Imagine a world where photography is still new and fresh. It’s been around a few years, but it’s just now getting into the hands of the masses.
There are no special effects, and of the few movies in existence, they’re all silent. The Wright brothers are still alive, and the world is embroiled in the first World War.
It was in this climate that two young girls, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffith, came forward to claim that they had seen and regularly spent time with living fairies. Not only that, but they had photographic proof.
By today’s standards, that sounds pretty absurd. Although people still may entertain the idea of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, fairies are squarely placed with leprechauns in the realm of reality.
But between 1917 and 1921, the fairies were all the rage. Although many quickly dismissed the photos as complete fakes, many defended them as genuine.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took a particular fascination with the girls and their fairies, risking his career to defend them.
Of the five photos taken, four were admitted to be hoaxes perpetrated by the girls using cardboard cut-outs.
The fifth photo, however, is wholly different in quality and substance.
No one has ever satisfactorily explained how the photo was taken, and the girls themselves are divided on what exactly they took a picture of in that cryptic photograph.
So do fairies exist? Probably not, but the Cottingly Fairies make for a interesting historical perspective on photography, gullibility, and the mindset of a world on the verge of a technological explosion.
No doubt you’ve seen Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book? The similarity in names would seem to be intentional, don’t you think?