Introduction

In the U.S. history survey course, the Scopes trial is routinely taught to illustrate the cultural battleground of the 1920s: the emerging conflicts between religion and science and between an urban, cosmopolitan, secular vision and a rural, traditional, religious mind-set. Constance Areson Clark's article introduces the visual images of evolution used by scientists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It complicates the usual history of evolution by investigating the assumptions scientists incorporated into their diagrams, illustrations, and exhibits. The teaching documents provide the resources to explore the history of science during a lecture on the Scopes trial.

Sections Guide

You may use the "Sections" menu on the right to navigate through this installment. Provided below is a summary of each section in this installment.