The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publications. The modern term generally references investigative journalism or watchdog journalism; investigative journalists in the US are occasionally called "muckrakers" informally.
McClure's (cover, January 1901) published many early muckraker articles.
Julius Chambers
Nellie Bly
Theodore Roosevelt
The Progressive Era (1896–1917) was a period in the United States during the early 20th century of widespread social activism and political reform across the country. Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption as well as the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor.
The Awakening: "Votes for Women" in 1915 Puck magazine
Christmas 1903 cover of McClure's features a muckraking expose of Rockefeller and Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pictured) wrote these articles about feminism for the Atlanta Constitution, published on December 10, 1916.
Monopoly brothers—Politically powerful trusts created high prices all carried by hapless little consumer 1912; by Thomas Powers