Cottingley, a village outside Bradford in Yorkshire, would have remained in much deserved obscurity had 16-year-old Elsie Wright not taken a remarkable photograph of her ten-year-old cousin, Frances Griffiths, playing with ‘fairies’ on the banks of a stream which ran behind the garden of Elsie’s house.
A few days earlier, in the summer of 1917, Frances had slipped and gone into the stream, later telling her mother she had fallen into the water while she was ‘playing with the fairies’.
Her mother, unamused, sent her up to the attic bedroom she shared with Elsie where, later that afternoon, the two girls hatched a childish prank that would make headlines around the world, severely damage the reputations of eminent public figures and generate a controversy that endured for generations.
A porter holds the original photograph of Frances and the Fairies photograph auctioned at Bonhams
Elsie suggested they should take a photograph of the ‘fairies’ to prove to Frances’ mother that she had been telling the truth.
The girls drew some fairies, cut them out and pasted them on to cardboard. With a few long hatpins on which to mount their ‘fairies’ and a roll of zinc oxide bandage tape.
Arthur Wright willingly agreed to lend his daughter his camera and girls set off, blissfully unaware that they were about to create one of the most reproduced photographs in history.
They arranged the four fairies – three with wings and one playing a piped instrument – in front of Frances, who put flowers in her hair, cupped her chin in her hand and, curiously, stared intently at the camera rather than the fairies when Elsie took the picture.
Wright developed the exposed plate a darkroom he asked Elsie what they were, and she told him they were the fairies that she and Frances played with by the stream – they took another photo a month later.
Elsie Wright (left) and Frances Griffiths (right) pictured. Arthur Wright developed the exposed plate a darkroom he asked Elsie what they were, and she told him they were the fairies that she and Frances played with by the stream
Polly Wright, Elsie’s mother, and her sister, Annie Griffiths, Frances’ mother took the photographs to a meeting of the Theosophical Society in Harrogate.
Knowledge of photography was not widespread at this time and few understood that the ‘spirit’ could be introduced by a simple double exposure on the same photographic plate.
As a result, many Spiritualists were encouraged to believe that the camera could ‘see’ what the naked eye could not, a belief which helped legitimise the Cottingley fairy photographs.
Soon the word spread and it was only many decades later did they admit that the photographs were faked and involved cut-out drawings of fairy figures that were fastened to foliage with hatpins.
Elsie and Frances stuck doggedly to their story for years. Not until March 1983, when she was 76 years old, did Frances finally confess.
Many Spiritualists were encouraged to believe that the camera could ‘see’ what the naked eye could not, a belief which helped legitimise the Cottingley fairy photographs
‘I’m fed up with all these stories,’ she complained. ‘I hated those photographs and cringe every time I see them. I thought it was a joke, but everyone else kept it going. It should have died a natural death 60 years ago.’
Elsie at first refused to comment, but later confirmed her cousin’s story: ‘I do not want to die and leave my grandchildren with a loony grandmother to remember.’
Frances continued to claim, contrarily, that she had seen fairies and that the fifth photograph – the fairy bower – was authentic. She died in 1986; Elsie died two years later.
‘The joke was only meant to last two hours,’ said Elsie towards the end of her life. ‘It lasted 70 years.’