Ida Tarbell

1857-1944

     Graduate of the Allegheny College- Ida Tarbell was the only women graduate of her class in 1880. Ida Tarbell was a very famous journalist from Erie County, Pennsylvania. Ida began her writing with biographies and after that her articles were mainly against big business', including the unfair practices of the Standard Oil company. Tarbell grew up with her father as an oilman, so she was pretty familiar with the oil business. This helped her as she looked into the Standard Oil Company and helped begin her best-known project, in which Ida looked into the Rockafellers' family oil monopoly and came across the realization that they were a very unfair business practice. All of Ida's discoveries were published into a book called The History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904. In 1911 when the U.S Supreme court was making a decision on breaking up the Standard Oil monopoly, Ida's findings and book helped contribute to the Supreme Court's decision and ending the monopoly. Ida Tarbell was one of the best journalists of the twentieth century and a very good investigative reporter. Ida Tarbell is now in the National Women's Hall of Fame, along with being honored by appearing on the U.S. postage stamp as part of the Women in Journalism stamp series. Women today can look up to people like Ida, who proved that regardless of her gender she could go to school, graduate, and go down in history as an outstanding journalist.

Life in the Camps

Life in the Camps

Skye Burket

Many camps during the Transcontinental Rail Road were known as Hell-on-wheel camps, as they were always moving and not ideal. Workers for these railroads only needed a place to sleep at night, because they would work from sun up till sun down. As the construction of the Rail Road grew workers would continuously be moving farther towards their Rail Road destination. Many people looked at these camps as the most undesirable and inconsistent locations in the country. Unexpected things happened at these camps, including large amounts of drinking, gambling, and murder occurred almost nightly. Few of these camps became permanent towns and grew in population and land. Although some places remained permanent and industrialized, others are completely gone or still there but they're "ghost towns".

http://rsirailroad.blogspot.com/2012/02/closer-look-railroad-camps.html 

Group:

http://haydencoleman.blogspot.com/2013/10/understanding-owners-of.html

http://rickeyricardoridiculous.blogspot.com/2013/10/hiring-workers.html

http://ussummithistory.blogspot.com/2013/10/dealing-with-workers.html

http://summithistoryus.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-impact-of-transcontinental-railroad.html