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Web Hoax Museum
The Hoax Photo Archive
A catalog of photo fakery throughout history

Years Archived:
1840-1900 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2004 | 2005-Present
Category: Humor

The Sympsychograph. Supposedly a psychic projection of "a cat in its real essence." Intended as a joke, but taken seriously by many. (September 1896)



A Bear and its Hunters. A humorous example of a staged scene. (ca. 1900)



Pacific Sea Monster. Men in Ballard, Washington pose with a sea serpent that looks suspiciously like a log. (1906)



William ‘Dad’ Martin’s Freak Postcards. Martin made a fortune selling "freak" postcards that featured midwesterners interacting with oversized animals and vegetables. (1909-1910)



The Melon Party. In order to create this postcard of children eating a giant watermelon, photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson used wooden props. (1911)



The Nest of a Fatu-Liva. An image of square eggs satirically proves that the camera never lies. (1921)



High-Pressure Hijinks. It is unlikely that water pressure alone is keeping this soldier suspended in air. (ca. 1923)



Raised Runway. An April Fool's day image shows a raised runway in a German city. (Undated. Possibly from the 1920s.)



Wisconsin’s Capitol Collapses. An April Fool's Day image of the Wisconsin state capitol collapsing due to an excess of gas generated by verbose debate. (April 1, 1933)



Lung-Powered Flying Machine. This April Fool's day image of a new method of flying fooled many, including the New York Times. (April 1, 1934)



Whopper Hoppers. Giant grasshoppers were particularly popular subjects for tall-tale postcards during the 1930s. (circa 1935)



Snowball the Monster Cat. Cordell Hauglie never anticipated that this picture of him holding a digitally enlarged version of his family cat would become one of the most popular images on the internet. (Circulating online since early 2000)



Manitoba Home Security. A digital composite makes it appear that polar bears are relaxing outside someone's house. (Found online in 2003)



Home Computer of the Future. Popular Science magazine did not publish this image in 1954, predicting that it was what a home computer would look like fifty years in the future. (First posted online September 11, 2004)



Migrant Mother Makeover. Popular Photography's readers were outraged when the magazine ran a feature on how Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photo could be improved. (April 2005 issue of Popular Photography)


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