie Bly who started an attempt to beat the

fictional record set in that book when Elizabeth Bislin started a trip in the opposite direction.

A lot of the more recent writing about Elizabeth Bislin frames this entire story, her story of her life in relation to Blyse, like all the way through, or it's focused mostly on the trip and it juxtaposes these two women.

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