Ida M. (Ida Minerva) Tarbell

Born in Pennsylvania in 1857, Ida Minerva Tarbell became one of the best-known journalists of her time. She studied at Allegheny College, taught school for a short period, and then moved into magazine work, eventually building a career as a writer, editor, lecturer, and biographer.

Tarbell is most famous for her investigation of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil, first published in McClure's Magazine and then collected as The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904. That work made her a leading figure among the reform-minded journalists later called muckrakers and helped set a model for patient, document-based reporting.

Beyond her reporting on industry and business, she also wrote biographies and reflections on public life, bringing the same clear, steady voice to a wide range of subjects. She died in 1944, but her reputation as a pioneer of investigative journalism has endured.