The Cottingley Fairies

Between 1916 two young girls Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths sent this letter:

Dear Joe,
I hope you are quite well. I wrote a letter before, only I lost it or it got mislaid. Do you play with Elsie and Nora Biddles? I am learning French, Geometry, Cookery and Algebra at school now. Dad came home from France the other week after being there ten months, and we all think the war will be over in a few days. We are going to get our flags to hang upstairs in our bedroom. I am sending two photos, both of me, one of me in a bathing costume in our back yard, Uncle Arthur took that, while the other is me with some fairies up the beck, Elsie took that one. Rosebud is as fat as ever and I have made her some new clothes. How are Teddy and dolly?

It was to a friend, Johanna, in South Africa, enclosed was the above photograph, and on the back was written:

Elsie and I are very friendly with the beck Fairies. It is funny I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there.

The photograph became an international sensation between 1917-20, until it was revealed the girls used cardboard cutouts of the fairies.