The Cottingley Fairies: A Study In Deception
Exploring two girls from West Yorkshire and one of the greatest hoaxes of the twentieth century.
Cover of The Strand Magazine, Christmas issue (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
In December 1920 the Strand Magazine published a remarkable article by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. It contained photographs of fairies that Doyle concluded were real. Experts had checked the photographs, he wrote. They were not a hoax.
Map of Cottingley Glen, prepared for Arthur Conan Doyle (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
Two girls aged nine and sixteen had taken the photographs in 1917. Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright were cousins, living together while Frances's father served in the First World War. The pictures were taken behind Elsie's house in Cottingley, West Yorkshire.
Photograph of Frances Griffiths (1917)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
The photographs had started as a tall tale. Reprimanded for getting her shoes wet, Frances claimed that she went to Cottingley Beck to see fairies. Elsie backed her up. She said she could prove their story if her father, an amateur photographer, would lend them his camera.
Photograph of Frances and the fairies. (1917)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
This picture of Frances and the fairies was the first photograph Elsie had ever taken, although she worked in a photographic studio in Bradford correcting photographic plates. A few months later, Frances would take her first picture, this time of Elsie with a winged gnome.
On the mount of this photograph Frances is called Alice. When the photographs were published Frances and Elsie were called Alice and Iris to help protect their identities.
Later, critics queried why Frances looked more interested in the camera than in the fairies themselves.
Photograph of Elsie Wright and her mother Polly, Cottingley, West Yorkshire (1921)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
For the next three years the photographs remained nothing more than a puzzling family anecdote. It wasn't until early 1920 when Frances and Elsie's mothers attended a lecture on fairies, that the story got out. The lecture was organised by the Theosophical Institute in Bradford.
Photograph of Edward L. Gardner (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
The girls' fairy photographs generated great interest. By May 1920 Edward L. Gardner, General Secretary of the English Theosophical Society was using copies of the negatives in his public lectures in London. Arthur Conan Doyle heard about the images soon afterwards.
Photograph of Edward L. Gardner at Cottingley Beck (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
In July 1920, acting for Doyle, Gardner visited Elsie in Cottingley. He saw where the photographs had been taken, and was struck by the 'transparent honesty and simplicity' of the family. He returned to London further convinced of the 'entire genuineness' of the photographs.
Photograph of a fairy offering a posy of harebells to Elsie (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
After the visit, Gardner and Doyle sent Elsie and Frances a Cameo camera each. Gardner told Elsie that she should not 'feel any responsibility' for new fairy photographs, but the expectation seemed clear. The gifts made the girls feel obliged to produce more evidence of fairies.
Published photograph of Frances with a leaping fairy (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
Three more astounding fairy photographs were taken in the late summer of 1920. Gardner had marked the photographic plates to check for foul play, but it did not matter. Independent expert Harold Snelling declared the images 'entirely genuine' and the photographs 'unfaked'.
Other critics were less convinced. Doyle sought the advice of 'fairy authority' Kenneth Styles, who remarked that the fairies' hairstyles looked suspiciously fashionable. Nevertheless, two of the new photographs were published in the March 1921 issue of the Strand Magazine.
Letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Edward L. Gardner Letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Edward L. Gardner (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
It seems unlikely that Doyle, creator of arch-sceptic Sherlock Holmes, would believe fairy photographs. But the First World War and 1918 flu pandemic had left a bereaved population, anxious for news of their dead. Spiritualism and the supernatural were popular discussion topics.
Letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Edward L. Gardner Letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Edward L. Gardner (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
Doyle converted to Spiritualism in 1916 and became its most famous advocate, trusted for his association with Holmes. His views became more entrenched after criticism that he was gullible and unscientific. Doyle needed the fairy photographs to be real to silence his opponents.
Glass plate negative of Frances and the Fairies 'improved' at Gardner's request (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
It was not until sixty years later, in the early 1980s, that Frances and Elsie admitted the fairy photographs had been a hoax. Elsie had drawn and cut out the delicate fairy images, which were then attached to their surroundings using hatpins.
Glass plate negative of Frances and the leaping fairy (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
But Frances and Elsie were not solely responsible for the hoax. Investigations revealed that Gardner had asked the expert Harold Snelling to 'improve' the negatives that he claimed were authentic. Doyle himself had chosen to ignore or minimise criticism of the photographs.
Photograph of the fairy bower (1920)Original Source: University of Leeds Special Collections
One mystery remained. Both Frances and Elsie claimed to have taken this picture of the 'fairy bower'. Elsie said she had used a double exposure, but Frances insisted it was the one photograph to show real fairies.
She had seen them and, perhaps, they do exist.
This exhibition is based on 'The Cottingley Fairies: a study in deception', an exhibition which was due to open at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, University of Leeds, in September 2020.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Merrick Burrow, Head of English and Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield.
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