Halley’s Comet, 1910: Fire in the Sky documents the spectacle of humanity’s reaction to the comet and recreates the stir it caused through ads, songs, sheet music covers, post cards, poems, cartoons and every manner of expression.

 

         From “The Comet”, an editorial in World’s Work: “The celestial visitor ought to terrify no one in the civilized part of the world. Anyone, however, who knows the persistence of superstitious ignorance knows that millions will be frightened, as all will be amazed; that religious revivals will flourish, that some will go insane, that the best of us will read with apprehension of the fearsome cyanogen tail through which we will pass.”

 

          The astronomical event of the comet’s appearance is the central character of Halley’s Comet, 1910: Fire in the Sky.