Ida Minerva Tarbell: Investigative Journalist

Ida was born in 1857, 2 years before oil was discovered in Pennsylvania. She grew up by the mess surrounding these wells.

Two values important to Ida were truth and fairness. This was a time when geologists and Charles Darwin were challenging the Bible’s “truth.” Science won out in Ida’s opinion, in spite of being counter to her family’s beliefs. She also questioned the tactics used by oil companies around her home.

Ida was the only female in her freshman class at Allegheny College. Her professor simplified the work for her, thinking she was incapable of studying at the level of the male students. But she rebelled against that prejudice, forcing her teacher to teach her using the same methods and assignments as her male classmates.

After teaching a few years, Ida wanted something else. She contributed articles to a new magazine, The Chautauquan, a journal dedicated to knowledge.

After a few years in France, Ida moved back to the US, working for a new magazine, McClures. She accepted the challenge of exposing corruption in city governments and Wall Street. Her series of 19 articles about Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and its dishonesty and anti-competitive practices changed public opinion about the company. In 1911, the Supreme Court found Standard Oil guilty and broke up the conglomerate.

Ida Tarbell was a pioneer journalist in a time when newspapers were sensationalist rather than factual. We need to remember her.

Submitted by Teresa Wilmot