[Phase of the moon taken March 1851]

The Moon has always been a magical and mystical object for people throughout history. It is the 2nd brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Since prehistoric times, the Moon has been an object of fascination, awe, and worship. The Moon has its influence on our culture through music, theater, literature, and more.

Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. /A nursery rhyme from the 1700's /

Whipple and his partner Black collaborated with scientists at Harvard College Observatory over the course of a decade, adapting new photographic processes to astronomical research. After the observatory installed a new clock drive on the telescope in 1857, the pair photographed the moon using collodion-coated glass negatives, from which they produced salted paper prints. This example appears to have been made by cutting the image of the moon out of an earlier print and rephotographing it against a dark background. This may have been done to enlarge the lunar orb or to eliminate imperfections in the original background.