We’re still celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday! Darwin’s book On the Origin of the Species was embroiled in a historic U.S. courtroom drama, the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes trial. The Smithsonian Institution has uploaded photos from this infamous trial to Flickr.

George W. Rappleyea

John T. Scopes

The seven scientists asked to testify for the defense

William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow

The Scopes trial was an American legal case that tested the Butler Act, which made it unlawful, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, “to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” In other words, Darwin’s theory of evolution was forbidden to be taught under the laws of the day.

The American Civil Liberties Union offered to defend anyone accused of teaching the theory of evolution in defiance of the Butler Act. Dayton, Tennessee, businessman George Rappleyea, sensing an opportunity for town publicity, talked the local high school football coach, John T. Scopes, into teaching evolution in one of his science classes. Scopes was charged on May 5, 1925, with teaching evolution from a chapter in a textbook that showed ideas developed from those set out in Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species. Famously, William Jennings Bryan was on the prosecution team and Clarence Darrow on the defense. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and the case went to appeal.

Tags: Darwin, Scopes trial, Smithsonian Institution

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