New York Evening Mail

History

Names

The paper was founded as the New York Evening Mail in 1867 and published under that name through 1877. It then went through some minor name changes, becoming the New York Mail for about a year (November 1877 – November 1878), and then The Mail (through late 1879). It then became the Evening Mail from 1879 through December 1881, when owner Cyrus West Field (1819–1892) acquired the New York Evening Express (which had been founded by James (1810–1873) and Erastus Brooks (1815–1886) as a Whig paper in June 1836), and created The Mail and Express. It retained the Mail and Express moniker until 1904, when it eventually became the Evening Mail once again. In 1915 the newspaper was acquired by Edward Rumely with financing from a source in Germany. Rumely felt that most American newspapers were taking a pro-British side threatening neutrality.

In January 1924, the paper was merged with the Evening Telegram upon being acquired by Frank Munsey from Henry Luther Stoddard (1862–1947). This later became the New York World-Telegram in 1931.

Early history

On March 20, 1888, Elliott Fitch Shepard purchased the Mail and Express (with an estimated value of $200,000 ($ in ) from Cyrus West Field for $425,000 ($ in ). 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. Shepard's brother Augustus Dennis Shepard (1836–1913), who was the vice president, became acting president of the Mail and Express Company on his brother's death.

• "looks for all the world like an upright lead pencil," as The Buffalo Morning Express put it in 1891
• "In 1900, when it narrowly escaped destruction by a fire, The Troy Daily Times said it was "such an ornament to Broadway that its destruction would be a calamity."
• "That destruction came some 20 years later, after the American Telephone & Telegraph Company filed plans to complete the columned granite tower complex it had started a few years earlier on the Dey Street end of the Broadway frontage."
• moved from Fulton and Broadway to the Lupton Building at 25 City Hall Place, occupying the basement and first six floors, more than doubling its space. Exodus began Oct 28, was home for 26 years.
• building in the Renaissance style.
• August 1891 - the cornerstone was laid to a large opening ceremony; the cornerstone contained copies of the bible, a portrait of then-US President Harrison, copies of the NY and US Constitutions, gold and silver coins, photographs and cards, copies of the Mail and Express newspaper, among other items.
• Robert E. Dorr died Nov 27, 1900. Shepard gave him the managing editorship in August 1892, Dorr became publisher after his death. Purchased the paper from the estate along with Robert C. Alexander, who died, allowing Dorr to take a controlling ownership. the paper also had few details of murders, prize fights, or other material not suitable for public discussion; instead had news of charitable, educational, and religious organizations.
• "prohibiting profanity in the Mail & Express offices and adopting the spelling "Sonday" because it was a day devoted to the Son of God."
• "the Epoch said that he introduced the lowercase use of Democrat, keeping the uppercase for Republican."
• later shortened to the Evening Mail, still published every day except Sunday by the Mail and Express Company. --

Mail and Express building

In 1892, the newspaper's owner Elliott 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 by Carrère & Hastings (architects of the New York Public Library). The building's dimensions were challenging based on the land purchased, and thus the Buffalo Morning Express wrote that it "looks for all the world like an upright lead pencil". The ground floor featured caryatids 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, the Troy 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 at 195 Broadway to take over nearly the entire block. 14-story, L-shaped building extended 211 feet. The section facing Fulton Street was wider and had 11 stories. The caryatids were designed by the sculptors J. Massey Rhind and Philip Martiny. The sculptures and ornamental design was likely driven by Shepard's will. The newspaper's presses occupied the building's basement, and the editorial offices and composing room were on the tenth and eleventh floors. The remaining floors were rented to other companies.

King's Handbook of New York, 570-2: Fulton street front is 77 ft. Renaissance style, Indiana limestone, steel construction. tenth editorial, eleventh composing. Ordered new Hoe presses, capable of 98,000 papers an hour, all electric. Only evening paper that has a franchise in the New-York Associated Press--

In 1907, Rube Goldberg moved to New York, finding employment as a cartoonist with the New York Evening Mail. The New York Evening Mail was syndicated to the first newspaper syndicate, the McClure 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. Arthur Brisbane had offered Goldberg $2,600 per year in 1911 in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to move to William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, and in 1915 raised the offer to $50,000 per year. Rather than lose Goldberg to Hearst, the New York Evening Mail matched the salary offer and formed the Evening Mail Syndicate to syndicate Goldberg's cartoons nationally.

World War I controversy

The New York Times of July 9, 1918, reported that Edward Rumely, "... vice president, secretary and publisher of the New York Evening Mail, was arrested late yesterday afternoon by agents of the Government, charged with perjury. The charge grew out of a statement filed with A. Mitchell Palmer, the Alien Property Custodian, in which Rumely asserted that The 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."

In July 1918 Rumely was arrested and convicted of violation of the Trading 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. He said the charge was baseless, and based on perjured testimony. President Coolidge granted him a presidential pardon in 1925.

Staff ==

• Rheta Childe Dorr
• Rube Goldberg
• H.L. Mencken
• William Charles Morris (1874–1940), political cartoonist
• Roderic C. Penfield
• Harry J. Tuthill

Publication and bibliographic history

The following table summarizes the newspaper's successive titles and publication runs as recorded in Library of Congress catalog records (LCCN).

