Scopes II

The monkeys question the law too.

Winterton Curtis on the Scopes Trial

In recognition of Darwin Day, my old landlord's recollections of the infamous Tennessee Scopes Trial:

With my background of participations in the controversy it was natural that I should be called in 1925 as one of the expert witnesses in the famous trial of John T. Scopes as a violator of the Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of Evolution.  In response to a telegram from the American Civil Liberties Union, I reached Dayton in time for my evening meal of Monday, July 13.  The trial had opened the preceding Friday, after which the court had adjourned for the weekend.

I was met at the station by one of my fellow scientists and driven through the town to the house where we were to be quartered.  The business section surrounding the courthouse was alive with people, natives and visitors, and ablaze with banners or orthodoxy, such as: “Read Your Bible” –“Prepare to meet Thy God” –“Repent or Be Damned.”  Dayton was more like a town prepared for a Billy Sunday revival than for a court trail.  Above all, the town was overflowing with “Foreigners: come to see the show, every room for rent was taken and vacant second floors of store buildings were filled with cots.  I recall being in one of these lofts occupied by newspapermen.  A cold-water faucet over a sink at the back near the outside stairs and a privy in the backyard were the only toilet facilities for the 25 or 30 reporters who slept on the close-packed cots... (continues)

Winterton C. Curtis... in Dayton, TN 1925

Yet another Scopes sequel

SCOPES IS INDICTED IN TENNESSEE FOR TEACHING EVOLUTION. NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 25, 1925. -- John T. Scopes, young Dayton (Tenn.) high school teacher, tonight stands indicted for having taught the theory of evolution to students attending his science classes in violation of a law passed by the Tennessee Legislature and signed by the Governor on March 21, 1925. 

So what else is new?

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 7th, 2011.

• Tennessee
 
• anti-evolution
 
• 2011

Tennessee's House Bill 368 passed the House of Representatives on a 70-23 vote on April 7, 2011. "The debate ranged over the scientific method, 'intellectual bullies,' hair spray and 'Inherit the Wind,'" reported the Chattanooga Times Free Press (April 7, 2011)... NCSE
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Postscript: They're calling this the "critical thinking" bill. Seriously. Here's some of the "debate"... the call to order and prayer begin about five minutes in. What a joke. It's on us.

Winterton Curtis and the Scopes 7

Description: Back row, left to right: Horatio Hackett Newman, Maynard Mayo Metcalf, Fay-Cooper Cole, Jacob Goodale Lipman; Front row, left to right: Winterton Conway Curtis, Wilbur A. Nelson, William Marion Goldsmith. The Defense Mansion was a Victorian house where the defense team and witnesses stayed during the trial. July 1925

Winterton Curtis: recollections of the Scopes Trial, written in 1956...

Persistent URL: http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?id=5305

Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives