Tough Tarbell Trivia

[RJNorton]

Start her own magazine or newspaper?

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Roger, but that's not it. Great guess, though.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Next (and final) clue.

There were conspiracy theories that what Tarbell was speaking of had been suppressed and couldn't be found at any price.

Best
Rob

[AussieMick]

Her biography, though dunno why it would result in 2 archives

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Mike, but that isn't the answer.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

OK, I said the previous clue was the last, but I'll give one more. When asked if she would have done anything different from what she originally had done, Tarbell replied "I would not change one comma."

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Does it have anything to do with what she wrote about Standard Oil?

[Rob Wick]

Roger,

It does, but how?

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Ok, I think I'll call this.

Tarbell had wanted, ever since the mid teens and early 1920s to update and write a third volume to her History of the Standard Oil Company. So much had changed since the government forced the breakup of Rockefeller's trust that Tarbell felt it was necessary to bring it up to date. She constantly thought and talked about it for many years, but never was able to get it accomplished.

Tarbell did work with a young history professor from Allegheny College named Paul Giddens on his book about the history of the Pennsylvania oil region, which Giddens published in 1938. Tarbell wrote the foreword to Giddens' book. One reviewer said that one could read Tarbell's contribution and then not have to read Giddens' book, which the author did not take as an insult.

In 1921 Tarbell even entertained the thought of working with S.S. McClure, who had nominal control of McClure's Magazine, but he would eventually lose control completely of the magazine in a few years, so nothing was done on that front.

In 1944 when Tarbell died, her sister Sarah gifted Tarbell's Standard Oil research material to Giddens, who used it to write his History of the Standard Oil (Indiana) Company. Giddens eventually became director of the Drake Well Museum, and he donated Tarbell's research material to them, resulting in the division of her papers between two archives.

Although Tarbell never really believed it, there were conspiracy theories that Rockefeller bought up as many copies of her books as he could find in an attempt to suppress them. Tarbell even asked her brother, William, to look at Philadelphia bookstores to see if Any copies were available. To this day, finding an original 1904 eidition of the two-volume history is very difficult, and if one can find it, very expensive. Of course, there are numerous reprints now available, but an original copy is hard to find.

The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine in 1956 printed "Ida Tarbell's Second Look at Standard Oil," which came from Tarbell's Drake papers. This was an early draft of one of the chapters that Tarbell intended to write. There are six boxes of research material that Tarbell collected before her 1944 death to help with her desire to bring the story up to date.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Good question (and answer), Rob!

[Rob Wick]

The first publication that Ida Tarbell was involved with was her college newspaper, The Campus. She served on the editorial board during her sophomore year at Allegheny College.

What, however, is the first likely instance of Tarbell being mentioned in the press outside of western Pennsylvania? In what publication was it in, and what did it involve?

Best
Rob

[Steve]

My guess for when Tarbell was first mentioned in the press is from the summer of 1883 when she became an editor at the Chautauqua Assembly Herald (NY). The paper ran a blurb welcoming her as a new editor, calling her a "fine literary mind, endowed with the peculiar gift of a clear and forceful expression."

[Rob Wick]

Good guess Steve, but that isn't the answer

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Clue: It was the very briefest of mentions.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Can you say if it came before or after what Steve mentioned?