Cottingley Fairies

Watercolour sketch by Elsie Wright of `Cottingley Fairies'

In 1917, with the First World War raging in Europe, a young girl explained away her muddy shoes by saying she had been playing with the fairies. Her disbelieving family were astonished when she and her older cousin produced photographs as evidence. The photographs became famous. For some people, they offered a tantalising view of the spirit world, and perhaps a way to reconnect with loved ones who had lost their lives in the war.

Using her father’s Midg camera, Elsie Wright and her cousin Frances Griffiths took photographs of themselves posing with fairies. Two years later, Elsie’s mother went to a talk about ‘fairy life’ and shared the photographs with the fascinated presenter. The photos were included in a display a few months later, attracting the attention of the famous writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some people did not believe that young girls could fake such convincing photographs, and concluded that the pictures must be real. The fairy photos taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths fascinated people who believed in a spirit world. Edward Gardner, a leading spiritualist, had the photographs checked by experts to see if they had been faked. Without clear answers, in 1920 he visited the girls and asked them to take more photographs with a cameras that he gave them.

Conan Doyle and fellow spiritualist Edward Gardner argued that the fairy photographs were real. However, as well as making the photographs, Elsie Wright also produced three watercolours that demonstrated her artistic skill. The watercolours show a series of stylish women with wings in brightly coloured fashionable dresses. This show of skill risked undermining the argument that Conan Doyle and Gardner were trying to make.

Over 60 years after the photographs had been taken, Elsie and Frances admitted that they had copied drawings from a book to make fairies on card. Explaining their long silence, Elsie said ‘[Sir Arthur] had lost his son recently in the war, and I think the poor man was trying to comfort himself … we will wait till they die of old age and then we will tell.’