The photographs on this page were taken from the collection held by the United States Library of Congress.
The New York Herald was first published by James Gordon Bennett Sr. during the American Civil War. It supported the Democratic Party. The paper financed Henry Morton Stanley’s expeditions into Africa to find David Livingstone.
The paper was considered to be the most invasive and sensationalist of the New York papers, and it was the leading circulation paper of its time. In 1861 it circulated 84,000 copies.
The Herald building was built in 1895 and demolished in 1921. New York’s Herald Square is named after the paper, in the north side of the square is a statue to commemorate the Bennetts. North of Herald Square is Times Square, named after rival The New York Times.
Bennett’s son, James Gordon Bennett Jr. launched the Herald’s European edition in Paris in 1887, and moved there. The New York paper suffered badly when he tried to manage it from Paris by telegram.
After Bennett Jr.’s death in 1924 the paper was aquired by its smaller rival, the New York Tribune, to form the New York Herald Tribune.
