 The Mail and Express building (1892–1920, center, with spire) | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper[1] |
|---|---|
| Owner | Charles H. Sweetser[2] |
| Publisher | Evening Mail Association (1869–1870)[2] |
| Editor | Charles H. Sweetser[2] |
| Founded | 1867[1] |
| Headquarters | New York City,New York, U.S. |
TheNew York Evening Mail (1867–1924) was an American dailynewspaper published inNew York City. For a time the paper was the only evening newspaper to have a franchise in theAssociated Press.[3]
The paper was founded as theNew York Evening Mail in 1867 and published under that name through 1877. It then went through some minor name changes, becoming theNew York Mail for about a year (November 1877 – November 1878), and thenThe Mail (through late 1879).[1] It then became theEvening Mail from 1879 through December 1881, when ownerCyrus West Field acquired theNew York Evening Express (which had been founded by James and Erastus Brooks as aWhig paper in June 1836), and createdThe Mail and Express.[4] It retained theMail and Express moniker until 1904, when it eventually became theEvening Mail once again. In 1915 the newspaper was acquired byEdward Rumely with financing from a source inGermany. Rumely felt that most American newspapers were taking a pro-British side threatening neutrality.
In January 1924, the paper was merged with theEvening Telegram upon being acquired byFrank Munsey fromHenry L. Stoddard.[5] This later became theNew York World-Telegram in 1931.
On March 20, 1888,Elliott Fitch Shepard purchased theMail and Express (with an estimated value of $200,000 ($7 million in 2024[6]) from Cyrus West Field[7][8] for $425,000 ($14.9 million in 2024[6]).[9][10] Deeply religious, Shepard placed a verse from the Bible at the head of each edition's editorial page. As president of the newspaper company until his death, he approved every important decision or policy.[11] Shepard's brother Augustus D. Shepard, who was the vice president, became acting president of the Mail and Express Company on his brother's death.[12]
In 1892, the newspaper's ownerElliott Fitch Shepard ordered a new headquarters built. Shepard owned the company from 1888 until his death in 1893. The building was on Broadway, between Fulton and Dey Streets. It was 66 by 25 by 211 feet, ten stories, and was built byCarrère & Hastings (architects of theNew York Public Library[13]). The building's dimensions were challenging based on the land purchased, and thus theBuffalo Morning Express wrote that it "looks for all the world like an upright lead pencil". The ground floor featuredcaryatids representing the newspaper's reach across all "four corners of the world". The building became an architectural landmark, such that after a fire in 1900, theTroy Daily Times wrote that it was "such an ornament to Broadway that its destruction would be a calamity". It was demolished in 1920, following AT&T's plans to expand its building at195 Broadway to take over nearly the entire block.[13]
In 1907,Rube Goldberg moved to New York, finding employment as a cartoonist with theNew York Evening Mail.[14] TheNew York Evening Mail was syndicated to the first newspaper syndicate, theMcClure Newspaper Syndicate, giving Goldberg's cartoons a wider distribution, and by 1915 he was earning $25,000 per year and being billed by the paper as America's most popular cartoonist.[14]Arthur Brisbane had offered Goldberg $2,600 per year in 1911 in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to move toWilliam Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, and in 1915 raised the offer to $50,000 per year. Rather than lose Goldberg to Hearst, theNew York Evening Mail matched the salary offer and formed the Evening Mail Syndicate to syndicate Goldberg's cartoons nationally.[14]
TheNew York Times of July 9, 1918, reported thatEdward Rumely, "... vice president, secretary and publisher of theNew York Evening Mail, was arrested late yesterday afternoon by agents of the Government, charged with perjury. The charge grew out of a statement filed withA. Mitchell Palmer, theAlien Property Custodian, in which Rumely asserted thatThe Evening Mail was an American-owned newspaper. The Government is in possession of evidence which, it is held, shows that instead of being owned by Americans, the paper is in fact owned by the Imperial German Government, which on June 1, 1915, paid to Rumely, through Walter Lyon, of the former Wall Street house of Renskorf. Lyon & Co., the sum of $735,000, which transferred the control of the newspaper to the Kaiser."[15]
In July 1918 Rumely was arrested and convicted of violation of theTrading with the Enemy Act. Rumely however denied the allegations, claiming, instead, he had received money to buy the paper from an American citizen in Germany. He had failed to report this when he received the money.[16] He said the charge was baseless, and based on perjured testimony.[citation needed] PresidentCoolidge granted him a presidential pardon in 1925.[17]
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