Ida M. Tarbell

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Ida M. Tarbell, 1904
Ida M. Tarbell, 1904

Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857–January 6, 1944) was a American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of her day, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism." She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies. She is best-known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company, which was listed as number five in a 1999 list by the New York Times of the top 100 works of twentieth-century American journalism. The inspiration for her book came from her father being put out of business by oil billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

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[edit] Early Life and Education

Tarbell was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania. She grew up in the western portion of the state where new oil fields were developed in the 1860s. She was the daughter of Frank Tarbell, who built wooden oil storage tanks and later became an oil producer and refiner in Venango County. Her father's business, and those of many other small businessmen was adversely affected by the South Improvement Company scheme around 1872 between the railroads and larger oil interests. Later, she would vividly recall this situation in her work, as she accused the leaders of the Standard Oil Company of using unfair tactics to put her father and many small oil companies out of business.

Tarbell graduated at the head of her high school class in Titusville, Pennsylvania. She majored in biology and graduated from Allegheny College, where she was the only woman in the class of 1880.

After graduating from college, Tarbell began her career as a science teacher at Ohio Poland Union Seminary. However, she found her life's work in writing, changed her vocation after two years, and returned to Pennsylvania. Thereafter she began writing for The Chautauquan, a teaching supplement for home study courses at Chautauqua, New York. By 1886, she was the managing editor.

In 1891, at the age of 34, Tarbell moved to Paris to do post-graduate work and write a biography of Madame Roland, the leader of an influential salon during the French Revolution. While in France, she wrote articles for various magazines, catching the eye of publisher Samuel McClure, earning her the position of editor for the magazine. She went to work for McClure's Magazine and wrote a popular series on Napoleon Bonaparte. Her series on Abraham Lincoln doubled the magazine's circulation, and was published in a book. These gave her a national reputation as a leading writer.

Tarbell had grown up in the western Pennsylvania oil regions where Henry H. Rogers had begun his career during the American Civil War. Beginning in 1902, she conducted detailed interviews with the Standard Oil magnate. Rogers, wily and normally guarded in matters related to business and finance, may have been under the impression her work was to be complimentary. He was apparently unusually forthcoming. However, Tarbell's interviews with Rogers formed the basis for her negative exposé of the ingenious business practices of industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the massive Standard Oil organization. Her work, which became known at the time as muckraking (now called investigative journalism), first ran as a series of articles in McClure's Magazine, which were later published together as a book, The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904. She exposed Rockefeller's ruthless tactics and their destructive effect on smaller oil businesses. Her book failed to mention that her brother ran a competing oil company, the Pure Oil Company. Tarbell's exposé fueled negative public sentiment against Standard Oil and was a contributing factor in the U.S. government's antitrust actions against the Standard Oil Trust which eventually led to its breakup in 1911.

Ida Tarbell, between 1910 and 1930.
Ida Tarbell, between 1910 and 1930.


[edit] Death and Legacy

Tarbell died of pneumonia on her farm in Easton, Connecticut in 1944 at the age of 86. The Ida Tarbell House was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

In 1999, her 654-page book The History of the Standard Oil Company was listed number five among the top 100 works of twentieth-century American journalism by the New York Times.

In 2000, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

On September 14, 2002, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Tarbell as part of a series of four stamps honoring women journalists.[1]

"Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it none exists — with it all things are possible."
Ida M. Tarbell

[edit] References

  1. ^ USPS Press Release (September 14, 2002), Four Accomplished Journalists Honored on U.S. Postage Stamps

[edit] Further reading

  • The History of the Standard Oil Company, 2 vols., Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1963 {1904}.
  • All in The Days Work: An Autobiography, New York: Macmillan, 1939.
  • Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Ron Chernow, London: Warner Books, 1998. and also was one of the very famous muckrakers.


[edit] External links

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