Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100

[From Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections, we have word of a new digital exhibit at the University of Minnesota Law Library.  DRE]

“Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100” 

The new digital exhibit commemorates the centennial anniversary of one of America’s most storied courtroom dramas, The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. The 1925 trial of John Scopes, accused of violating a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution, became a national sensation and the focal point of a public debate over the roles of science and religion in public education. The digital exhibit highlights the Library’s preeminent collection of famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow’s letters, publications, photographs, and trial materials, preserving and building on a physical exhibit open in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center throughout 2025. The new digital site adds to and expands the digital research sites and exhibits available as part of the Library's digital special collections. 

The Scopes Trial digital exhibit features a trove of material drawn from the Riesenfeld Center's collections, including letters, original trial documents, witness statements, inscribed books, speeches, and debates. The exhibit includes daily trial summaries and transcripts, and sets the trial within a longer history of evolutionary thought and debate on the roles of science and religion in American public education.