{{Short description|American newspaper}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = New York Evening Express | image = File:New York Evening Express 1870-12-31 p. 1.jpg | caption = Front page of the ''New York Evening Express'', Saturday, December 31, 1870 | type = Daily newspaper | format = | founded = June 20, 1836 (as the ''New York Express'') | ceased_publication = December 1881 | owners = | headquarters = New York City, NY, U.S. | editor = James Brooks (from 1836 to 1873) | publisher = | website = }}
'''''The New York Evening Express''''' (1836–1881) was a 19th-century American newspaper published in New York City.
==Publication history== [[File:Hon. James Brooks (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|James Brooks, c. 1855–1865]] The ''Express'' began publication on June 20, 1836, as the ''New York Express'', a Whig publication under the direction of James Brooks, formerly an editor of the ''Portland Advertiser'' in Maine, with the assistance of Brooks' younger brother Erastus Brooks (originally as their Washington correspondent). Robert E. Hudson served at its initial commercial editor.<ref name="robe1">(16 July 1836). [https://books.google.com/books?id=faEeAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA269 New York], ''The New Yorker'', Vol. I., No. 17, p. 269</ref> It was merged with ''Hudson's Prices Current and Shipping List'' upon its creation, and on November 1, 1836, merged with the ''Daily Advertiser'' founded in 1817 by Theodore Dwight, and thus referred to as the ''New York Daily Express''.<ref name="hudson">Hudson, Frederic. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lHAFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA517 Journalism in the United States from 1690–1872]'', Ch. 32 (1873)</ref><ref name="Cent">[https://books.google.com/books?id=1NHJnchVeuwC&pg=PA218 Centennial Newspaper Exhibition, 1876], p. 218-19 (1876)</ref> William B. Townsend of the ''Advertiser'' became a part owner of the ''Express'' with James Brooks.<ref name="town1">(21 May 1867). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1867/05/21/79358320.pdf Death of Mr. Wm. B. Townsend], ''The New York Times''</ref>
When the Whig Party declined, the ''Express'' supported the Know Nothing movement, and then the Constitutional Union Party, followed by the Democrats.<ref name="hudson"/> <ref name="book1">(April 1902). [https://archive.org/stream/bookman32unkngoog#page/n164/mode/2up The Great Newspapers of the United States: The New York Evening Newspapers], ''The Bookman (New York)'', pp. 159-61</ref>
James Brooks remained editor-in-chief of the paper until his death in 1873,<ref name="brooksobit">(1 May 1873). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/05/01/82023063.pdf Obituary: Hon. James Brooks]. ''The New York Times''</ref> and in June 1877 Erastus gave over control to a group led by John Kelly (a boss of Tammany Hall) and Augustus Schell, though he still made contributions to the paper. In late 1881 Cyrus West Field acquired the ''Express'' (which had a coveted New York Associated Press membership) and merged it into the ''New York Evening Mail'', creating the ''New York Evening Mail and Daily Express''.<ref name="sch">Schwarzlose, Richard A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EAWXKB8ybWEC&pg=PA89 The Nation's Newsbrokers, Vol 2: The rush to institution, from 1865 to 1920], p. 89 (1990)</ref> The ''Evening Mail'' survived until 1924 (it dropped the "Express" part of its name completely by 1904). [[File:CyrusField4.jpg|thumb|right|Cyrus W. Field (c. 1870) acquired the ''Express'' in December 1881 and merged it into the ''New York Evening Mail'']]
==Content== Historian Richard Schwarzlose has referred to the ''Evening Express'' as "never an outstanding newspaper" (1990).<ref name="sch"/> This agrees with Frederic Hudson's colorful observations about the paper in ''Journalism in the United States'' (1873), though Hudson was also managing editor of the rival ''New York Herald'' from 1846 to 1866. Hudson remarked that the ''Express'' was "remarkable for its politics, its numerous editions, and its strangers' lists" (list of daily arrivals at local hotels). The "Strangers' List" was popular with merchants looking for customers, which led ''Herald'' editor James Gordon Bennett, Sr. to once call the paper the ''Drummer's Gazette''.<ref name="eras"/>
Hudson also remarked that the ''Express'' had "a character of its own. ... Its editorials seem hurriedly written, and have a sort of homely vigor about them. Every thing about the paper looks as if it had been thrown together with great haste. .... It will take news wherever and whenever it can get it, but it has little or no individual enterprise outside of the Associated Press." Hudson remarked that its readership "is largely confined to the numerous railway cars and steam-boats running to and from and within the limits of the city, where a numerous class engaged in business in the metropolis do all their reading," and had "outlived a number of evening papers."<ref name="hudson"/>
The ''New York Times'' 1886 obituary of Erastus Brooks described the paper as "prosperous" from 1860 to 1870, and though "its make-up was typographically an abomination" it "always had the news, and in the days before railroads and telegraphs were known it earned the reputation of getting all the news possible, and as early as possible."<ref name="eras"/>
One anecdote shared in the younger Brooks' obituary is that in order to get the news printed quickly after an election in the early 1840s, the younger Brooks set up a printing office in a steamboat returning from Albany to New York with the election returns, so that upon arriving in New York they were ready to go to press with the results before the rival papers.
