The New York Tribune was established by Horace Greeley in 1841 and was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States.

Greeley died in 1872,the year Whitelaw Reid assumed control of the paper. Under his son Ogden Mills Reid the paper merged with the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, which continued to be run by Ogden M. Reid until his death in 1947.