Emily Verdery Battey

[3] It was shortly after the Civil War that Battey began writing for several Georgia newspapers and became a traveling correspondent for the Ladies Home Gazette, which was edited by her brother-in-law.

[2][4] Harper's, for example, published a story she wrote that required her to climb around among the steeples of New York's churches.

[2] The Sun's editor, Charles Anderson Dana, thought highly of her, and in 1875 he offered her a salaried staff position at his paper.

[7][8] She was referred to as the "female Nestor of the New York Press",[4] and in her day she was called one of the top women writers from Georgia, along with Mary Edwards Bryan.

[4] While she held that the best place to train reporters was in a newspaper room, she felt that through a journalism school she could teach the basics, including the ability to recognize what makes a good news story.