Cottingley Fairies

James Randi's chapter "Fairies at the Foot of the Garden," about the Cottingley Fairies hoax.

Archive 2009-08-01 Theodora Goss 2009

Those Cottingley Fairies girls certainly fooled everyone, however!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Hels 2009

The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins living in Cottingley, near Bradford, England, depicting the pair interacting with faries.

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln's iconic photo put his head on John Calhoun's more elegant body; by 1920, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was fooled by the Cottingley Fairies.

Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2009

The Cottingley Fairies were revealed decades later to have been a hoax, but to those of us who have grown up in a world steeped in photography and film, where we've seen all kinds of attempts -- legitimate and otherwise -- to manipulate the medium, the photos are obvious hoaxes.

Steve Hargadon 2009

However–and someone correct me if I’m wrong–I’m fairly sure that Dawkins is chummy with James Randi and I know that Randi has used the Cottingley Fairies to illustrate several points about human credulity and the ease with which intelligent people can be deceived by simple means.

Thinking About The God Delusion « Whatever 2006