142 Facts About Ida Tarbell

Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer and lecturer.

Ida Tarbell was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and pioneered investigative journalism.

Ida Tarbell wrote several biographies over the course of her 64-year career.

Ida Tarbell's articles drove circulation at McClure's Magazine and The American Magazine and many of her books were popular with the general American public.

Ida Tarbell traveled to all of the then 48 states on the lecture circuit and spoke on subjects including the evils of war, world peace, American politics, trusts, tariffs, labor practices, and women's issues.

Ida Tarbell took part in professional organizations and served on two Presidential committees.

Ida Minerva Tarbell was born on a farm in Erie County, Pennsylvania, on November 5,1857, to Esther Ann, a teacher, and Franklin Summer Tarbell, a teacher and a joiner and later an oilman.

Ida Tarbell was born in the log cabin home of her maternal grandfather, Walter Raleigh McCullough, a Scots-Irish pioneer, and his wife.

Ida Tarbell was told by her grandmother that they were descended from Sir Walter Raleigh, a member of George Washington's staff, and the first American Episcopalian bishop.

In 1860, Ida Tarbell's father moved the family to Rouseville, Pennsylvania.

Ida Tarbell was not allowed to see the bodies, but she snuck into the room where the women awaited burial.

Ida Tarbell suffered from nightmares for the rest of her life.

Ida Tarbell's father built a family house at 324 Main Street using lumber and fixtures from the defunct Bonta Hotel in Pithole, Pennsylvania.

Ida Tarbell's family subscribed to Harper's Weekly, Harper's Monthly, and the New York Tribune and it was there that Ida Tarbell followed the events of the Civil War.

Ida Tarbell's family was Methodist and attended church twice a week.

Esther Tarbell supported women's rights and entertained women such as Mary Livermore and Frances E Willard.

Ida Tarbell graduated at the head of her high school class in Titusville and went on to study biology at Allegheny College in 1876, where she was the only woman in her class of 41.

Ida Tarbell was a founding member of the local sorority that became the Mu chapter of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority in 1876.

Ida Tarbell was a member of the campus women's literary society, the Ossoli Society, named after writer Margaret Fuller Ossoli, and wrote for the society's publication, the Mosaic.

Ida Tarbell later supported the university by serving on the board of trustees, to which she was first elected in 1912.

Ida Tarbell was the second woman to serve as a trustee and held the post for more than three decades.

Ida Tarbell left school wanting to contribute to society but unsure of how to do it, she became a teacher.

Ida Tarbell began her career as headmistress at Poland Union Seminary in Poland, Ohio in August 1880.

Ida Tarbell taught classes in geology, botany, geometry, and trigonometry as well as languages: Greek, Latin, French, and German.

Ida Tarbell was exhausted by the workload and exasperated by the low wages which meant she had to borrow money from her parents.

Ida Tarbell's family was familiar with the movement which encouraged adult education and self-study.

Ida Tarbell was quick to accept Flood's offer to write for the publication.

Ida Tarbell became managing editor in 1886, and her duties included proofreading, answering reader questions, providing proper pronunciation of certain words, translating foreign phrases, identifying characters, and defining words.

Ida Tarbell began writing brief items for the magazine and then worked up to longer features as she established her writing style and voice.

Ida Tarbell wrote two articles that showcased her conflicting views on the roles of women that would follow her through her life.

Ida Tarbell balked at being a "hired gal" and decided to strike out on her own after a falling out with Theodore Flood.

Ida Tarbell decided to follow her father's philosophy that it was better to work for oneself than to be a hired hand.

Ida Tarbell began researching women from history including Germaine de Stael and Madame Roland for inspiration and as subject matter for her writing.

Ida Tarbell shared an apartment on the Rue du Sommerard with three women friends from The Chautauquan.

Ida Tarbell met and had a possible romance with Charles Downer Hazen, a future French historian and professor at Smith College.

Ida Tarbell set about making her career as a writer in Paris.

Ida Tarbell supported herself by writing for several American newspapers including the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the Cincinnati Times-Star, and the Chicago Tribune.

Ida Tarbell published the short story, France Adoree, in the December 1891 issue of Scribner's Magazine.

Ida Tarbell already wanted to rescue women from the obscurity of history.

Ida Tarbell's research led her to an introduction to Leon Marillier, a descendant of Roland who provided access to Roland's letters and family papers.

Marillier invited Ida Tarbell to visit the Roland Country estate, Le Clos.

Ida Tarbell continued her education in Paris and learned investigative and research techniques used by French historians.

Ida Tarbell learned from French historians how to present evidence in a clear, compelling style.

Ida Tarbell began the biography with admiration for Roland but grew disillusioned as she researched and learned more.

Ida Tarbell determined that Roland, who followed her husband's lead, was not the independent thinker she had imagined and was complicit in creating an atmosphere where violence led to the Terror and her own execution.

Ida Tarbell had published articles with the syndicate run by publisher Samuel McClure, and McClure had read a Ida Tarbell article called The Paving of the Streets of Paris by Monsieur Alphand, which described how the French carried out large public works.

