The archive / 3 case files

Hoaxes

A cream paper fairy fixed by a visible red hatpin looms beside a period camera and dark stream, an editorial interpretation of the admitted cutout method rather than a living fairy.

Sherlock Holmes and the Fairies

Two Yorkshire cousins photographed paper fairies, drawing Arthur Conan Doyle into a public campaign that outlived their joke and ended in conflicting admissions.

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Symbolic pulp illustration of a dead rabbit specimen on red cloth between looming Georgian doctors, with a small seated woman in a doorway, representing the established Mary Toft hoax.

Case file 021Forgotten Histories

A Wonder from Godalming

A Surrey woman’s supposed rabbit births drew royal doctors into a medical scandal, leaving disputed accounts of deception, suffering and control over her body.

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Four stylised 1969 Beatles walking across Abbey Road, with Paul McCartney barefoot, interpreting the documented photograph rather than a funeral

Case file 017Culture & Legends

Turn me on dead man

A student review, a radio phone-in and a barefoot photograph helped turn a false story about Paul McCartney into a lasting Beatles legend.

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Hoaxes

Sherlock Holmes and the Fairies

A Wonder from Godalming

Turn me on dead man

The truth is in here

The reading room