Thomas Fitzgerald's City Item, after a slow start, became one of the largest-circulation newspapers in Philadelphia in the 1880s and a leader in art and education matters. The newspaper was one of the earliest to provide complete baseball coverage. It also fought for many city reforms, most of which were realized during its founder's life time.

Little is known about Fitzgerald's early years. He was born in New York on 22 December 1819, on the later site of the publishing house of Harper and Brothers. He exhibited his interest in newspapers at an early age: while still a teenager he went to work for the Fredonian of New Brunswick, New Jersey; he next became a reporter with the New York Commercial Advertiser. At the age of twenty, he moved to Florida, where he took an editorial job at the Floridian in Tallahassee, the state capital. He arrived in Philadelphia in...