Ida Tarbell overstayed his visit, missed his train, and had to borrow $40 from Tarbell to travel on to Geneva.

Ida Tarbell assumed she would never see the money, which was for her vacation, again but his offices wired over the money the next day.

Ida Tarbell initially turned him down so she could continue working on the Roland biography but McClure was determined.

Ida Tarbell wrote articles about women intellectuals and writers in Paris as well as scientists.

Ida Tarbell hoped articles such as "A Paris Press Woman" for the Boston Transcript in 1893 would provide a blueprint for women journalists and writers.

Ida Tarbell interviewed Louis Pasteur for an 1893 article, visiting with Pasteur and going through his family photographs for the magazine.

Ida Tarbell returned to Pasteur again to find out his views on the future.

Ida Tarbell took on the role of the magazine's Paris representative.

Ida Tarbell was then offered the position of youth editor to replace Frances Hodgson Burnett.

When her biography of Madame Roland was finished, Ida Tarbell returned home and joined the staff of McClure's for a salary of $3,000 a year.

Ida Tarbell returned from Paris in the summer of 1894, and, after a visit with family in Titusville, moved to New York City.

Ida Tarbell stayed at Twin Oaks in Washington, DC, the home of Gardiner Green Hubbard, while working on the series.

Ida Tarbell made use of Hubbard's extensive collection of Napoleon material and memorabilia as well as resources at the Library of Congress and the US State Department.

Ida Tarbell believed in the Great man theory of biography and that extraordinary individuals could shape their society at least as much as society shaped them.

When Ida Tarbell first approached John Nicolay, he told her that he and Hay had written "all that was worth telling of Lincoln".

Ida Tarbell decided to begin with Lincoln's origins and his humble beginnings.

Ida Tarbell wrote to and interviewed hundreds of people who knew or had contact with Lincoln.

Ida Tarbell tracked down leads and then confirmed their sources.

Ida Tarbell sent hundreds of letters looking for images of Lincoln and found evidence of more than three hundred previously unpublished Lincoln letters and speeches.

Ida Tarbell traveled abroad to Europe, discovering that a rumor that Lincoln had appealed to Queen Victoria to not recognize the Confederacy was, in fact, false.

Ida Tarbell published five books about Lincoln and traveled on the lecture circuit, recounting her discoveries to large audiences.

Ida Tarbell would visit the Sanitarium numerous times over the next thirty years.

Ida Tarbell continued to write profiles for McClure in the late 1890s.

Ida Tarbell was writing a series on military affairs, and in 1898 she was set to interview Nelson A Miles, the commanding general of the United States, when the battleship the USS Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor.

Ida Tarbell was allowed to keep her appointment nonetheless and observe the response at the US Army Headquarters.

Ida Tarbell moved to New York and accepted a position as desk editor for McClure's in 1899.

Ida Tarbell was paid $5,000 a year and given shares in the company, which made her a part-owner.

Ida Tarbell rented an apartment in Greenwich Village which reminded her of France.

Ida Tarbell frequented the Hotel Brevoort, where Samuel Clemens dined.

Ida Tarbell was to become known as an anchor in the office while the magazine built out its roster of investigative editors and authors.

On her return to the states, Ida Tarbell handed over the desk editor role to Lincoln Steffens in 1901, and began a meticulous investigation with the help of an assistant into how the industry began, Rockefeller's early interest in oil, and the Standard Oil trust.

Ida Tarbell's father expressed concern to her about writing about Standard Oil warning her that Rockefeller would stop at nothing and would ruin the magazine.

One of Rockefeller's banks did indeed threaten the magazine's financial status to which Ida Tarbell shocked the bank executive by replying, "Of course that makes no difference to me".

Ida Tarbell developed investigative reporting techniques, delving into private archives and public documents across the country.

Standard Oil had attempted to destroy all available copies of the book, but Ida Tarbell was finally able to locate one copy in the New York Public Library.

The play was a hit even though Ida Tarbell had turned down the lead role and an offer of $2,500 in salary per week for the twenty-week run.

Rogers had begun his career during the American Civil War in western Pennsylvania oil regions where Ida Tarbell had grown up.

Ida Tarbell concluded the series with a two-part character study of Rockefeller, perhaps the first CEO profile ever, though she never met or even talked to him.

Ida Tarbell disliked the muckraker label and wrote an article, "Muckraker or Historian," in which she justified her efforts for exposing the oil trust.

Ida Tarbell became its associate editor and remained there until 1915.

Ida Tarbell resided with her sister Sarah in Easton, Connecticut, at Rock House and Valley Roads.

Mark Twain and other New York publishing people lived nearby and Ida Tarbell frequently entertained friends there.

Ida Tarbell wrote a series of essential articles at The American Magazine, in which she investigated tariffs and their impact on American businesses and consumers.

Ida Tarbell met Jane Addams and stayed at Hull House in 1908.

Phillips became a consultant to the magazine, John Siddell became the editor, and Ida Tarbell turned to freelance writing.

Ida Tarbell examined the positive side of American business in a series of articles written between 1912 and 1916.

Ida Tarbell toured the United States and met with factory owners and workers and their families.

Ida Tarbell admired and wrote about Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his belief that offering high pay would create excellent work, as well as his ideas around mass production.

Steve Weinberg wrote that Ida Tarbell was "a feminist by example, but not by ideology".

Early in life, Ida Tarbell was exposed to the suffragette movement when her mother hosted meetings in their home.

Ida Tarbell was put off by women such as Mary Livermore and Frances Willard who she said never paid attention to her.

Ida Tarbell did say that the movement sparked in her a desire to attend college and receive an education.

Ida Tarbell was alienated by the more militant aspects of the movement and described it as anti-male.

Ida Tarbell recommended that women embrace home life and the family, saying they had a "true role as wives, mothers, and homemakers".

Ida Tarbell felt that "the drive for suffrage" was "a misguided war on men".

Ida Tarbell published the article "Making a Man of Herself" in The American Magazine in 1912, which infuriated her readers and activists.

Ida Tarbell collected her essays on women and published them in a book called The Business of Being a Woman.

Ida Tarbell switched course and embraced suffrage after American women won the right to vote in 1920.

Ida Tarbell wrote an article for Good Housekeeping in 1924 to dispel the myth that suffrage had failed.

Ida Tarbell became an advocate for Taylorism, a system for scientific management of production, encouraging its use in home economics.

Ida Tarbell visited more than fifty-five businesses for the article, "The Golden Rule of Business," to see how "scientific management and Christian values" worked together.

Ida Tarbell decided it was the best way to protect workers and at the same time maximize profits.

Ida Tarbell was a founding member of the Authors' League in 1914: a collective to support working writers which later became the Authors Guild.

Ida Tarbell's career shifted in 1915 when American Magazine named John Siddall as editor.

Ida Tarbell joined the Chautauqua Science and Literary Circuit, a lecture and entertainment tour filled with public speakers, singers and other acts such as trained dogs and yodelers.

Ida Tarbell was exhausted at the end but went on to sign up for more over the next few years.

Ida Tarbell lectured throughout the United States on subjects from the evils of war, peace, politics, trusts, tariffs, labor and labors of women.

Ida Tarbell often served as a go-between with the Men's Council and the Woman's Committee.

Ida Tarbell was sent to Johns Hopkins where she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and she spent three months in the hospital recovering.

Ida Tarbell's doctor did not share his diagnosis with her.

The Women's Committee was disbanded with the end of the war in 1918, and Ida Tarbell traveled to Paris, France.

Ida Tarbell wrote for the Red Cross magazine and interviewed Parisians about how the war had affected them.

Ida Tarbell traveled to the countryside to interview farmers living in the wreckage of their former homes.

Ida Tarbell continued working as a freelancing journalist and traveling the lecture circuit.

Ida Tarbell was a member of President Wilson's Industrial Conference in 1919, representing the Pen and Brush Club of Gramercy Park, New York City, and served on a committee looking into hours of labor along with Robert Brookings.

Ida Tarbell published her only novel, The Rising of the Tide, in 1919.

Ida Tarbell was not initially interested in the biography, but Gary convinced her that if she uncovered any wrongdoings committed by his company, he meant to correct them.

Ida Tarbell earned $10,000 for the book, and although she thought her work was courageous, critics described her work as cowardly.

One review was titled, "The Taming of Ida Tarbell," and accused her of falling in with her sworn enemy, big business.

Ida Tarbell completed a series of articles on Benito Mussolini for McCall's magazine in the 1920s.

The portrait Ida Tarbell painted of Mussolini, comparing him to Napoleon, was flattering.

Ida Tarbell did not complete The Nationalizing of Business until 1936.

Ida Tarbell completed her autobiography, All in a Day's Work, in 1939 when she was 82.

Ida Tarbell was working on another book, Life After Eighty, when she died of pneumonia at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut on January 6,1944.

Ida Tarbell had been in the hospital since December 1943.

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

Everett E Dennis, Executive Director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University stated in 1993 that Tarbell helped invent modern journalism.

Ida Tarbell's method was scholarly and driven by the demands of magazine deadlines.

Ida Tarbell could dictate as many as twenty letters a day from a "To Be Answered" pile on her desk.

At the time she began Lincoln's biography, he had been dead for only 30 years, and Ida Tarbell traveled far and wide interviewing Lincoln's contemporaries.

Ida Tarbell's research uncovered more than 300 documents including unpublished speeches, letters, pictures and personal anecdotes.

Ida Tarbell double-checked the Lincoln articles for accuracy by sending them out to those whose information she had included.

Ida Tarbell's writing has been described as fair and professional, and her methods have been used widely to train other investigative journalists.

Ida Tarbell liked to work from a desk covered in research materials.

Ida Tarbell would gather the books, transcripts, and clippings she needed, put them in order and write.

On her Connecticut farm, Ida Tarbell worked from a mahogany desk in a sunny library.