It turns out that the man in the moon is actually a club-wielding policeman, as we learn in St. Nicholas magazine, 1876.

From In the Land of Misfortune by Florence Caroline Douglas, 1882.

From Hallowe'en Festivities by Stanley Schell, 1903.

Here's a man in the moon with a Mona Lisa smile, from St. Nicholas magazine, 1898.  Recall our previous proof that the Mona Lisa's facial features correspond to the lunar landscape.

It turns out that the man in the moon is actually a little girl called Hippety-Hop (who suffered from what we now call nervous leg syndrome) who just kept going.  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1876.  To our eye, the little girl transformed into a Kanji character.

From The Naturalist in La Plata by William Henry Hudson, 1922.

We know from the rhyme that the cow jumped over the moon, but here's the view.  From Síḋeóga ag Obair by William Patrick Ryan, 1903.

More than one cow jumped over the moon, as we see in From the Earth to the Moon Direct in Ninety-Seven Hours and Twenty Minutes, and a Trip Round It by Jules Verne, 1874.

The Milky Way is composed of smoke from cigars puffed by celestial bodies, as we see in The Pharmaceutical Era, 1887.

From Real Sailor-Songs by John Ashton, 1891.

Here's the ladder to the heaven of the moon, from The Epic of the Fall of Man: A Comparative Study of Caedmon, Dante and Milton by Stephen Humphreys Villiers Gurteen, 1896.

Today animals are used as test subjects in space travel, but it used to be cherubs (up until the religious lobby stepped in).  From A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine by Robert Henry Thurston, 1878.

"By the window, full in the cool moon-rays, sat [the ghost of] a young girl."  From Under One Cover, Eleven Stories, 1898.

This is how to spell coyote.  From B. C. 1887: A Ramble in British Columbia by James Arthir Lees. 1888.

The man in the moon, from The Choice Works of Thomas Hood, 1881.