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The Cottingley Fairies

The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, living in Cottinley, near Bradford in England, depicting the two in various activities with supposed Fairies. In 1917, when the first two photos were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 10. In 1981 the two women admitted to faking all but one of the photographs, but insisted that they really had seen fairies

Elsie was the daughter of Arthur Wright. One day she borrowed her father's camera and took photos in the beck behind the family home. When Mr. Wright, upon developing the plates, saw fairies in the pictures, he considered them to be fake. After he saw the second picture, he banned Elsie from using the camera again. Her mother, Polly, however was convinced of their authenticity

The first picture was taken by the girls at Cottingley Beck and shows Frances looking into the camera as a troop of fairies dances on the branches in the foreground. Some photographers of the day examined the photo and declared them to be genuine but the Kodak laboratories refused to authenticate them, stating that there were many ways to get such faked results

In 1918 in the week before the end of the First World War, Frances sent a letter to a Johanna Parvin, a friend in Cape Town, South Africa, where she had lived most of her life. Dated November 9th, 1918:

"Dear Joe (Johanna), I hope you are quite well. I wrote a letter before, only I lost it or it got mislaid. Do you play with Elsie and Nora Biddles? I am learning French, Geometry, Cookery and Algebra at school now. Dad came home from France the other week after being there ten months, and we all think the war will be over in a few days. We are going to get our flags to hang upstairs in our bedroom. I am sending two photos, both of me, one of me in a bathing costume in our back yard, Uncle Arthur took that, while the other is me with some fairies up the beck, Elsie took that one. Rosebud is as fat as ever and I have made her some new clothes. How are Teddy and dolly? Elsie and I are very friendly with the beck Fairies." On the back of the photograph Frances wrote "It is funny I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there"

The matter first became public in the summer of 1919 when Polly Wright went to a meeting at the Theosophical Society in Bradford. The lecture that night was on 'fairy life', and Polly mentioned to the person sitting next to her that fairy prints had been taken by her daughter and niece. The result of this conversation was that two 'rough prints' (as they were later called) came to the notice of Theosophists at the Harrogate conference in the autumn, and thence to a leading Theosophist, Edward Gardner, by early 1920

Gardner's immediate impulse after seeing the fairy pictures was to clarify the prints and, in a letter to a photographic expert, Fred Barlow, he describes the instructions he gave to his assistants:

Then I told them to make new negatives (from the positives of the originals) and do the very best with them short of altering anything mechanically. The result was that they turned out two first class negatives which … are the same in every respect as the originals except that they are sharp cut and clear and far finer for printing purposes…

By a striking coincidence, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes and fanatical Spiritualist) had been commissioned by the Strand Magazine to write an article on fairies for their Christmas issue, to be published at the end of November 1920. He was preparing this in June when he heard of the two fairy prints in circulation and eventually made contact with Gardner and borrowed copies

Conan Doyle then dispatched his `Watson'–in this real-life case, Gardner–to Cottingley in July. Gardner reported that the whole Wright family seemed honest and totally respectable. Conan Doyle and Gardner decided that if further fairy photographs were taken then the matter would be put firmly beyond question. Gardner journeyed north in August with cameras and 20 photographic plates to leave with Elsie and Frances hoping to persuade them to take more photographs. Only in this way, he felt, could it be proved that the fairies were genuine

Meanwhile, the Strand article was completed, featuring the two sharpened prints, and Conan Doyle sailed for Australia and a lecture tour to spread the gospel of Spiritualism. He left his colleagues to face the public reactions to the fairy business

That issue of the Strand sold out within days of publication at the end of November. Reaction was vigorous–especially from critics. The leading voice among them was that of one Major Hall-Edwards, a radium expert. He declared:

On the evidence I have no hesitation in saying that these photographs could have been `faked'. I criticise the attitude of those who declared there is something supernatural in the circumstances attending to the taking of these pictures because, as a medical man, I believe that the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will result in later life in manifestations and nervous disorder and mental disturbances…

The case might well have faded away with the coming of spring in 1921, had not the unexpected happened: Elsie and Frances took three more fairy photographs

The fifth and last fairy photograph is often believed to be the most striking. Conan Doyle in his The Coming of the Fairies advances a detailed view of the pictured proceedings:

"Seated on the upper left hand edge with wing well displayed is an undraped fairy apparently considering whether it is time to get up. An earlier riser of more mature age is seen on the right possessing abundant hair and wonderful wings. Her slightly denser body can be glimpsed within her fairy dress"






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		The Cottingley Fairies The Cottingley Fairies are a series of five photographs taken by two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, living in Cottinley, near Bradford in England, depicting the two in various activities with supposed Fairies. In 1917, when the first two photos were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 10. In 1981 the two women admitted to faking all but one of the photographs, but insisted that they really had seen fairies Elsie was the daughter of Arthur Wright. One day she borrowed her father's camera and took photos in the beck behind the family home. When Mr. Wright, upon developing the plates, saw fairies in the pictures, he considered them to be fake. After he saw the second picture, he banned Elsie from using the camera again. Her mother, Polly, however was convinced of their authenticity The first picture was taken by the girls at Cottingley Beck and shows Frances looking into the camera as a troop of fairies dances on the branches in the foreground. Some photographers of the day examined the photo and declared them to be genuine but the Kodak laboratories refused to authenticate them, stating that there were many ways to get such faked results In 1918 in the week before the end of the First World War, Frances sent a letter to a Johanna Parvin, a friend in Cape Town, South Africa, where she had lived most of her life. Dated November 9th, 1918: "Dear Joe (Johanna), I hope you are quite well. I wrote a letter before, only I lost it or it got mislaid. Do you play with Elsie and Nora Biddles? I am learning French, Geometry, Cookery and Algebra at school now. Dad came home from France the other week after being there ten months, and we all think the war will be over in a few days. We are going to get our flags to hang upstairs in our bedroom. I am sending two photos, both of me, one of me in a bathing costume in our back yard, Uncle Arthur took that, while the other is me with some fairies up the beck, Elsie took that one. Rosebud is as fat as ever and I have made her some new clothes. How are Teddy and dolly? Elsie and I are very friendly with the beck Fairies." On the back of the photograph Frances wrote "It is funny I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there" The matter first became public in the summer of 1919 when Polly Wright went to a meeting at the Theosophical Society in Bradford. The lecture that night was on 'fairy life', and Polly mentioned to the person sitting next to her that fairy prints had been taken by her daughter and niece. The result of this conversation was that two 'rough prints' (as they were later called) came to the notice of Theosophists at the Harrogate conference in the autumn, and thence to a leading Theosophist, Edward Gardner, by early 1920 Gardner's immediate impulse after seeing the fairy pictures was to clarify the prints and, in a letter to a photographic expert, Fred Barlow, he describes the instructions he gave to his assistants: Then I told them to make new negatives (from the positives of the originals) and do the very best with them short of altering anything mechanically. The result was that they turned out two first class negatives which … are the same in every respect as the originals except that they are sharp cut and clear and far finer for printing purposes… By a striking coincidence, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes and fanatical Spiritualist) had been commissioned by the Strand Magazine to write an article on fairies for their Christmas issue, to be published at the end of November 1920. He was preparing this in June when he heard of the two fairy prints in circulation and eventually made contact with Gardner and borrowed copies Conan Doyle then dispatched his `Watson'–in this real-life case, Gardner–to Cottingley in July. Gardner reported that the whole Wright family seemed honest and totally respectable. Conan Doyle and Gardner decided that if further fairy photographs were taken then the matter would be put firmly beyond question. Gardner journeyed north in August with cameras and 20 photographic plates to leave with Elsie and Frances hoping to persuade them to take more photographs. Only in this way, he felt, could it be proved that the fairies were genuine Meanwhile, the Strand article was completed, featuring the two sharpened prints, and Conan Doyle sailed for Australia and a lecture tour to spread the gospel of Spiritualism. He left his colleagues to face the public reactions to the fairy business That issue of the Strand sold out within days of publication at the end of November. Reaction was vigorous–especially from critics. The leading voice among them was that of one Major Hall-Edwards, a radium expert. He declared: On the evidence I have no hesitation in saying that these photographs could have been `faked'. I criticise the attitude of those who declared there is something supernatural in the circumstances attending to the taking of these pictures because, as a medical man, I believe that the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will result in later life in manifestations and nervous disorder and mental disturbances… The case might well have faded away with the coming of spring in 1921, had not the unexpected happened: Elsie and Frances took three more fairy photographs The fifth and last fairy photograph is often believed to be the most striking. Conan Doyle in his The Coming of the Fairies advances a detailed view of the pictured proceedings: "Seated on the upper left hand edge with wing well displayed is an undraped fairy apparently considering whether it is time to get up. An earlier riser of more mature age is seen on the right possessing abundant hair and wonderful wings. Her slightly denser body can be glimpsed within her fairy dress"