New Library Digital Exhibit: The Scopes Trial at 100

The Law Library and Riesenfeld Center are pleased to announce the release of a new digital exhibit:

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

The 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 Law Library’s preeminent collection of famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow’s letters, publications, photographs, and trial materials. The digital exhibit also preserves and builds upon a physical exhibit that is open in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center throughout 2025. The new digital site adds to and expands the series of digital research sites and exhibits that are available as part of the Library's digital special collections. 

The new digital exhibit features more than forty items drawn from the Riesenfeld Center's rare books collection, including letters, original trial documents, witness statements, inscribed books, speeches, and debates. In addition, there are daily trial summaries and transcripts, and timelines that contextualize the Scopes trial within a larger debate on the history of evolutionary thought and the roles of science and religion in American public education.  

“Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100” was created by Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections Ryan Greenwood, Archives & Digital Collections Associate Sophia Daley, Digital Technology Specialist Joy Brown, and Associate Director for Access Services & Digital Initiatives Michael Hannon.

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

Wednesday, October 1: Rare Books Open House!

Come out to the Riesenfeld Center's first rare books open house of the year, next Wednesday, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.!

Enjoy snacks and drinks, and tour historical treasures from the library's rare books and special collections.  The material in the Riesenfeld Center includes more than 25,000 volumes of rare and special texts printed from the fifteenth through twenty-first centuries, the Law School archives, and unique modern manuscript collections.

When: Wednesday, October 1, 12 p.m - 3 p.m.

Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center*

What: Rare books, bagged snacks and treats, candy, and refreshments!

(*The Riesenfeld Center is in N30, on the subplaza past Legal Grounds Cafe and Student Orgs. in N20.)

Wednesday, September 24: Exhibit Open House!

All are invited to our fall exhibit open house, next Wednesday, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.!

"Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100"

When: Wednesday, September 24, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center (N30, Subplaza level, past Legal Grounds and Student Orgs. in N20).

Snacks, fruit, and refreshments will be served!

One of our most storied courtroom dramas, the 1925 Scopes Trial became a national sensation and the focal point of a public debate over the places of evolution and religion in public education. At trial and on appeal, the defense team aimed to test the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching that humans were the product of Darwinian evolution. 

The trial did not resolve contemporary tensions between science and fundamentalist religion, but rather thrust them further into the national consciousness. Over the past century, the Scopes Trial has continued to influence public discourse about the teaching of evolution and the role of religion in public schools. For its impacts in the courtroom and classroom, the Scopes Trial remains an fascinating chapter in American legal and cultural history.

“Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100,” commemorates the centennial of the case, inviting viewers to revisit the trial’s cultural context, as well as its prominent figures, issues, and legacy. The exhibit highlights the role played at trial by famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow, and the University of Minnesota Law Library’s Clarence Darrow Collection, more than 1,000 letters written by and to the great trial attorney, together with speeches, debates and other material by and about Darrow. Drawn from this collection, the exhibit spotlights letters, books, pamphlets, cultural artifacts, and a series of original court documents from the case. 

“Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100” was curated by Ryan Greenwood, Sophia Daley, Joy Brown, and Michael Hannon.

Wednesday, September 17: Celebrate Constitution Day!

Come out and celebrate Constitution Day in the Law Library lobby! 

Stop by and grab donuts and coffee on Wednesday, September 17, and pick up a crossword puzzle about the US Constitution for prizes. Collect a pocket copy of the Constitution also!

Don't forget to take a selfie with James Madison!   

When: Wednesday, September 17, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Where: Law Library Lobby
What: Donuts, Coffee, Tea and Prizes! 

Celebrating the Minnesota-Uppsala Exchange Program

More than forty years ago, in 1982, the University of Minnesota Law School and Uppsala University's Faculty of Law began an international exchange program that continues to this day. The program represents a rich tradition of faculty and student exchange, travel and friendship that continues to connect hundreds of present and former participants across the globe.

The Minnesota-Uppsala exchange program is one of the oldest of its kind in the world. It was first proposed as the result of a visit to Minnesota by John Eric Wickstrom, Sweden’s former Minister of Education, in late 1980. Minnesota Law School Dean Robert Stein and Uppsala Faculty of Law Dean Anders Agell discussed the proposed exchange program in 1981. Their plan was finalized in 1982 and included the exchange of faculty, students and library resources between the two schools. Uppsala Professor Stig Strömholm, a towering figure in Swedish academia, served as the first faculty member to participate in the exchange, in the fall semester of 1982. This marked a grand beginning for the program, which has sent countless students and faculty between the two schools since that time.      

