Muckraking journalism emerged at the end of the 19th century largely in response to the excesses of the Gilded Age, and Ida Tarbell was one of the most famous of the muckrakers. Born in 1857 in a log cabin in Hatch Hollow, Pennsylvania, Tarbell’s first dream was to be a scientist. Science was a field largely closed to women, however, and she instead pursued teaching, a profession deemed more suitable for a woman.
In 1883 she met Dr. Thomas Flood, editor of the Chautauquan, a magazine published in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. Flood was about to retire his position and he asked Tarbell to assist him for a few months while he searched for a successor. She accepted and ended up working at the Chautauquan as a writer and editor for six years.
