logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2022
37m 7s

Photographing Fairies

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

Sherlock Holmes is known for approaching all mysteries with cool logic - and yet when his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle saw photographs taken by two young girls purporting to show real life fairies at play... he unwisely declared them genuine.

How did Elsie and Frances fool so many people with their photography... and why did they keep the hoax going for decades?

For a full list of sources go to timharford.com

If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to sign up for our email list at Pushkin.fm.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Aug 22
Paradise Poisoned: How Utopias Fall Apart
Dore Strauch and Friedrich Ritter make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 they leave Germany and begin anew on the deserted Galapagos island of Floreana. At first, it feels like a paradise, but soon crack ... Show More
41 m
Aug 15
"Genius Still Unrecognised" - The Worst Poet in the World
William McGonagall's poems are something else. The jarring meter, the banal imagery, the awkward rhymes: they made him a laughing stock in 19th Century Scotland and are still derided to this day. How does someone get that bad at poetry? Or have we been misunderstanding McGonagall ... Show More
40m 3s
Aug 8
Office Hell: The Demise of the Playful Workspace (Classic)
In the early 90s, cutting-edge advertising agency Chiat/Day announced a radical plan, aimed at giving the company a jolt of creative renewal. They would sweep away corner offices and cubicles and replace them with zany open spaces, as well as innovative portable computers and pho ... Show More
38m 40s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2022
Pictures of the Year
Every year, National Geographic rolls the year into a collection of photos for its “Pictures of the Year” issue. It’s a mysterious process, and we’re about to share it with you. We’ll see what baby carriages are like in Greenland, witness the moment SpaceX burst into a cypress sw ... Show More
32m 38s
Dec 2021
Louis Daguerre and the Daguerreotype
Daguerre comes up almost any time we mention photography, but we’ve never covered his life story. Well before he figured out how to capture images through a camera obscura, he was an artist and innovator in entertainment. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodc ... Show More
38m 21s
Sep 2021
SYMHC Classics: Who was the real Sherlock Holmes?
This 2010 episode from past hosts Sarah and Deblina covers Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant protagonist Sherlock Holmes, who became world-famous. But was Sherlock Holmes based on a real person? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.c ... Show More
24m 2s
May 2012
Who was the real Professor Moriarty? Part 2
When Adam Worth stole a portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire, he fell in love with the painting. But a botched theft in Belgium landed him in prison, where the story of his life reached Arthur Conan Doyle and inspired the character of Professor Moriarty. Learn more about your ad ... Show More
29m 16s
Sep 2022
Outliers, Revisited
Did Malcolm Gladwell blow it in his bestselling book Outliers? What if all he did was write a primer for neurotic helicopter parents? To find out, Revisionist History descends on the University of Pennsylvania to run a roomful of eager students through a mysterious experiment, co ... Show More
44m 26s
Aug 2022
Weegee the Famous
Weegee is often cited as having been an influence on artists like Diane Arbus and Andy Warhol. He also influenced the world in how New York was viewed, because of his stark, black and white photos of the city. Research:  Smith, Roberta. “He Made Blood and Guts Familiar and Fabulo ... Show More
39m 3s