In January 1847, the ''Express'' accepted the offer of Ezra Cornell to use his new telegraph line from Albany to New York to get legislative news, and was able to publish a new message from the governor in advance of the pony express line used by the ''Herald''.<ref name="eras">(26 November 1886). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/11/26/103127995.pdf A veteran editor gone: Erastus Brooks dead at his Staten Island Home], ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="journaloftel">(15 June 1872). [https://books.google.com/books?id=szFOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166 James Gordon Bennett Versus The Telegraph], ''Journal of the Telegraph'', p. 166 (this 1872 article reports that the message was the January 1847 message of new governor John Young; the 1886 ''New York Times'' obituary of Erastus Brooks reports it was the January 1845 message of Silas Wright, but that appears to be incorrect as the New York-Albany telegraph line was not completed until sometime in 1846)</ref> Beaten badly to press, it is said that the ''Herald'' then abandoned its opposition to the telegraph.<ref name="schw2">Schwarzlose, Richard Allen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Us-kDH5LqHEC&pg=PA40 The Nation's Newsbrokers, Vol. 1: The formative years, from pretelegraph to 1865], p. 40 (1989)</ref><ref name="timesunion1">Grondahl, Paul. [http://web.timesunion.com/specialreports/tu150/overview/overview2.asp Ink stains led to a white collar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009053342/http://web.timesunion.com/specialreports/tu150/overview/overview2.asp |date=2013-10-09 }}, ''Times Union (Albany)'', Retrieved 6 October 2014</ref><ref name="teel">Reid, James D. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hhU6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA307 The Telegraph in America: Its Founders, Promoters, and Noted Men], p. 307 (1879)</ref>
The political bent of the ''Express'' followed the opinions of the Brooks brothers. James Brooks served as a Whig in the U.S. Congress from 1849 to 1853, and as a Democrat from 1863 to 1866 and from 1867 until his death. After Brooks declared in Congress in February 1864 that the Democratic Party should stop defending slavery, the ''Express'' also moved in that direction.<ref name="final">Vorenberg, Michael. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DlWA1_qnXUIC&pg=PA73 Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment], pp. 73-74 (2001)</ref>
==Editions==
The ''Express'' originally had both morning and evening editions. The morning edition probably inserted the word "morning" into its title around 1843, disappeared by about 1864.<ref name="hudson"/><ref name="nychist">Lossing, Benson J. [https://archive.org/stream/historyofnewyork01loss#page/n355/mode/2up History of New York City, Vol. I], p. 277 (1884)</ref> The edition under the "evening" name probably commenced in 1839, and became the edition by which the paper is best known. For many years a "Semi-Weekly" edition was also published. By the end of its run, the paper was publishing four editions of the "Evening" every day, at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30 p.m., as well as a ''Weekly Express'' edition (which it advertised also included sermons from Thomas De Witt Talmage).<ref name="editions">[https://books.google.com/books?id=AYU_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA250 Hubbard's Newspaper and Bank Directory of the World], p. 250 (1882)</ref>
==Locations==
The ''Express'' had a number of headquarters during its existence. It started in 1836 in an office on Wall Street, and after a fire moved to the corner of Centre Street and City Hall place. It later moved to the National Hotel building at 112 Broadway (later occupied by Delmonico's restaurant), and then to Wall and Nassau Street,<ref name="eras"/> and moved to its final location around 1873 to a building constructed for the paper at 23 Park Row.<ref name="Cent"/>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== {{commons category|New York Evening Express}} * [http://fultonhistory.com/My%20Old%20Photos/Historical%20Newspapers%20United%20States%20and%20Canada/New%20York%20NY%20Evening%20Express/index.html ''Evening Express''], newspaper scans 1843–1881 at Fultonhistory.com * [http://fultonhistory.com/My%20Old%20Photos/Historical%20Newspapers%20United%20States%20and%20Canada/New%20York%20NY%20Daily%20Express/index.html ''Daily Express''], newspaper scans 1836–1844 at Fultonhistory.com * [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025525/ ''New York Express''] (1836–1836) entry at Chronicling America * [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030063/ ''New York Daily Express''] (1836–1843) entry at Chronicling America * [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030121/ ''New York Morning Express''] (1843–1864) entry at Chronicling America * [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030103/ ''New York Evening Express''] (1839–1881) entry at Chronicling America * [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030079/ ''New York Semi-Weekly Express''] (1839–1879) entry at Chronicling America
Category:Newspapers established in 1836 Category:Publications disestablished in 1881 Category:Defunct newspapers published in New York City Category:1836 establishments in New York (state) Category:1881 disestablishments in New York (state) Category:Daily newspapers published in New York City Category:Defunct daily newspapers