Muckrakers

Ida M. Tarbell Investigative journalist Ida Tarbell, shown in her home office in 1905, exposed the ruthless business practices that John D. Rockefeller used to create and run his Standard Oil Company. Tarbell was one of the Progressive Era’s muckrakers, who published articles in popular magazines and wrote books that evoked public outrage and calls for reform. The Ida M. Tarbell Collection, Pelletier Library, Allegheny College

The growing desire for reform at the turn of the century received a boost from investigative journalists known as muckrakers. Popular magazines such as McClure’s and Collier’s sought to increase their readership by publishing exposés of corruption in government and the shady operations of big business. Filled with details uncovered through intensive research, these articles had a sensationalist appeal that both informed and aroused their mainly middle-class readers. In 1902 journalist Ida Tarbell lambasted the ruthless and dishonest business practices of the Rockefeller family’s Standard Oil Company, the model of corporate greed. Lincoln Steffens wrote about machine bosses’ shameful rule in cities such as Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. Ida B. Wells, a Memphis journalist, wrote scathing articles and pamphlets condemning the lynching of African Americans. Other muckrakers exposed fraudulent practices in insurance companies, child labor, drug abuse, and prostitution.