The Rhinelander Trial

If anything more humiliating to the prestige of white America than the Rhinelander case has occurred recently it has escaped our attention.

W.E.B. Du Bois, “Rhinelander,” Crisis (January 1926)

---

Welcome to The Rhinelander Trial blog! Join me as I live blog (okay, 100 years later) the infamous Rhinelander annulment trial of 1925 (About). Did you know that the Rhinelander trial was a top-ten news story of 1925 along with the better known Scopes “monkey trial”? This blog will post about the day to day events in the courtroom where the Rhinelander v. Rhinelander trial began on November 9, 1925 and continued through early December 1925. But there’s plenty to blog about in 2024 including all the preliminary events that took place before the trial began–let’s begin with a wedding!

My name is Liz Smith-Pryor, I’m a historian and former lawyer who published a scholarly book about the Rhinelander trial in 2009. Since it’s the 100th anniversary of the case, I thought I would enjoy revisiting the trial by creating this blog. Now you can follow along with the trial and its surrounding events in the same way Americans 100 years ago would have read about the Rhinelanders, their marriage, and their annulment trial in the daily newspapers.

Check in for the first post on October 14, 2024 and learn about what happened on October 14, 1924 that set in motion everything that ended up in a court room in 1925.

• Media Frenzy November 15-16, 1924
  The newspapers’ discovery of the marriage between Leonard and Alice Rhinelander set off a frenzy of New York City-based reporters headed up to New Rochelle hoping to find and interview the young couple. William Lawby, a reporter for the New York American admitted a year later in 1925 that he “saw it as a good… Read more: Media Frenzy November 15-16, 1924
• Discovered November 13-14, 1924
  After Leonard Rhinelander and Alice Jones wed in New Rochelle on October 14, 1924, the couple rented an apartment in Westchester and continued shopping for furniture for their new home. The newlyweds must have had plenty of money to buy things. Only a few months before their marriage, the New York Times published a short… Read more: Discovered November 13-14, 1924
• “The Wedding” October 14, 1924
  On this day in October 1924, Alice Beatrice Jones and Leonard Kip Rhinelander were wed by Mayor Harry Scott in the New Rochelle City Hall. Mr. Rhinelander was a long time resident of Manhattan. The new Mrs. Rhinelander had lived in New Rochelle since birth. Two witnesses appeared for the couple, Mr. Harry A. Cole… Read more: “The Wedding” October 14, 1924