Ida M. Tarbell (November 5, 1857 – January 6, 1944) was an American author who became known for helping pioneer the “muckracking” investigative style of journalism that exposed social injustice, political corruption and the misdeeds of corporations.  She was born in a log cabin Erie County, Pennsylvania.  Her father built wooden storage tanks for the emerging oil industry and in 1860 moved the family to Titusville, Pennsylvania, where he produced and refined oil. Ida graduated at the top of her high school class and graduated from Allegheny College in 1880, the only woman in her class. After finding teaching wearisome she accepted a position at The Chautauquan, a publication for home study courses and became editor in 1886.  She moved to Paris for postgraduate study and wrote a biography of Madame Roland, the leader of an influential salon during the French Revolution. While there she wrote numerous articles for magazines and came to the attention of Samuel McClure, who hired her as editor for McClure’s Magazine. There she wrote a popular series on Napolean Bonaparte and established a national reputation with a 20-part series on Abraham Lincoln.  In 1900 she began a thorough investigation of Standard Oil, beginning with interviews of Henry H. Rogers, a key executive in the Standard Oil organization, and poring through hundreds of thousands of pages of public documents scattered across the country. In doing so, she set the standard for investigative reporting.  The resulting History of the Standard Oil Company was serialized in 19 installments in McClure’s and then published in book form in 1904.  She followed it with a profile of John D. Rockefeller, the first CEO profile ever published.  Tarbell was an ardent suffragist who never married. She became an advocate for of home and family life in her later years until her death at age 86.