The Fox Sisters: The Two Girls Who Invented Modern Spiritualism — Then Admitted It Was a Trick

The Fox sisters, Kate and Margaret, in an 1852 lithograph

About 4 min readOn 31 March 1848, two sisters in Hydesville, New York, claimed they could talk to the dead through mysterious rappings — and launched a movement that would claim millions of followers. Forty years later, one of them stood on a New York stage and showed the audience exactly how the trick was done.