Ida Tarbell

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a biographical account of the life and work of Ida Tarbell. The paper details Tarbell's academic career, her position on the women's suffrage movement and her journalistic career. The paper also discusses some of her biographical works on famous historical figures, her expose on Standard Oil and what life experiences influenced her writing. The paper points out that Ida Tarbell, considered the first investigative reporter in the U.S. and one of the original muckrakers, considered herself to simply be a journalist reporting facts and history in the making through intellectualism rather than sensationalism.

From the Paper:

"Ida Tarbell grew up at the end of the pioneer era in our country's history. This experience was a source of her independence as well as instilling an imbedded curiosity for the world around her. Rather than living on the farming frontier of the west, Ms. Tarbell grew up on the frontier of the oil fields of Pennsylvania. Life on a frontier laid the framework for her belief in the wrongness of privilege.1 She began to develop a deep belief in each individual having an unfettered chance at success through fairness to his or her fellow man. During Ida's young adult life she also developed a keen interest in science, which probably led to her attention to details in her reporting and her thoroughness in research. Each of her journalistic reports began with a conviction that she wished to research, or a theory she desired to analyze."

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