The Cottingley Fairies is a series of photographs taken in 1917 and 1921 by two girls of 10 and 16 years. The pictures had been meant to be proof of the existence of fairies and elves and made quite a stir, but they were eventually exposed as one of the most brilliant mystifications of the 20th century. One of the girls turned out to have been assisting at her college’s photo laboratory.

Even Arthur Conan Doyle firmly believed in the authenticity of these pictures until his death.