LV426
11-21-2003, 11:55 AM
I've always heard this story but never thought much about it but recently came across an article and thought some might find it of interest.
The Great Moon Hoax
During the final week of August 1835, a long article appeared in serial form on the front page of the New York Sun. It bore the headline:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/thesun.jpg
GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES
LATELY MADE
BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D. F.R.S. &c.
At the Cape of Good Hope
[From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science]
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/herschel.jpg
The article began by triumphantly listing a series of stunning astronomical breakthroughs that the famous British astronomer, Sir John Herschel, had apparently made "by means of a telescope of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle." Herschel, the article declared, had established a "new theory of cometary phenomena"; he had discovered planets in other solar systems; and he had "solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy." Then, almost as if it were an afterthought, the article revealed Herschel's final, stunning achievement. He had discovered life on the moon.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/beavers.jpg Biped Beavers: Detail from an 1836 English pamphlet
The article continued on and offered an elaborate account of the fantastic sights viewed by Herschel during his telescopic observation of the moon. It described a lunar topography that included vast forests, inland seas, and lilac-hued quartz pyramids. Readers learned that herds of bison wandered across the plains of the moon; that blue unicorns perched on its hilltops; and that spherical, amphibious creatures rolled across its beaches. The highpoint of the narrative came when it revealed that Herschel had found evidence of intelligent life on the moon: he had discovered both a primitive tribe of hut-dwelling, fire-wielding biped beavers,
and a race of winged humans living in pastoral harmony around a mysterious, golden-roofed temple. Herschel dubbed these latter creatures the Vespertilio-homo, or "man-bat".
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonman.jpg Vespertilio-homo: Illustration from an Italian edition of the moon hoax, 1836
The article, of course, was an elaborate hoax. Herschel had not really observed life on the moon, nor had he accomplished any of the other astronomical breakthroughs credited to him in the article. In fact, Herschel was not even aware until much later that such discoveries had been attributed to him. However, the New York Sun managed to sell thousands of copies of the article before the public realized that it had been hoaxed.
Although the Sun managed to sell many copies of the moon hoax, it is not clear whether people at the time actually believed the story, or simply found it to be an entertaining topic of debate. Various eyewitnesses to the hoax assure us that the credulity was general. For instance, one reporter, writing 18 years after the event, recalled how the hoax was received at Yale College:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonscene2.jpg "Lunar Discoveries"
Lithograph that appeared in the New York Sun, Friday, October 16, 1835
Yale College was alive with staunch supporters. The literati—students and professors, doctors in divinity and law—and all the rest of the reading community, looked daily for the arrival of the New York mail with unexampled avidity and implicit faith. Have you seen the accounts of Sir John Herschel's wonderful discoveries? Have you read the Sun? Have you heard the news of the man in the Moon? These were the questions that met you every where. It was the absorbing topic of the day. Nobody expressed or entertained a doubt as to the truth of the story.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonprint2.jpg 1835 lithograph depicting the Ruby Colosseum
However, many discussions of the hoax that appeared in papers at the time of its first publication were openly skeptical of it. For instance, on August 29, 1835 the New York Commercial Advertiser had this to say about the hoax:
It is well done, and makes a pleasant piece of reading enough, especially for such as have a sufficient stock of available credulity; but we can hardly understand how any man of common sense should read it without at once perceiving the deception. Without referring to the monstrosities of the story itself, can any one suppose for a moment that such preparations as are described, should have been made without a word of notice in the english papers? Preparations going on for years—an object of glass of twenty-four feet in diameter—a donation of ten thousand pounds by the king—consultations with Sir David Brewster—and other extravagancies not less preposterous!
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonprint.jpg "Lunar Temples"
Detail from an 1835 lithograph
Authorship of the hoax is usually attributed to Richard Adams Locke, a Cambridge-educated reporter who was working for the Sun. However, Locke never publicly admitted to being the author of the hoax, and rumors have persisted that others were also involved in the production of the story. Two men in particular have been mentioned in connection with the hoax: Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, a French astronomer who was travelling through America at the time (though he was in Mississippi, not New York, when the moon hoax appeared), and Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine. However, there is no real evidence to suggest that anyone but Locke was the author of the hoax.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/ralocke.jpg Richard Adams Locke,
author of the moon hoax
Despite the intense public speculation about the moon story, the Sun never publicly conceded that it was a hoax. On September 16, 1835 the Sun did publish a column in which it discussed the possibility that the story was a hoax, but it never confessed to anything. Quite the contrary. It wrote that, "Certain correspondents have been urging us to come out and confess the whole to be a hoax; but this we can by no means do, until we have the testimony of the English or Scotch papers to corroborate such a declaration." This is the closest the Sun ever came to an admission of guilt.
