(SCOPES TRIAL) Three Signatures each by one of principal fig

Sale 2492 - Lot 182

Price Realized: $ 715

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350

(SCOPES TRIAL.) Three Signatures, each by one of principal figures in the trial: Clarence Darrow * William Jennings Bryan * John Thomas Scopes. Each 2 1/2x5 inches or smaller; condition generally good; matted together with photograph showing trial and framed. Np, nd; nd; 1968

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Additional Details

Darrow. Clipped Signature Bryan. Signature, "W.J. Bryan," on a small card Scopes. Signature and date, on a slip of paper: "For Jerry / John T. Scopes / April 29, 1968."

In January of 1925, Representative John Washington Butler introduced a bill to the TN House prohibiting the teaching of theories according to which humans are understood to be descendants of simpler creatures. Soon after the Butler bill became law in March, a young teacher in Dayton, TN--John Thomas Scopes--was indicted for violating the law. The "Scopes Monkey Trial," in which Clarence Darrow defended Scopes against William J. Bryan, ended in conviction, but Darrow's appeal, which began on May 31, 1925, resulted in the TN Supreme Court overturning the conviction--because of a legal technicality. It was not until 1968 that religious prohibitions in public schools were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Epperson v. Arkansas.

From the Collection of William Wheeler III.