MovieChat Forums > FairyTale: A True Story (1997) Discussion > Here are the original pictures by the re...

Here are the original pictures by the real girls.....

posted 19 years ago by tracy3185
32 replies | jump to latest

http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/girlfairy.htm
http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairy.htm
http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/gnome.htm
http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairs.htm
http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/sunbath.htm

***This site has quite a bit of info on the whole situation.... http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairies.htm#photos

~~~Here is the story that I copied and pasted from that site so you can read it on here....Again...I take no credit in writing this out.....~~~~~~~

The Story

In 1916/17 Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, two young girls living in Cottingley, produced the most famous fairy pictures in Britain which are still talked about today.

The first photograph was taken in July 1917 and showed Frances with the fairies.

Frances and Elsie had been teased about their story of seeing fairies near Cottingley Beck. Elsie borrowed her father's quarter plate camera ,which he set to 1/50s at f/11 for her, and after some rudimentary instruction on how to operate it, she went off with Frances into the area where the beck ran among the trees behind the family home. An hour later they returned triumphant.

When Mr. Arthur Wright (one of the earliest qualified electrical engineers), and Elsie went into the dark room that evening to develop the plate, there were the fairies. Arthur asked what those bits of paper were doing on the picture?

The second photograph of the gnome resulted in the girls being banned from borrowing the camera again. The photographs were put away by Mr. Wright in a drawer as he considered them to be pranks. (Mrs. Wright was convinced of their authenticity.)

In 1918 Frances wrote to her friend Johanna Parvin in South Africa and enclosed a copy of the photograph. On the back of the photo she had written 'Elsie and I are friendly with the beck fairies. Funny, I never used to see them in Africa. It must be too hot for them there. The letter from Frances ran thus: '. . . all think the war will be over in a few days, we are going to get our flags to hang up in our bedroom. I am sending you two photos, both of me, one is me in a bathing costume in our back yard, uncle Arthur took that, while the other is me with some fairies up the beck, Elsie took that one. Rosebud is as fat as ever and I have made her some new clothes. How are Teddy and dolly?' In her letter to Johanna, Frances was more interested in talking about the war and her dolls and the photo with the fairies was given but scant and matter of fact reporting. As if seeing fairies was to her an every day occurrence of little importance.

Three years later Mrs Wright went to a folklore lecture in Bradford with a friend. This lecture included references to fairies and following the lecture in conversation with her friend mentioned the fairy pictures. They were overheard by a friend of Edward Gardner, a leading theosophist, and Edward asked to see them.

Fred Barlow, a leading authority on psychic photography, commented to Gardner in June 1920 - 'I am inclined to think, in the absence of more detailed particulars, that the photograph showing the four dancing fairies is not what it is claimed to be....' and in December 1920 - 'I am returning herewith the three fairy photographs you very kindly loaned to me, and have no hesitation in announcing them as the most wonderful and interesting results I have ever seen.'

Gardner sought a photographer who had the ability to examine the photographs fully and so it was that Harold Snelling came to his notice. He was informed that 'What Snelling doesn't know about faked photographs isn't worth knowing.' Snelling's considered judgement, in his letter to Edward Gardner of July 31 1920, was 'These two negatives are entirely genuine unfaked photographs of single exposure, open-air work, show movement in all the fairy figures, and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper models, dark backgrounds, painted figures, etc. In my opinion, they are both straight untouched pictures.'

Mr. Gardner asked Snelling to make contact positives and two lantern slides of the photographs. These lantern slides were shown by him at a lantern lecture at Mortimer Halls, London. Through this the photographs came to the notice of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

On hearing of Mr. Snelling's opinion, it was proposed, and agreed, that if the negatives survived a second expert's judgment, preferably Kodak's, then Edward Gardner and Conan Doyle should join forces and make the photographs a leading feature in the Strand article. Accordingly an appointment was made with Kodak's manager. They were received by Mr. West, the manager. His studio chief and two other expert photographers were also present. The negatives were examined by all at some length, and the results of the inspection were as follows, all agreeing.
(1) The negatives are single exposure.
(2) The plates show no sign of being faked work, but that cannot be taken as conclusive evidence of genuineness.
(3) Kodak's were not willing to give any certificate concerning them because photography lent itself to a multitude of processes, and some clever operator might have made them artificially.
(4) The studio chief added that he thought the photographs might have been made by using the glen features and the girl as a background; then enlarging prints from these and painting in the figures; then taking half-plate and finally quarter-plate snaps, suitably lighted. All this, he agreed, would be clever work and take time.
