Infinite Worlds

Exploring the Universe and Seeking Extraterrestrial Life


The Adventures of Baron Munchausen... illustrated by Gustave Doré
London, 1867

Astronomers in the 1800s were mapping the sky and exploring the known boundaries of the universe, assisted by advances in telescopes and the invention of photography. The outermost planets of the solar system were found, and new star clusters were viewed. These discoveries reignited an age-old question: Could life exist on other worlds? The question of extraterrestrial life, at the time known as the “plurality of worlds” theory, was a hot topic of debate, and the emerging genre of science fiction took it even further, harnessing scientific thought to envision travel to Earth-like planets.

In many literary works of the era, imaginary voyages mixed fact and fantasy in surprising ways. Based on the tall tales of a real historical figure, the exploits of fictional Baron Munchausen allowed the reader to travel on a bridge from England to Africa, fly on a cannonball and sail on a ship to the moon. 

If we be ever to obtain an ocular demonstration of the habitability of any the celestial orbs, the Moon is the only one, where we can expect to trace, by our telescopes, indications of … intelligent beings.

– Rev. Thomas Dick, The Christian Philosopher, 1823

Leonid meteor shower over Niagara Falls
Edmund Weiss
Bilder-Atlas der Sternenwelt [Image atlas of the star world]
Stuttgart, 1892
Courtesy U.S. Naval Observatory Library

Towards the end of the 18th century, British astronomer William Herschel made significant advancements in astronomy through his cataloging of stars and nebulae along with his discovery of Uranus in 1781, which renewed interest in the study of our solar system.

New discoveries generated public interest in astronomy as a subject of study and as a leisure activity, creating an ever-growing class of amateur astronomers. Expeditions to observe astronomical phenomena, such as eclipses and comets, drew amateurs and professionals alike. 

The Great Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833 awakened interest in astronomy in the U.S. Primarily visible east of the Rockies in North America, the meteor shower was splashed all over the newspapers. The fiery display also ignited a new area of astronomy: determining the nature of meteors. While such events brought increased observation and study of astronomy, wild speculation still abounded as to the true nature of meteor showers, comets, and the like. Were they simply astronomical events or omens of bad things to come?

 
Sir John F.W. Herschel
Results of Astronomical Observations Made during the Years 1834 … at the Cape of Good Hope
London, 1847
Gift of the Burndy Library

Curator's Note

Son of famed British astronomer William Herschel, John Herschel reluctantly followed in his father's footsteps to continue his work. While John spent a good-deal of his career cataloging nebulae and making astronomical observations, his true calling was in chemistry and photography. He made significant contributions to the photographic process including inventing the cyanotype printing process (cyan-blue print), discovering a fixing agent to chemically stabilize photographic prints, and even coined the term photography, according to some historians. 

Portrait of John F. W. Herschel
Engraved by J. Cook after Henry William Pickersgill
1845 or after

Sometimes people's imaginations allowed fantasy to encroach on fact. In 1834, British astronomer John Herschel starting observing the heavens from South Africa. Herschel employed a 20-foot reflecting telescope with an 20-inch lens, the largest working telescope of its time. 

Portrait of Richard Adams Locke
Engraved by A. Robin, New York, ca. 1850
In a bound collection with The Moon Hoax
New York, 1859

In 1835, Richard Adams Locke, a writer for the New York newspaper The Sun, concocted a series of fictional scientific reports claiming that Herschel had discovered “man-bats” on the moon and had named them Vespertilio homo. Herschel's real-life telescope was nothing compared to the behemoth Locke dreamed up: a mechanically rotating telescope with a lens 24 feet in diameter.

Locke’s satirical series targeted Reverend Thomas Dick, an influential supporter of the “plurality of worlds” theory. But the story took on a life of its own and was repeated across continents, making The Sun the best-known newspaper in the world. Fantastical images were printed to meet the demand of a public who believed the satire to be true. The story was so popular that The Sun’s owner would not allow Locke to expose the truth, and the incident is now known as the Great Moon Hoax.

"Lunar animals and other objects discovered
by Sir John Herschel"
The Sun newspaper, New York, 1835
Courtesy Library of Congress

 …it seems like acquiring a fearful supernatural power when any remote mysterious works of the Creator yield tribute to our curiosity. It seems almost a presumptuous usurpation of powers denied us by the divine will, when man…steps forth, far beyond the apparently natural boundary…and demands the secrets and familiar fellowship of other worlds.

–Richard Adams Locke, “Great Astronomical Discoveries," The Sun, 1835

Curator's Note

Born January 19, 1809 in Boston to travelling actors, Edgar Allan Poe would lose both of his parents by age three. Poe went to live in Richmond, Virginia with wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan who raised him to go into business. Poe had other plans and longed to be a poet like his hero Lord Byron. During his financially and personally difficult life and career, Poe not only wrote Romantic and Gothic inspired works. He also pioneered early American science fiction and was one of the originators of the detective story. 

Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe
Courtesy of The Museum of Edgar Allan Poe
Richmond, Virginia

Adding to the intrigue, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a moon hoax of his own, publishing his tale of moon-traveling Hans Pfaall shortly before Locke’s articles appeared in The Sun. Poe accused Locke of stealing his idea and attempted to expose him as a fraud.

Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's
"The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall"
In Jules Verne, "Edgar Poe et Ses Oeuvres" (Musée des Familles magazine)
Paris, 1864
Courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale de France

The depiction of the Moon Hoax by Leopoldo Galluzzo is a mash-up of the original news articles, Poe’s moon hoax, and various retellings of the story in other newspapers of the time. It is likely that the inclusion of the balloon powered flying machine is from Poe’s moon hoax in which Hans Pfaall travels to the moon by balloon. The passengers on the flying machine are likely missionaries and scientists sent to study the man-bats and teach them about the bible. After the Sun story appeared, a proposal appeared in other New York City papers to send a ship to the moon to bring the lunarians bibles as well as to study them.

Leopoldo Galluzzo
Altre scoverte fatte nella luna dal Sigr. Herschel
[Other lunar discoveries from Signor Herschel]
Naples, 1836

Frédéric de Courcy and Charles Plantade
Ma lune: Parodie de Ma Normandie
[My moon: Parody of My Normandy]
Paris, 1836

The enduring popularity of the Moon Hoax, which inspired songs and stage plays, was due not only to the fantastic nature of the story but also to the popularity of all things astronomical.

In response to the public’s growing interest in astronomy, educator Asa Smith was inspired to teach the subject in schools. His illustrated textbook helped introduce the public to what the perceivable universe looked like. During this time, direct observation and illustration provided the visual information of what the observable heavens looked like.

The invention and development of photography, from the first photographic image by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1827 to its rise in popularity during the 1850s, led to the serious use of photography for research within astronomy by the 1890s.  

Detail from broadside for Charles Came lecture, about 1850
National Museum of American History

Outside of the schoolroom, traveling science lectures, like the ones put on by Charles Came in upstate New York, helped spread scientific discoveries and knowledge to the general public. Lecturers used mechanically animated visuals, such as magic lantern slides, and enthralling experiments to present scientific thought as something wondrous, entertaining and even terrific in nature.

Magic lantern shows were extremely popular forms of entertainment and education and many shows featured astronomy themes. The slides used hand-painted images, lithographic decals, or photographs on glass to show the moon, eclipses and comets, helping to bring the heavens down to Earth. Mechanical slides provided early animation of celestial events.

Glass magic lantern slides, ca. 1850-1900
National Museum of American History
(Photo: Hugh Talman)

In France, Camille Flammarion was a well-known astronomer, writer and popularizer of science. His work of speculative science, Les terres du ciel, or "Lands of the Sky", featured illustrations from the perspective of a moon dweller. His books helped perpetuate the “plurality of worlds” theory through the end of the 19th century.

Another contentious but popular theory of the late 19th century was that canals existed on Mars, with some believing that the canals were made by intelligent alien life. In "Lands of the Sky", Flammarion poses this idea along with imagined depictions of life on other planets, including Venus. While it turns out that the canals of Mars were optical illusions, there is mounting scientific evidence that at one time there might have been water on Mars. 

But perhaps the era's most famous example of popularizing science is From the Earth to the Moon, penned by French novelist Jules Verne in 1865. Verne’s story relies on both the science and fiction of the time. A main character makes references to Poe’s “Hans Pfaall” tale and Locke’s Moon Hoax, as well as to contemporary science. Verne imagined employing artillery technology from the Civil War to launch a ship to the moon. His vision of a rocket launched from Florida foreshadows NASA launches from Cape Canaveral.

Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon was the inspiration behind Georges Méliès most famous short film Voyage Dans La Lune [A Trip to the Moon] from 1902.

About 1835 a small treatise…related how Sir John Herschel…had by means of a telescope brought to perfection by internal lighting, reduced the apparent distance of the moon to eighty yards! He then distinctly perceived caverns…sheep with horns of ivory, a white species of deer and inhabitants with membranous wings, like bats. This brochure, the work of an American named Locke…

–Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon, 1874

Curator's Note

Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and pioneering filmmaker. Inspired by a screening of a Lumière brothers’ film in 1895, he approached the brothers to acquire one of their machines but was turned down. He travelled to London and purchased an Animatograph projector, which he modified to serve as a film camera. Between 1896 and 1913, Méliès directed over 500 films. Méliès’ theatrical style of filmmaking ranged in topic and style and included musical theater and magic shows, science fiction, comedy, drama, fantasy, and arguably the first horror film. His contributions to cinema include use of special effects, double exposure, editing techniques, and use of multiple camera shots.

Georges Méliès
La Voyage dans la Lune
[Trip to the Moon]
Courtesy of Lobster Films 2013