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99% Invisible
99% Invisible

A Man, a Plan, a Canal—Mars!

March 10, 2026 • 32m

Summary

⏱️ 14 min read

Overview

This episode explores how turn-of-the-century America became convinced that intelligent life existed on Mars, centered on wealthy amateur astronomer Percival Lowell who built an observatory to prove his theory of Martian canals. The story reveals how wishful thinking, technological limitations, sensationalist media, and one man's ego created a mass delusion that captured the Western world's imagination, offering lessons about science, truth, and skepticism that resonate today.

The Martian Craze of Turn-of-the-Century America

At the dawn of the 20th century, belief in intelligent life on Mars became widespread throughout the Western world, with prominent figures like Alexander Graham Bell and professors at Ivy League institutions accepting it as fact. The Wall Street Journal declared proof of intelligent life on Mars as the biggest news of 1907. Martians permeated American culture, appearing in Broadway plays, vaudeville skits, Tin Pan Alley songs, newspaper comics, and advertising campaigns across the country.

  • For centuries humans wondered if we're alone in the universe, but heading into the 20th century, much of the Western world believed this question had been answered
  • Alexander Graham Bell and professors at Harvard, Yale, and Brown were convinced of intelligent life on Mars
  • The Wall Street Journal named proof of intelligent life on Mars the biggest news of 1907
  • Martians appeared everywhere in culture: Broadway plays, vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley music, comics, and advertising
" For centuries, humans have looked up into the night sky and wondered, are we alone in the universe? The possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos remains one of the great mysteries, and one that I don't expect to see resolved in my lifetime. But, for a brief period headed into the 20th century, much of the western world believed that this question are we alone had finally been answered because we had discovered evidence of an advanced alien civilization living on mars "

Percival Lowell: The Wealthy Amateur Astronomer

Percival Lowell came from one of the most prominent and wealthy families in New England, graduated from Harvard, and initially made his name as a traveling writer and anthropologist. As he approached 40, with his father's directive to do something important weighing on him, Lowell decided to become an astronomer and used his considerable wealth to build a state-of-the-art observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His big ego and fragile psyche drove him to seek fame and validation through solving the mystery of Mars's canals.

  • Lowell came from the prominent and wealthy Lowell family of Massachusetts
  • He graduated from Harvard and was one of the first Americans to visit Korea, making his name as a roving anthropologist
  • As he approached 40, Lowell decided to become an astronomer and had the wealth to do it in a big way
  • His father had told him and his brother they had to do something important with their lives
" Lowell was an interesting man psychologically. Now, obviously, I never met him, and I'm not a psychoanalyst, but he clearly had a big ego and a fragile ego. "

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