(5) A remark made by one was that 'after all, as fairies couldn't be true, the photographs must have been faked somehow.'

They came from Kodak's without a certificate. It was decided there and then that one of them would go to Yorkshire, interview the family in their home environment.

Edward Gardner then travelled to Cottingley and spoke to Mrs. Wright and Elsie, who answered his questions willingly and candidly. He spoke separately to Mr. Wright later the same day and found him to be of forthright speech and character and having a cheerful disposition. Mr Wright told Mr. Gardner that he had been so convinced at the time that the figures must be made of paper or something like paper, that while the children were out he searched their bedroom for some sign and he also searched the glen and waterfall. But in neither the house nor the glen did he find anything. Mr. Wright agreed to the Strand publication as long as proper names were not used. Sir Arthur had wished to make some monetary payment for this but Mr. Wright very firmly declined, saying that if the photographs were genuine they shouldn't be soiled by being paid for!

In 1920 The Strand magazine published an article entitled ";An Epoch Making Event - Fairies Photographed";, (the publication sold out within days), and so began a controversy which raged on the the following sixty-three years.

The articles in The Strand:
The Absolute Proof. November 1920, Vol. 60, pp. 439 - 445.
December 1920, Vol. 60, pp. 463 - 468. Doyle's acceptance and publication of pictures showing young girls photographed with fairies caused a sensation and great controversy.
March 1921, Vol. 61, pp. 199 - 206. More pictures attempting to prove the genuineness of fairies.- Fairies Photographed. The Cottingley Fairies.
February 1923, Vol. 65, p. 105- The Evidence for Fairies.

In 1921 Conan Doyle arranged for Geoffrey Hodson, a medium, to come to Cottingley, sit with the girls, in the hope that even stronger shapes would materialize. In August 1921 Mr Hodson reported seeing wood elves under some beech trees as well as dancing fairies in the field. These incidents are reported in his book 'Fairies at Work and Play'. He also states in his book 'I am personally convinced of the bona fides of the two girls who took these photographs. I spent some weeks with them and their family, and became assured of the genuineness of their clairvoyance, of the presence of fairies, exactly like those photographed, in the glen at Cottingly(sic), and of the complete honesty of all parties concerned.'

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, was entirely convinced by the photographs and to demonstrate his unshakeable belief in the spirit world, he published The Coming of the Fairies in 1922. It recounted the story of the photographs, their supposed provenance, and the implications of their existence.

Frances moved to Scarborough in the 1920's and Elsie worked at several jobs mainly with an artistic background.
Elsie eventually emigrated to the USA where she met her husband Frank Hill. They moved to India and lived there until 1949. They then settled back in England in the Midlands with their son and daughter.

Frances married a soldier in 1928 - Sydney Way - aand after many postings overseas finally settled in Ramsgate.

Over the years Elsie stated constantly that, although the fairies were wonderful, she needed to try to forget all about them. She said that down the years she got fed up of talking about them.

Elsie and Frances remained tight-lipped until 17th February 1983 when Elsie admitted in a letter of confession that the photographs were a hoax, claiming that they had drawn the fairies, cut them out and fastened them to the ground with hatpins. So that was that!

Or was it? The mystery still lives on with many people still believing that the Cottingley fairies existed. Frances maintained in her last television appearance in 1986 that 'there were fairies at Cottingley'.

Elsie died in April 1988 and Frances died in July 1986. They gave us a story that has stood the test of time and has done no harm to anyone. It may be that the real hoax was 'the confession', made in the hope that they could spare their families from the press, and that somewhere in the spirit world they are both having the 'last' laugh.

Even today these photographs continue to mystify and fascinate the world. All this with the first photograph that a young girl took.

In 1990 Joe Cooper's book ";The Case of the Cottingley Fairies"; was published. He investigated the whole story and Colin Wilson in the foreword to the book states that it is ";as near as we shall ever come to the complex truth behind the case of the Cottingley Fairies";.

A Warner Bros Film ";Fairy Tale - A True Story"; held its British premiere in Bradford in 1998 which tells the story of Frances and Elsie.

Frances was born 1907 and following the fairy affair returned to South Africa. She always maintained that at least one of the photos was not fake. She died in 1986.
Elsie was born 1901. Due to hounding by the English press following the fairy story, she went to America, married and eventually returned to Britain. She died in 1988 at the age of 88.

