The first Sherlock Holmes short story published in The Strand Magazine appeared in 1891. Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” was published on 25 June 1891 in the magazine’s July issue.
The story introduced Irene Adler, the clever opera singer who outwits Holmes by discovering his deception. It became the first of Doyle’s 56 Holmes short stories and later opened the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892.
The date can cause confusion because the story is set in 1888, several years before its publication. Doyle had already published the Holmes novels A Study in Scarlet in 1887 and The Sign of the Four in 1890, but “A Scandal in Bohemia” was the first Holmes short story in The Strand.
The Strand’s lavish illustrations by Sidney Paget also helped establish the visual image of Holmes and Watson for generations of readers.