People

1935 retrospective

A 1935 retrospective by sports editor W.S. "Bill" Farnsworth in the New York Evening Journal observed that "most of the defunct Evening Mail staff are doing well," noting that the paper had served as a training ground for an unusually large number of prominent journalists, editors, and cultural figures. Among its alumni were Broadway producer Brock Pemberton; drama critic Burns Mantle (1873–1948); cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883–1970); celebrated sportswriter Grantland Rice (né Henry Grantland Rice; 1880–1954); and playwright George S. Kaufman (1889–1961). The paper’s sports pages were shaped by figures such as Francis Peter Albertanti (1889–1958), Fred Wenck (né Frederick August Wenck; 1879–1946) — later New York Boxing Commissioner under the Frawley Law — and Jake Karpf (né Jacob Jerome Karpf; 1872–1943), another sports editor, now on the sports staff of The American Magazine; Jimmy Sinnott (né James Philip Sinnott; 1891–1955), who, at the Evening Mail, had a column, "In Mid-Channel with Skipper Sinnott," was, from 1931 to 1933, the Fourth Deputy NYPD Commissioner under Mayor Walker.

Other former staff went on to influential careers in journalism and public life, including columnist F. P. A., (né Franklin Pierce Adams; 1881–1960) now a columnist; city editor George T. Hughes (né George Thomas Hughes; 1871–1945), who wrote financial news for the Evening World; Jack Pulaski (né Isma Berringer Pulaski; 1883–1948) now on Variety. W. W. Mills (né William Wirt Mills; 1867–1946), assistant city editor, went on to become Tax Commissioner for the Staten Island under Mayors "Red Mike" Hylan (né John Francis Hylan; 1868–1936), Jimmy Walker (né James John Walker; 1881–1946), and later, Tax Commissioner for the City of New York under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (1882–1947).

The Evening Mail also counted among its ranks playwrights Bayard Veiller (1869–1943) and Edward Hope (pseudonym of Edward Hope Coffee, Jr.; 1896–1958), sportswriters Roy Moulton (né Roy Kenneth Moulton; 1876–1928) and Hughey Fullerton (né Hugh Stuart Fullerton III; 1873–1945), and future television personality Ed Sullivan; Roy Moulton (né Roy Kenneth Moulton; 1876–1928), Hughey Fullerton (né Hugh Stuart Fullerton III; 1873–1945), Ed Sullivan, Harry Schumacher (né Harry Frick Schumacher; 1886–1958), Ed Van Every (né Edward Moses Van Evera; 1879–1952), Berton Braley (1882–1966), W. W. Williams (né Willard Wells Williams; 1875–1948).

Even junior staff rose to prominence. Fred Winkelman (né Frederick Herman Winkelmann; 1895–1965), once a copy boy, became attached to the homicide squad of the New York Police Department, while another office boy, Henry H. Becker (1893–1964), later joined the financial staff of The American Magazine. Jack Anderson (né John Anderson; 1860–1940), formerly foreman of the composing room, still setting type, but for the Telegram.

The paper was edited and owned by Henry L. Stoddard (né Henry Luther Stoddard; 1862–1947), described in the 1935 article as "perhaps the closest newspaperman to Theodore Roosevelt."

There's also Jack Lawrence (né John Wheeler Lawrence; 1887–1962), who "covered" ship news.

Those who have passed include Gym Bagley (pseudonym of James E. Bagley; c. 1858–1910; aka "Cross Right") and Tommy Tompkins (né Theodore LaBeaume Tompkins; 1861–1924).

Bibliography

Annotations

Notes

References

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• Retrieved February 29, 2024. (paperback); . (paperback); . ; (paperback).

--

:: See Writ of mandamus.

• ; , (online). Retrieved August 5, 2014. Via (Historical Newspapers database). Retrieved July 14, 2025. Via (Historical Newspapers database). Retrieved September 21, 2012. (Historical Newspapers database & ProQuest Digital Collections). Retrieved 18 July 2012. Via (Historical Newspapers database). Retrieved October 29, 2016. "The Mail & Express Building, built in 1892, was not the tallest, biggest or first skyscraper, but it was certainly the lightest, the most refined". (Oct. 24, 3024 blog ed. → ProQuest Central database). (Oct. 26, 3024 print ed. → Historical Newspapers database). (Oct. 26, 3024 print ed. (duplicate) → Central database).

• ; ; .
• .

References

1. {{OCLC. 2264967
2. Seabury Lawrence (1858–1922), was editor and publisher of the ''New York Daily Stockholder'' and for 25 years New York correspondent of ''Boston News'' Bureau, was the father of Seabury Lawrence, Jr. (1879–1928), of ''The New York Sun'', and Jack Lawrence (''né'' John Wheeler Lawrence; 1887–1962) of the ''New York Evening Mail'' and later, the ''New York Tribune''. Jack's maternal grandfather, [[Andrew Carpenter Wheeler]] (1835–1903), was a newspaper writer and author. Jack was also a brother-in-law of the author, [[Francis William Sullivan]] (1887–1963). His step-grandmother was writer Jennie Pearl Mowbray Wheeler (1865–1952).