Print of J.F.W. Herschel by H. Wright. Among the Herschels' extensive prints and drawings collection are a number of portraits of themselves including this engraving of John Frederick William Herschel. Though some would have been commissioned by themselves, others were done independently reflecting the sitters fame and public appeal.

This portrait probably done in the late 1860s did not appeal to JFW Herschel. Above the image he writes: 'If this is a likeness God help me... It is a mixture of [...] the swindler, and the coward.' And below his name, he has written: 'As Yankified by the American engraver'.

In August 1835 a spoof article had appeared in the New York Sun claiming, with illustrations, that John Herschel while in South Africa cataloguing the nebulae, star clusters and double stars of the Southern hemisphere had discovered a good deal of wildlife on the Moon. This episode is generally known as the lunar or Moon hoax and while not necessarily fooling many people at the time did make John Herschel a very well known name in America for a time.