In 1835, the respectable New York Sun newspaper ran an article that shocked some and stunned many – the great British astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered evidence of living creatures on the moon!  (Oh and found other planets in other solar systems, remember – 1835.)

Moon-bison roamed the plains of the lunar surface, blue unicorns galloped across mountain ranges, there were forests and azure pyramids, spherical creatures rolled across the beaches and of most interest to many – there were sentient beings!

“Of animals, he classified nine species of mammalia… The last resembles the beaver of the earth in every other respect than in its destitution of a tail, and its invariable habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries its young in its arms like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding motion. Its huts are constructed better and higher than those of many tribes of human savages, and from the appearance of smoke in nearly all of them, there is no doubt of its being acquainted with the use of fire. Still its head and body differ only in the points stated from that of the beaver, and it was never seen except on the borders of lakes and rivers, in which it has been observed to immerse for a period of several seconds.”

More than this, there were bat-winged people who lived in apparent harmony around gold-tipped temples.

It was, unfortunately, a hoax (they were popular at the time) but by some reports the article was believed by many – some even going so far as to arrange collections so that missionaries might visit the moon and save the poor bat-savages from themselves!  Ahem.  Above, you can see a vehicle that was proposed for the journey – filled with helium, they intended to use it to get to the surface of the moon.  Lovely.  Read much more about it at the Museum of Hoaxes, and see the lithograph of the vehicle at the Smithsonian Voyages Collection.  Thank you, Mr Hildebrandt – Steampunk fiction that posed as fact.  What better day than this to post it.