Rape in The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, 1880 & 1900

This exhibit examines stories covering the crime of rape published in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer in 1880 and 1900.

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer ran from 1865 to 1905, and was published daily except sunday. In 1880, each issue of the paper was four pages in length with a format of eight columns. By 1900, the paper had become noticeably longer, as each issue had eight pages but only featured a six column format. While the paper adopts larger headlines and larger, more illustrated ads by 1900, it also moves away from focusing on stories as entertainment, instead focusing more on things like local interest and even more political news as well.

Most of the crime coverage appeared in the first page of the paper in 1880, and the first and second pages in 1900, as well as throughout the paper. National and international, as well as more significant, stories about rape occur more on these first couple of pages, while more local coverage of rape appears later in the paper, along with coverage of other local events.

Most of the stories about rape appeared short in length in the paper, as 25 of the 30 stories were under 250 words. The longest story, however, was 1925 words, and was a very involved report on the abduction and possible criminal assault of a local little girl. The shortest story, at 22 words was a short briefing about a local man who was recommended pardon for the crime of rape due to new medical evidence.