The Wasp was a weekly newspaper edited and published by Latter Day Saint Apostle William Smith in Nauvoo

Nauvoo, Illinois

Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, United States, from April 1842 to April 1843. While it was not an official publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, The Wasp was consistently pro-Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 and its primary target audience was the Latter Day Saint residents of Nauvoo. When The Wasp ceased publication when it was replaced by John Taylor's similarly themed Nauvoo Neighbor

Nauvoo Neighbor

The Nauvoo Neighbor was a weekly newspaper edited and published by Latter Day Saint Apostle John Taylor in Nauvoo, Illinois from 1843 to 1845. While it was not an official publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Neighbor was consistently pro-Mormon and its primary target...

.

The Wasp has been described as the "secular counterpart" of the Latter Day Saint Church's Times and Seasons

Times and Seasons

Times and Seasons was a 19th-century Latter Day Saint periodical published monthly or twice-monthly at Nauvoo, Illinois, from November 1839 to February 15, 1846...

. The newspaper dedicated much of its space to answering criticism directed at the church and its leader, Joseph Smith, Jr., by Thomas C. Sharp's

Thomas C. Sharp

Thomas Coke Sharp was a prominent opponent of Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Latter Day Saints in Illinois in the 1840s. Sharp promoted his anti-Mormon views largely through the Warsaw Signal newspaper, of which he was the owner, editor, and publisher...

 consistently anti-Mormon Warsaw Signal

Warsaw Signal

The Warsaw Signal was a newspaper edited and published in Warsaw, Illinois during the 1840s and early 1850s. For most of its history, the Signals editorial stance was one of vigorous anti-Mormonism and the advancement of the policies of the Whig Party....

.

External links

• The Wasp : partial archive, HTML format