You can read the actual printing of the Moon Hoax here. (http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/moonhoax1.html)
The Great Moon Hoax
During the final week of August 1835, a long article appeared in serial form on the front page of the New York Sun. It bore the headline:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/thesun.jpg
GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES
LATELY MADE
BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D. F.R.S. &c.
At the Cape of Good Hope
[From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science]
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/herschel.jpg
The article began by triumphantly listing a series of stunning astronomical breakthroughs that the famous British astronomer, Sir John Herschel, had apparently made "by means of a telescope of vast dimensions and an entirely new principle." Herschel, the article declared, had established a "new theory of cometary phenomena"; he had discovered planets in other solar systems; and he had "solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy." Then, almost as if it were an afterthought, the article revealed Herschel's final, stunning achievement. He had discovered life on the moon.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/beavers.jpg Biped Beavers: Detail from an 1836 English pamphlet
The article continued on and offered an elaborate account of the fantastic sights viewed by Herschel during his telescopic observation of the moon. It described a lunar topography that included vast forests, inland seas, and lilac-hued quartz pyramids. Readers learned that herds of bison wandered across the plains of the moon; that blue unicorns perched on its hilltops; and that spherical, amphibious creatures rolled across its beaches. The highpoint of the narrative came when it revealed that Herschel had found evidence of intelligent life on the moon: he had discovered both a primitive tribe of hut-dwelling, fire-wielding biped beavers,
and a race of winged humans living in pastoral harmony around a mysterious, golden-roofed temple. Herschel dubbed these latter creatures the Vespertilio-homo, or "man-bat".
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonman.jpg Vespertilio-homo: Illustration from an Italian edition of the moon hoax, 1836
The article, of course, was an elaborate hoax. Herschel had not really observed life on the moon, nor had he accomplished any of the other astronomical breakthroughs credited to him in the article. In fact, Herschel was not even aware until much later that such discoveries had been attributed to him. However, the New York Sun managed to sell thousands of copies of the article before the public realized that it had been hoaxed.
Although the Sun managed to sell many copies of the moon hoax, it is not clear whether people at the time actually believed the story, or simply found it to be an entertaining topic of debate. Various eyewitnesses to the hoax assure us that the credulity was general. For instance, one reporter, writing 18 years after the event, recalled how the hoax was received at Yale College:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonscene2.jpg "Lunar Discoveries"
Lithograph that appeared in the New York Sun, Friday, October 16, 1835
Yale College was alive with staunch supporters. The literati—students and professors, doctors in divinity and law—and all the rest of the reading community, looked daily for the arrival of the New York mail with unexampled avidity and implicit faith. Have you seen the accounts of Sir John Herschel's wonderful discoveries? Have you read the Sun? Have you heard the news of the man in the Moon? These were the questions that met you every where. It was the absorbing topic of the day. Nobody expressed or entertained a doubt as to the truth of the story.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonprint2.jpg 1835 lithograph depicting the Ruby Colosseum
However, many discussions of the hoax that appeared in papers at the time of its first publication were openly skeptical of it. For instance, on August 29, 1835 the New York Commercial Advertiser had this to say about the hoax:
It is well done, and makes a pleasant piece of reading enough, especially for such as have a sufficient stock of available credulity; but we can hardly understand how any man of common sense should read it without at once perceiving the deception. Without referring to the monstrosities of the story itself, can any one suppose for a moment that such preparations as are described, should have been made without a word of notice in the english papers? Preparations going on for years—an object of glass of twenty-four feet in diameter—a donation of ten thousand pounds by the king—consultations with Sir David Brewster—and other extravagancies not less preposterous!
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/moonprint.jpg "Lunar Temples"
Detail from an 1835 lithograph
Authorship of the hoax is usually attributed to Richard Adams Locke, a Cambridge-educated reporter who was working for the Sun. However, Locke never publicly admitted to being the author of the hoax, and rumors have persisted that others were also involved in the production of the story. Two men in particular have been mentioned in connection with the hoax: Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, a French astronomer who was travelling through America at the time (though he was in Mississippi, not New York, when the moon hoax appeared), and Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine. However, there is no real evidence to suggest that anyone but Locke was the author of the hoax.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/images/ralocke.jpg Richard Adams Locke,
author of the moon hoax
Despite the intense public speculation about the moon story, the Sun never publicly conceded that it was a hoax. On September 16, 1835 the Sun did publish a column in which it discussed the possibility that the story was a hoax, but it never confessed to anything. Quite the contrary. It wrote that, "Certain correspondents have been urging us to come out and confess the whole to be a hoax; but this we can by no means do, until we have the testimony of the English or Scotch papers to corroborate such a declaration." This is the closest the Sun ever came to an admission of guilt.
You can read the actual printing of the Moon Hoax here. (http://www.museumofhoaxes.c om/moonhoax1.html)