This week Minneapolis and Uppsala, Sweden, will proudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of their “sister city” relationship, a fruitful partnership that brings a delegation of distinguished visitors from Uppsala to Minneapolis for a series of events.

As part of the visit and celebrations, the University of Minnesota Law School and the Uppala University Faculty of Law will honor the long history of the exchange program between the two schools with the launch, on September 15, 2025, of a new commemorative volume of De lege, the Uppsala Law Faculty’s annual scholarly publication. The new volume features a terrific collection of reflections by faculty and students who participated in the exchange program since its inception in 1982.  

As a companion to the September 15 launch and celebration of the Minnesota-Uppsala exchange program, the Riesenfeld Center has contributed a display, which can be seen in the Law School foyer, drawn from the De lege volume and showcasing images of exchange program events and participants through the years.  

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

Jewels of the Collection Available Online

The Law Library and Riesenfeld Center have made available online its award-winning print publication, Jewels of the Collection (University of Minnesota Law Library, 2023), which presents an extensive selection of treasures and an overview of the history and collection strengths of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center. 

The publication won the 2024 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). The Andrews Award recognizes significant textual contributions to legal bibliographical literature and is one of the most prestigious awards presented by AALL. The award criteria evaluate works for originality and creativity, and honor publications in legal bibliography, legal research, and those that advance the field of law librarianship.

Jewels of the Collection is a catalog of one hundred selected items from the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center's collections. Its aim is to introduce rare and unique legal materials that explore a global legal heritage. The catalog's selections are accompanied by detailed descriptions that explain their significance and place them in historical context. Included in the publication are many books, pamphlets, letters, and other documents that represent important contributions to law and history, or are landmark 'firsts' of legal literature. Other items are notable for associations with famous authors and owners, such as Clarence Darrow, whose preeminent collection of letters is held at the Riesenfeld Center. Still others have been selected because they stand as unique artifacts and works of art. The volume trains a spotlight on works that provide important insights into the historical development, and progress, of diverse traditions of law.

Jewels of the Collection was co-authored by Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections, and Patrick Graybill, the former Library Digital Initiatives Technologist, with editorial support from law librarians Michael Hannon, Connie Lenz, and Sarah Yates. Publications authored or edited by University of Minnesota Law librarians have now won the Joseph L. Andrews Award five times, a remarkable achievement.

Grotius's JBP: 400th Anniversary and New Bibliography

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Hugo Grotius's De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) (1625), often considered the most important early modern treatise on international law, which had a profound impact on European (and American) thought. A child prodigy, humanist, lawyer, and statesman from the Dutch Republic, Grotius (1583-1645) shaped the tradition of the 'law of nations' (jus gentium) into a series of secularized doctrines based prominently on natural rights to property. His work provided standards for prosecuting and resolving (often armed) disputes between European nations during their age of expansion, and helped to justify the forms of that expansion, as monarchies and republics conquered and came to control North and South America and significant parts of Southeast Asia. Grotius is also recognized for percolating updated natural law and rights theories throughout northern Europe, and for his influence on the classical liberal political theories of Hobbes, Locke, and many others in the 17th and 18th centuries. With its complex legacy, Grotius's main work is still relevant and consequential today.

In addition to conferences and other events, this anniversary year of the publication will see a new bibliographical census, to be released this summer, recording and describing nearly 1,000 copies of the first nine editions of De jure belli ac pacis (JBP). The census project was begun several years ago by a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law with funding of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 

The new work records early printed copies of JBP from across the world. In order to complete the major undertaking, the research team crowdsourced information from a wide array of libraries and collections, soliciting information regarding relevant copies of De jure belli ac pacis in their collections. The Riesenfeld Center was also contacted and we submitted information and images for a copy of the 1642 Blaeu edition held in the collections, which contains the names of several early owners. In addition to other later editions, the Center also holds a 1651 copy of JBP formerly owned by the great scholar Hermann Kantorowicz, whose library is largely held at the Law Library.  

The census project not only located many more copies of JBP than were previously known, but identified annotations in about half the books surveyed and identified 510 former owners of the copies, most of whom were active in the 17th century. The new book promises to shed much light on the ownership histories and individual copies of a monumental work of European legal and political thought.  

    - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections