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The Cottingley Fairies refers to a series of five photographs taken by Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, two young cousins living in Cottingley, near Bradford, England.
The first two photos were taken in 1917. They were publicized in 1920 when The Strand (home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories) published a piece by Doyle showing the first two photographs and describing them. Griffiths and Wright were then given 24 photographic plates and took three more photos in August 1920. They blamed constant rainfall, but rainfall was at the lowest point in the year during August. This is now seen as proof that they had to discard several failed attempts. The photos showed the fairies as small humans with period style haircuts, dressed in filmy gowns, and with large wings on their backs. One picture is of a gnome, about 12 inches tall, dressed in a somewhat Elizabethan manner, and also with wings.
At the time, the photos were viewed by some as evidence of fairies, most notably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famed author of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle wrote a book called The Coming of the Fairies, about the Cottingley Fairies and his belief in them.
In the pictures and prints available today, the fairies look flat, with lighting that does not match the rest of the photograph, as if they were paper cut-outs. It has been claimed that this is due to re-touching due to the poor quality of the originals, and that this is the reason the originals where first seen as being convincing. Harold Snelling, a contemporary expert in fake photography, said "these dancing figures are not made of paper nor any fabric; they are not painted on a photographic background—but what gets me most is that all these figures have moved during the exposure." However the long exposure (see waterfall in above photo), wind could have moved the faries wings or bodies, presuming that they were made of paper or fabric. Doyle also dismissed the idea the photographs could have been faked. It is now considered that he thought the girls too young and too inexperienced to have been able to create such a hoax.
In 1978, it was found the fairies were from the 1915 book PrincessMarysGiftBook.jpg by Arthur Shepperson.
The cousins remained evasive about the authenticity of the pictures for most of their lives, at times claiming they were forgeries, and at other times leaving it to the individual to decide. In 1981, in an interview by Joe Cooper for the magazine The Unexplained, the cousins confessed that the photos were fake and they held up cut-outs with tacks. Frances Griffiths, however, continued to maintain until her death that they did see fairies and that the 5th photograph, which showed fairies in a sunbath, was genuine.
Two 1997 movies, A True Story, starring Peter O'Toole and Harvey Keitel, and Photographing Fairies with Ben Kingsley, were based on this event.
External links
- The Coming of the Fairies: An alternative view of the episode of The Cottingley Fairies, essay by Barbara Roden
- The Case of the Cottingley Fairies at The James Randi Educational Foundation
- Cottingley Fairies at Cottingley.Net - The Cottingley Network
- Cottingley Fairies at Cottingley Connect
- Cottingley Fairies at Anomalies
"Cottingley Fairies"