Matthew Hersch, Harvard University, Lecture: “Swear Not by the Moon”: Kennedy’s Challenge

Taught that the Moon was a divine orb, astronomers equipped with telescopes in the early seventeenth century learned the truth: it was a world, like ours. Humans had imagined traveling to the heavens for millennia, but the telescope gave them a destination: distant, but undeniably real. What is astonishing about Apollo 11’s voyage to the Moon fifty years ago is not merely the difficulty of the journey, but humanity’s confidence that the Moon was a place people could and would travel to, and that the dangers to which they would expose themselves on the way were worth the risk.

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**Curatorial Tours: Small Steps, Giant Leaps
May 15, 12:30 PM; June 8, 2:00 PM; June 26, 5:30 PMJuly 11, 12:30 PM; July 20, 4:30 PM; July 30, 5:30 PMEdison and Newman Room, Houghton Library
Join exhibition curator John Overholt for a guided tour ofSmall Steps, Giant Leaps to learn about the ways early modern science inspired and made possible the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.