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The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the '' New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York ...
. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the dominant newspaper first of the American Whig Party, then of the
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...
. The paper achieved a circulation of approximately 200,000 in the 1850s, making it the largest daily paper in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
at the time. The ''Tribune''s editorials were widely read, shared, and copied in other city newspapers, helping to shape national opinion. It was one of the first papers in the north to send reporters, correspondents, and illustrators to cover the campaigns of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
. It continued as an independent daily newspaper until 1924, when it merged with the ''
New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...
''. The resulting ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' remained in publication until 1966. Among those who served on the paper's editorial board were
Bayard Taylor Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular, with a crowd of more than 4,000 attending a poetry reading once, which was a record ...
, George Ripley, and
Isidor Lewi Isidor Lewi (May 9, 1850 – 1938 or 1939) was a journalist who served on the editorial board of the '' New York Tribune''. He once interviewed Charles Dickens. Lewi was educated in the Albany Academy. His wife was Emita May (d. on January 23, 19 ...
.
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
's poem " Annabel Lee" was first published in the newspaper as part of his October 9, 1849, obituary, "Death of Edgar A. Poe", by
Rufus Griswold Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New Y ...
. In addition, Poe's "The Bells" was published in the October 17, 1849, issue as "Poe's Last Poem".


History

The ''Tribune'' was created by
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the '' New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York ...
in 1841 with the goal of providing a straightforward, trustworthy media source. Greeley had previously published a weekly newspaper, ''The New Yorker'' (unrelated to the later modern magazine of the same name), in 1833 and was also publisher of the Whig Party's political organ, '' Log Cabin''. In 1841, he merged operations of these two publications into a new newspaper that he named the ''New-York Tribune''. Greeley sponsored a host of reforms, including
pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace camp ...
and
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
and especially the ideal of the hardworking free laborer. Greeley demanded reforms to make all citizens free and equal. He envisioned virtuous citizens who would eradicate corruption. He talked endlessly about progress, improvement, and freedom, while calling for harmony between labor and capital. Greeley's editorials promoted social democratic reforms and were widely reprinted. They influenced the free-labor ideology of the Whigs and the radical wing of the Republican Party, especially in promoting the free-labor ideology. Before 1848 he sponsored an American version of Fourierist socialist reform, but backed away after the failed
revolutions of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europ ...
in Europe. To promote multiple reforms, Greeley hired a roster of writers who later became famous in their own right, including
Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movem ...
,
Charles Anderson Dana Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper '' New-York Tribun ...
,
George William Curtis George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker born in Providence, Rhode Island. An early Republican, he spoke in favor of African-American equality and civil rights both before and after ...
, William Henry Fry,
Bayard Taylor Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular, with a crowd of more than 4,000 attending a poetry reading once, which was a record ...
, George Ripley,
Julius Chambers Julius Chambers, F.R.G.S., (November 21, 1850 – February 12, 1920) was an American author, editor, journalist, travel writer, and activist against psychiatric abuse. Life and works Julius Chambers was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio on November ...
, and
Henry Jarvis Raymond Henry Jarvis Raymond (January 24, 1820 – June 18, 1869) was an American journalist, politician, and co-founder of ''The New York Times'', which he founded with George Jones. He was a member of the New York State Assembly, Lieutenant Governor o ...
, who later co-founded ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. In 1852-62, the paper retained
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
as its London-based European correspondent.
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' isstudies", noting that since much of his work was reporting on current economic events, “I was compelled to become conversant with practical detail which, strictly speaking, lie outside the sphere of political economy”. Engels wrote “It doesn’t matter if they are never read again.”. In the same correspondence Marx disparagingly referred to the publication as a “blotting paper vendor”. Nevertheless, Engels still cited this career as a positive achievement of Marx’s during a eulogy given at his
funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect ...
.


