Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is always amazed to read what things people find in dusty attics. But discoveries by individuals of interesting artifacts in private homes doesn’t really amaze him. Afterall, he’s sure that we all have stuff we never knew about tucked away in boxes here and there. And those boxes can go decades or generations without being opened.

But what really amazes him is when someone finds some interesting artifacts in a collection that had been donated to a college, antiquarian society, museum, or other research institution. One would think that the donation would be catalogued and inventoried at the time it was accepted. Your Maximum Leader knows that colleges, antiquarian societies, museums and research institution are generally not swimming in cash therefore they don’t always catalogue or inventory donated collections.

And because of that you sometimes get a great find. Like the one announced today by the Smithsonian. It seems that a researcher has found “lost” photos taken during the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. The official release from the Smithsonian is a 2.75 MB pdf found here.

What an amazing find. According to the release there is an action shot of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan on the lawn in front of the courthouse arguing some point. (The trial was moved out of the courthouse onto the courthouse lawn due to the crowds.)

And for the first time in his life, your Maximum Leader now knows what John Thomas Scopes looks like. He’s read all about the trial, but never seen a photo of Scopes.

It is pretty incredible stuff.

If you Maximum Leader weren’t being Maximum Leaderly, he wouldn’t mind just volunteering to go through and inventory and catalogue various collections at the Smithsonian. He wouldn’t be an efficent worker, but he’d have lots of fun.

Carry on.