Women's History Month

Ida Tarbell

journalist, crusader, citizen reporter

This year I am teaming up with my friend Samantha in 1904 to share a story about a great woman from her time. Ida Tarbell (1857-1939)

I will let Samantha begin.

Dear friends,

I am here today to tell you about one of my heroes or should I shall heroines? Ida Tarbell. Let me begin with some background information. Way back before I can remember, in the 90s, newspapers competed to tell the most sensational, but maybe not the most truthful stories. Mr. Pulitzer in New York and Mr. Hurst in California filled their papers with "yellow journalism." 

Then some journalists aspired to tell the truth about all the bad things that are happening. President Roosevelt calls these journalists "muckrakers." The subject of my presentation and essay is Ida Tarbell, a muckraker or citizen reporter for McClure's magazine.

Ida Tarbell was born in a log cabin on November 5, 1857 on a farm in Eerie County, Pennsylvania.  That same year Ida was born, her family lost their money in the Panic of 1857. A few years later their fortunes would change. In '69, the family moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania following the oil rush. her father made oil derricks and Ida spent her days playing in the oil fields.

Young Ida Tarbell poses for a fancy photograph

In the '70s, something big happened that would change Ida's life and shape her future career. Ida's father's business was crushed by the South Improvement Company, owned by John D. Rockefeller. Any small companies that tried to compete failed. Ida's hometown was destroyed. Many friends, including her father's business partner, lost everything. She says, “There was born in me a hatred of privilege.”

early oilfield in Titusville, Pa.

Ida attended school, discovered science and went on to graduate college with a degree in science. She was first in her class and the only woman!

Young Ida Tarbell studies natural science and biology

After college and teaching school for a bit, Ida wrote for The Chautauquan, a teaching supplement for home study courses at Chautauqua, New York, encouraging adult education and self-study. She became managing editor in 1886, proofreading, answering reader questions, providing proper pronunciation of certain words, translating foreign phrases, identifying characters, and defining words. She began writing short pieces and then longer ones, always imbued with moral content, grounded in unwavering rectitude.

Ida Tarbell teaches school

At this time, Ida began investigating. She started with a claim in an article in The Chautauquan claiming only 300 women held patents and women would never become successful businesswomen.

Ida Tarbell leaves the classroom, gathers her notebooks and pencils
and heads to Washington, DC to do research

Ida investigated and discovered there were actually more than 10 times that number!

The first page of the Patent Office’s list of women patentees, 1888. 

She wrote an article titled "Women as Inventors". She stated three important truths 1) that women have invented a large number of useful articles, 2) that these patents are not confined to clothes and kitchen devices and 3) that invention is a field in which women have large possibilities.

Ida uncovered women like Mary Walton, a New Yorker who tried to rid her neighborhood of the bad air and loud noise from the elevated railroads. She succeeded where Thomas Edison failed.

Mary Walton, inventor and two-time patent holder

Ida then wrote another article on women in journalism arguing that journalism was a field wide open for women. (GrandMary was quite shocked, I assure you but Aunt Cornelia believes women can do anything they set their minds to.) 

Ida decided she was tired of being a pen for hire and it was better to work for oneself than to be a hired man (or woman). She took her savings and headed to Paris, France!

Ida Tarbell packs her bag and heads to Paris in the gay 90s

(This is me in Paris but long after Ida Tarbell was there).

In Paris, Ida lived alone with friends from The Chautauquan. How scandalous! She researched great women writers of the past to rescue them from obscurity. She also enjoyed exhibitions of those new impressionist paintings.

 "The blues and greens fairly howl they are so bright and intense." Ida Tarbell

To earn money, Ida went back to writing for hire for several American newspapers.

Ida Tarbell writes for American newspapers

                                               
She was still learning how to write and research like French historians.

Researching and writing 

While working on the biography of French revolutionary leader Madame Roland, Ida discovered this woman was not really a modern hero. Madame Roland behaved as badly as the men during the French Revolution and echoed her husband's beliefs. Ida's eyes were opened to a new worldview. She began to idolize independent thinkers.

Ida Tarbell's biography of Madame Roland

While Ida was in Paris, she received a visit from a publisher named Samuel McClure who tried to woo her to be an editor his fledgling magazine, McClure's. Instead, Ida decided to write freelance articles. In the early 90s she wrote articles about women intellectuals and writers in Paris as well as scientists. She hoped her articles would provide a blueprint for women journalists and writers.

Ida Tarbell writes for McClure's magazine

Ida moved here to New York in '93. She began researching and writing a series on Napoleon Bonaparte to scoop a rival publication. This series launched her professional career and doubled, then quadrupled the circulation of McClure's. Later, the series was turned into an illustrated book that became a best seller. Grandfather Samuel had a copy on his bookshelf. Uncle Gard let me borrow it to show you.

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Ida M. Tarbell

Ida's next opus was a 20-part series on Abraham Lincoln researching deep into the backwoods and talking to people who once knew him. Again the articles were collected in a book and made Ida Tarbell's reputation.

Grandfather Samuel had this one too.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Ida M. Tarbell

Then she got into writing about current events during the Spanish-American War. After that, in '99, Ida moved permanently to New York working as an editor for McClure's. The magazine decided it was time to expose the ills of American society. At that time she began writing the most important piece of her career, a piece that exposed the not very nice business practices of Standard Oil. She got first-hand information on how the company never played fair. They kept crushing the little businesses to get big and powerful. Through interviews and research, Ida learned how Standard Oil secretly conspired, spied and lied.

Ida Tarbell's series on John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil Nov. '02 and Jan. '03

 Two years ago, in '04, the 19 articles were published in a book The History of the Standard Oil Company. The book is a huge best seller and changed journalism from "yellow" to mucraking. People are outraged and demanding change. Ida Tarbell has become the most influential woman in the country.

Uncle Gard's copy of The History of the Standard Oil Company
by Ida M. Tarbell

Ida Tarbell is one of my heroes because she has an important career informing the public about past present issues. She's a muckraker! I also admire her because she shows women are smart, can think independently, have careers and don't need a man to tell them what to do. Ida is working hard in a man's world and surviving and thriving. I want to be like her when I grow up! I already wrote an essay about child labor in the thread factories, after all.

Thanks Samantha! I'll take it from here.