Political influence

Founded in a time of civil unrest, the paper joined the newly formed
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...
in 1854, named it after the party of
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, and emphasized its opposition to slavery. The paper generated a large readership, with a circulation of approximately 200,000 during the 1850s. This made the paper the largest circulation daily in New York City—gaining commensurate influence among voters and political decision-makers in the process. During the Civil War Greeley crusaded against slavery, lambasting Democrats while calling for a mandatory draft of soldiers for the first time in the U.S. This led to an Irish mob attempting to burn down the ''Tribune'' building in lower Manhattan during the Draft Riots. Greeley ran for
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
as the nominee of the Liberal Republican Party (and subsequently the Democratic Party) in the 1872 election against incumbent
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...
in his bid for a second term. Greeley was unsuccessful and, soon after the defeat, checked into Dr. George C.S. Choate's Sanitarium, where he died only a few weeks later. ''Tribune'' editor Whitelaw Reid purchased the paper following Greeley's death. In 1886, with Reid's support, the ''Tribune'' became the first publication in the world to be printed on a linotype machine, which was invented by a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
immigrant, inventor
Ottmar Mergenthaler Ottmar Mergenthaler (11 May 1854 – 28 October 1899) was a German-American inventor who has been called a second Gutenberg, as Mergenthaler invented the linotype machine, the first device that could easily and quickly set complete lines o ...
. This technique allowed it to exceed the standard newspaper size of only eight pages while still speeding up printing time per copy, thereby increasing the overall number of copies that could be printed.


''New York Herald Tribune''

Under Reid's son,
Ogden Mills Reid Ogden Mills Reid (May 16, 1882 – January 3, 1947) was an American newspaper publisher who was president of the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Early life Reid was born on May 16, 1882 in Manhattan. He was the son of Elisabeth (née Mills) Reid (18 ...
, the paper acquired and merged with the ''
New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...
'' in 1924 to form the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
.'' The ''New York Herald Tribune'' continued to be run by Ogden M. Reid until his death in 1947.


Former Tribune buildings today

* The New York Tribune Building was the first home of Pace University. Today, the site where the building once stood is now the
One Pace Plaza 1 Pace Plaza is the flagship building complex of Pace University in New York City, located directly across from the City Hall and adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge ramp in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan. The building houses the classroo ...
complex of Pace University's New York City campus. Dr. Choate’s residence and private hospital, where Horace Greeley died, today is part of the campus of Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. * On December 15, 1921, ''The New York Tribune'' bought two plots of ground at 219 and 220 West 40th Street. The headquarters that ''The New York Tribune'' built at that site is now the home of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.


Archives

Copies of the ''New-York Tribune'' are available on
microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. ...
at many large libraries and online at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
.About New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]) 1866–1924
" Library of Congress.
Also, indices from selected years in the late nineteenth century are available on the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

website
The original paper articles from the newspaper's morgue are kept a
The Center for American History
at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.


See also

*
History of American newspapers The history of American newspapers begins in the early 18th century with the publication of the first colonial newspapers. American newspapers began as modest affairs—a sideline for printers. They became a political force in the campaign fo ...


References


Further reading

* * * * * * Guarneri, Carl J. ''Lincoln's Informer: Charles A. Dana and the Inside Story of the Union War'' (University Press of Kansas, 2019). * Holzer, Harold. ''Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion'' (Simon & Schuster, 2014). * * * Lundberg, James M. ''Horace Greeley: Print, Politics, and the Failure of American Nationhood'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019). * * Seitz, Don C. ''Horace Greeley: Founder of the New York Tribune'' (1926
online edition
* Tuchinsky, Adam. ''Horace Greeley's 'New-York Tribune': Civil War-Era Socialism and the Crisis of Free Labor'' (Cornell University Press, 2009). * Van Deusen, Glyndon G. ''Horace Greeley, Nineteenth-Century Crusader'' (1953), standard biograph
online edition


See also

*
The New Era Illustrated Magazine The ''New Era Illustrated Magazine'', began in early 1900s in the United States. It was a leading American Jewish periodical (monthly), ''devoted to matters of interest to Jews and not the organ of any class, nor the mouthpiece of any individual.' ...


External links

* *
Library of Congress digitized all issues 1842-1866

Library of Congress digitized all issues 1866-1922
{{Authority control 1841 establishments in New York (state) 1924 disestablishments in New York (state) Abolitionist newspapers published in the United States Defunct newspapers published in New York City Horace Greeley New York (state) in the American Civil War Publications disestablished in 1924 Newspapers established in 1841 Richard Morris Hunt buildings Daily newspapers published in New York City