In the 1980's a former wrestler (Ronnie Bennett) and then forester in Cottingley Woods, admitted to having seen fairies in the woods. He claimed he saw the elf-like figures while working in the Cottingley Estate Woods. "When they showed themselves about nine years ago there was a slight drizzle around. I saw three fairies in the woods and I have never seen them since. They were just about ten inches tall and just stared at me. There is no way the Cottingley Fairies is a hoax."

Geoffrey Crawley tells his personal story of the longest running photography hoax carried out by two Yorkshire schoolgirls in the British Journal of Photography.5/1/2000. Unfortunately this article is no longer available on line. A transcript is available for perusal at the Cottingley Town Hall Heritage Day

-Tracy
This is me..... http://www.myspace.com/tracy3185

[–] tracy3185 19 years ago

Here is some more info from that site....

Where are the negatives and photographs now?

In 1972 Stewart Sanderson of Leeds University persuaded Leslie Gardner (son of E. L. Gardner) to donate Cottingley Fairy correspondence and the five glass plates of the fairies to the Brotherton Collection at Leeds University, where they are still housed.
In 1998 Geoffrey Crawley's collection of Cottingley Fairy Photographs, two of the cameras used by the girls, 3 sketches by Elsie of Cottingley Fairies, a letter from Elsie to Geoffrey Crawley (1988) and a book 'The Coming of the Fairies' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1st Edition 1922) were purchased by public subscription and are held at the National Museum of Photography Film and Television at Bradford. These are all available to be viewed and there are frequent gallery talks about them. The cameras etc and a reproduction of one of the photographs are on display in their Kodak Gallery on the history of popular photography. The photographs themselves are housed in Insight - their Collections and Research Centre and anyone who wishes to is welcome to make an appointment to go and see them. This can be done via their website: (www.nmpft.org.uk/insight/apenqfaq_menu.asp) or by getting in touch in person.

1998 Two lots of fairy artefacts (probably Frances' collection) were purchased from Sothebys by a London bookseller. Both were sold on to private buyers in America.

In 2001, An 84-year old photographic archive relating to the celebrated Cottingley Fairies hoax fetched £6,000 at auction. The collection of glass plates and other negatives, was bought by an unnamed buyer at the Bonhams & Brooks auction in London's Knightsbridge. The archive consisted of master copies of the original photographs along with a three-page commentary by Gardner, who commissioned photography experts to prove that the pictures were not faked. It included previously unpublished pictures of Elsie and Frances holding hands and posing with Arthur and Polly Wright. Gardner had passed this collection on to the British Theosophical Society, from where they were handed down to a series of owners until their present owner (reportedly Hodson) put them up for sale.
The only known surviving contact print from the original Arthur Wright negative (unfortunately very frail and not in very good condition) is owned by J. Mawson.
Other copies which were given to friends by Elsie and Frances remain in private ownership. It is not known how many of these still exist

Some Unanswered Questions

If the images were cut outs of either paper or card how were they disposed of without anyone noticing?
Wouldn't Elsie's father have searched high and low for any clues?
Cut outs would leave mutilated magazines or remnants from paper drawings - why were none found?
Surely it would be difficult for children to make sure all traces were disposed of without anyone noticing.
Pictures cut out of paper or card always show the white edge of the paper - anyone practising decoupage knows this
How were the wings made transparent?
Why didn't the hat pins show through paper or thin card?
Is it believable that all the photos were taken without any hitches? It would be difficult to get rid of any "mistakes" with the type of plates and film used at that time.

-Tracy
This is me..... http://www.myspace.com/tracy3185

[–] serotonin-shot 19 years ago

You know, the faeries really do look like drawings cut out and cliped to the grass....

[–] neonguitar 19 years ago

I really, really do want to believe they're real... but I agree with the person above... they look like cut-outs. Nice pics, though.

[–] happynoodleajay 16 years ago

yes they do, they are far lighter and less grainy looking than the girls or the grass, etc. Of course, I believe in the existence of other similar things, so who knows?

[–] Belletrist0 19 years ago

I'll give a go at answering some of the questions:

If the images were cut outs of either paper or card how were they disposed of without anyone noticing?

After the girls were done photographing their fairies, they dropped the cutouts into the beck. They may have done the same with any scrap paper, or they may have burned any scraps, which was frequently done back in those times.

Wouldn't Elsie's father have searched high and low for any clues?

Both Elsie's father and mother searched their rooms, but never found anything. