McClure's Magazine, May 1903, Vol. XXI, No. 1 - The History of the Standard Oil Company (Chapter VII) / Pittsburgh Corruption / New York's Street Waifs

USA: The S.S. McClure Co., 1903. Book. Illus. by Varian, George; Schoonover, Frank E.. Fair. Single Issue Magazine. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. A very rare copy of this, the first appearance of chapter seven, The Crisis of 1878, of Ida Tarbell's ground-breaking History of the Standard Oil Company. This feature of 16 pages includes photos of: the company's tank farm at Olean, NY; John L. McKinney; Torpedoed oil wells with side-flow and upright flow; A.J. Cassatt; M.N. Allen; a 25,000 oil tank on fire; and a one-page illustration of the hanging in effigy of "Buck" McCandless. With this work, Tarbell invented what we know today as investigative journalism. She was motivated to expose the methods of J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil as she felt he had unfairly damaged her father's oil business. The New York University Department of Journalism ranked this study as the fifth best work of 20th-century American journalism. Also contained in this issue is a most scathing 15-page photo-illustrated article on the corruption pervasive in Pittsburgh, PA. Also included is a 9-page article entitled Waifs of the (New York) Street which describes, with illustrations, the heart-breaking life of children forced to work as 'newsboys, peddlers, messengers, and bootblacks that swarm by day and night through every crowded street of busy New York.' Binding intact. Unmarked. Above-average wear. This copy lacks: covers; backstrip; pages 1-2 (title page and first half of table of contents); Advertising pages 133-136..