Old photograph of James Gordon Bennett, who was born on September 1, 1795, to a prosperous Roman Catholic family in Newmill, Banffshire, Scotland. At age 15, Bennett entered the Roman Catholic seminary in Aberdeen, where he remained for four years. After leaving the seminary, he read voraciously on his own and traveled throughout Scotland. In 1819, he joined a friend who was sailing to North America. After four weeks they landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Bennett briefly worked as a schoolmaster till he had enough money to sail south to Portland, Maine, where he again taught school in the village of Addison, moving on to Boston, Massachusetts by New Year's Day, 1820. He worked in New England as a proofreader and bookseller before the Charleston Courier in Charleston, South Carolina hired him to translate Spanish language news reports, so he briefly relocated to The South. He moved back north to New York City in 1823, where he worked first as a freelance paper writer and, then, assistant editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer, one of the oldest newspapers in the city. He eventually became the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers. He died in Manhattan, New York City, on June 1, 1872.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.
