The Berners Street Hoax, 1810 Hundreds of tradesmen sent to the same address, on the same day	Redheffer’s Perpetual Motion Machine, 1812 — It supposedly required no source of energy to run	The Great Stock Exchange Hoax of 1814 — Naval hero implicated in an outrageous stock fraud
Princess Caraboo, 1817 Poor English girl posed as princess from Javasu	New York Sawed in Half, 1824 Legendary tale of a plan to cut Manhattan in two	Charles Waterton’s Nondescript, 1824 — British naturalist brought home bizarre specimen from S. America
Hoaxes of Edgar Allan Poe The celebrated writer often presented his works of fiction as fact	Joice Heth, 1835 Showmen claimed she was the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington	The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 Man-Bats and Biped Beavers discovered on the Moon
The Walam Olum of Constantine Rafinesque, 1836 A controversial ancient Indian document	The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, 1836 — Alleged sex and murder in a Montreal convent	The Hoaxes of P.T. Barnum The outrageous American showman became known as the 'Prince of Humbug'
The Fortsas Bibliohoax, 1840 One-of-a-kind book sale lured collectors from across Europe	The Feejee Mermaid, 1842 Widely advertised mermaid beauty turned out to be the incarnation of ugliness	The Kinderhook Plates, 1843 Phony discovery intended to embarrass a religious leader
The Great Balloon Hoax, 1844 Spurious report of the first transatlantic balloon crossing	The Roorback Hoax, 1844 Dirty tricks in the 1844 presidential election	The Southern Conspiracy to Confederate with Mexico, 1850 Scandalous rumor reflected pre-Civil War tensions
Railways and Revolvers in Georgia, 1856 — Report of gunfight on railroad caused international controversy	The Pictographs of Emmanuel Domenech, 1860 — Crude figures were either ancient symbols or schoolboy's doodles	William Mumler’s Spirit Photography, 1861 — He made a fortune when ghosts started to appear in his photos
The Petrified Man, 1862 Nevada paper reported discovery of a stone man in a curious pose	Empire City Massacre, 1863 The gruesome hoax of a young reporter, Mark Twain	The Miscegenation Hoax, 1863 How the word 'miscegenation' originated as part of a political hoax
The Civil War Gold Hoax, 1864 Price of gold manipulated by a fake proclamation	The Orgueil Meteorite, 1864 Plant fragments in a meteorite. Evidence of spontaneous generation of life?	The Tichborne Claimant, 1866 Wealthy young aristocrat, presumed dead, suddenly reappeared. Or did he?
The Calaveras Skull, 1866 Pliocene-age skull found in California mine. A miner's practical joke?	The Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley, 1867 Nevada stones that could move of their own accord

All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.