Cottingley Fairies

The Cottingley Fairies refers to a series of five photographs taken between 1917 and 1920 by cousins Elsie Wright (16) and Frances Griffiths (9) in Cottingley, West Yorkshire. The photographs appeared to show the girls interacting with fairies and gnomes in their garden. The first two photographs were taken in July 1917 when the girls claimed they were playing by a stream behind Elsie's house.

The photographs gained worldwide attention when they came to the notice of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was deeply interested in spiritualism following his son's death in World War I. Doyle used the photographs to illustrate an article on fairies for The Strand Magazine in 1920, bringing them to international prominence and sparking intense debate about their authenticity.

Three additional photographs were taken in 1920 with assistance from photographic expert Edward Gardner and clairvoyant Geoffrey Hodson, both of whom believed the images were genuine. The photographs were examined by contemporary photographic experts with mixed conclusions—some detected evidence of tampering while others declared them authentic.

The hoax was finally admitted in 1981 when Elsie Wright revealed that four of the five photographs were faked using cardboard cutouts of fairies copied from "Princess Mary's Gift Book," held up with hatpins and photographed. Frances maintained until her death that the fifth photograph showed a real fairy.

The case became a significant study in the psychology of belief and mass delusion, demonstrating how intelligent people could accept extraordinary claims without sufficient evidence. It highlighted the public's desire to believe in the supernatural during the traumatic aftermath of World War I and remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of confirmation bias and wishful thinking.