Decapitation of the Union

[Rob Wick]

Not that any of this matters to me, but in my research on Ida Tarbell, I found a great deal of information on Booth's oil activities in Pennsylvania (given that Tarbell lived in Titusville and went to Allegheny College in Meadville). This will make up only a few paragraphs in my book, which is going very well, thank you.

I don't recall seeing much, if anything, about the Meadville window, but Tarbell was particularly interested in Booth's association with The Dramatic Oil Company in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Indeed, Tarbell wrote an article toward the end of her life about Booth, which did not achieve publication in her lifetime as it was rejected by the New York Times among others. It was later published posthumously in the journal Pennsylvania History. The editor of that piece also wrote another on Booth's activity in the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine.

Tarbell corresponded with George S. Bryan, author of The Great American Myth about this. There are numerous files in her papers regarding Booth's oilfield activities as well as the assassination. They are located here, here, here, here, here and here. There may be some duplication in the particular folders, given that Allegheny College has some of the same material tagged with different subject headings.

Best
Rob