Author: Mesha
Fairies, what are fairies? As we would normally describe, fairies are mythical creatures that can take the form of many creatures like, dwarfs, spirits, or mischievous creatures. The are reported looking like tiny humans who have wings, magical abilities, and playful nature. They found in European cultures like the French, Slavic, Germanic, and Celtic. Fairies are rarely spotted and when they are, mostly children report having seen them.
One of these phenomena is the story of the Cottingley Fairies. It started of as one young girl Frances Griffith playing by the creek and her shoes getting dirty then she confronted by her mother. Her explanation was she was “playing with the fairies.” Her cousin Elsie Wright wanted to help her, so she suggested to her father to hold his camera to capture the fairies Frances were playing with. In the image below it shows Frances surrounded by dancing fairies.
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| Frances and the dancing fairies |
Shockingly the girls came back with two photos to show the family, they could not believe it. But the photos were there. Two years later Elsie’s mother took the photos to a fairy talk which was being taught by Edward Gardener and the photos the girls took then caught his eye. The photos then got back to Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who took an interest in the supernatural. From then Doyle was adamant about proving wither the photos were fake or not, so he had many experts look at the photos and get their input before publishing them in 1920.
After the publishing of the two photos, Doyle wanted more photos so he bought cameras for the girls so they could produce more evidence. They went on to capture three more photos.
As time went on the story would fade then come back, and the cousins would say the same thing every time, “the photos were real.” Then in the 1980’s Frances and Elsie had an interview where they admitted the photos were fake and how the fairies were made.
They said they did not trick anyone because the people choose to believe, they wanted to believe in the supernatural. One mystery still remains, the two cousins say all the photos were faked, all except the fifth and final photo.
Wright, Elsie. The first Cottingley captured on photo. Photograph. BBC News. 4 December 2020. Web. 7 November 2024
Wright, Elsie. “Frances and the Leaping Fairy.” Photograph. Wikipedia.org. 26 September 2024. Web. 7 November 2024
HistorianR42. “Story behind the Cottingley fairies (includes interview with Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright).” YouTube.com. 15 July 2022. Web. 30 October 2024
Links to further research:
The story of the Cottingley Fairies hoax.
The Cottingley Fairies.
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Fairies-of-Cottingley/.
This article tells us why Doyle was so easy to believe in the photos because of this belief of the supernatural.
1976: COTTINGLEY FAIRIES: FACT or FANTASY?
https://youtu.be/1Z7zSGzdgTU?si=kJ4_M6FDQUERWa5k
This YouTube video has a first had video of Elsie Wright giving an interview in the very place the fairy photos were taken
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