The Cottingley Fairies
The Photographs That Fooled the World for 66 Years
In the summer of 1917, two cousins borrowed a camera, went down to the bottom of their garden, and came back with a photograph of fairies. Real ones. Dancing by a stream.
Within three years, the most famous writer in England declared the photographs genuine. Millions believed. Scientists were baffled.
They were all wrong. And the truth stayed hidden for sixty-six years.
1917
Two cousins — Elsie Wright, 16, and Frances Griffiths, 9 — photograph "fairies" in their garden in Cottingley, Yorkshire. Their tool kit: paper cutouts, watercolour paints, and hatpins from a sewing box.
5
Five fairy photographs taken between 1917 and 1920.
Millions
Including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.
66 Years
Elsie and Frances did not confess until 1983.
The Evidence
The Five Photographs
Five glass-plate photographs taken with a borrowed camera. Expert photographers examined them and found no darkroom tampering. But nobody checked whether paper cutouts were placed in the scene before the camera clicked.
Princess Mary's Gift Book
The "fairies" were traced from illustrations in a popular children's book from 1914. Elsie copied the drawings, cut them out, painted them with watercolours, and pinned them upright in the grass with hatpins.
The Flat Fairies
Look closely: the fairies are flat. They do not cast shadows. Their wings do not fold. They face the camera directly — like pictures in a book. Because that is exactly what they were.
How the Hoax Unfolded
The First Photograph
Elsie and Frances borrow Arthur Wright's camera and take the first fairy photograph at Cottingley Beck. Arthur develops the glass plate that evening and thinks it is a prank.
The Second Photograph
The girls take a second photograph showing Elsie with a winged gnome. Arthur refuses to lend the camera again. But Polly Wright begins to wonder.
The Meeting
Polly Wright mentions the photographs at a meeting about fairies. Word reaches Edward Gardner of the Theosophical Society — and then Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Strand Magazine
Conan Doyle publishes the photographs in one of the most widely read magazines in the world. The story goes global. Three more photographs are taken.
The Book
Conan Doyle publishes The Coming of the Fairies. It sells thousands of copies. The girls say nothing.
The Confession
Now elderly women, both Elsie and Frances finally admit the truth: the fairies were paper cutouts. But Frances insists the fifth photograph was real — and never changes her mind.
The People in This Story
Elsie Wright
Aged 16 in 1917. Worked at a photography studio in Bradford. Drew the fairy cutouts, planned the photographs, and kept the secret for sixty-six years.
Frances Griffiths
Aged 9 in 1917. Said she saw real fairies by the stream. Admitted the first four photographs were faked — but insisted the fifth was genuine until her death in 1986.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Creator of Sherlock Holmes — history's greatest fictional detective. He believed completely in the fairy photographs. The man who invented a character famous for seeing through lies was fooled by two children.
The Question That Remains
Elsie admitted everything. Frances admitted almost everything. But she insisted, until the day she died, that the fifth photograph showed real fairies.
Was she telling the truth? Had she believed her own story for so long that she could not tell the difference? Or could she simply not bear to say it was all a lie?
Read the full book to investigate every piece of evidence — then decide for yourself.
FREE Get the Free Book
The complete Cottingley Fairies mystery. 9 chapters of evidence, theories, and a question only you can answer.
Get Free EPUBPart of the Hoaxes Volume
From fake fossils to trick photographs, we investigate the greatest hoaxes in history — and ask how clever people were fooled for so long.
See all books in this volume →