Pipe-smoking, funny-hat-wearing detective Sherlock Holmes is the standard by which many beloved sleuths are compared to and understandably so. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Baker Street's most beloved resident has been in 56 short stories and 70 films that have adapted his adventures, with some of the best iterations being played by the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch and Wishbone the dog. But was there ever a real Sherlock Holmes to begin with?

Well, however improbable it may be that there was a detective that battled with hellish Baskerville hounds or mentally dueled an evil mastermind over a waterfall, Doyle's beloved detective was very much inspired by a real person. Born in 1837, Joseph Bell was a Scottish surgeon and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh who taught Doyle for a year during his medical studies and chose him as his outpatient clerk. Doyle came to admire his teacher --...