The Cottingley Fairies

The unfortunate Bigfoot incident which took place earlier this month (don't get me started!) brought to mind another, much more interesting hoax. For two years, I've been meaning to write about the Case of the Cottingley Fairies. Now, the time has finally come.

In 1917, ten-year-old Frances Griffiths and her sixteen-year-old cousin Elsie Wright shocked all of England with five photographs they claimed to have taken near their home in the town of Cottingley. The photos seemed to show the girls posing with a number of tiny woodland fairies.




Now before everyone starts talking about how fake the photos look today, you must remember that back in 1917, photography was relatively new. The public still thought seeing was believing--and they weren't used to questioning evidence provided by their own two eyes. As a result, many people were absolutely convinced that the Cottingley photos were proof of the existence of fairies. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the brilliant creator of Sherlock Holmes) was certain that the photos had not been faked.

(I'm of the opinion that most people were fooled by the photos because they believed two little girls could never have staged such an elaborate hoax.)




Alas, poor Mr. Conan Doyle was wrong. Elsie and Frances had indeed pulled the wool over England's eyes. And they refused to confess until 1981. As one said then, "I never even thought of it as being a fraud - it was just Elsie and I having a bit of fun and I can't understand to this day why they were taken in - they wanted to be taken in."

Find out how they did it here.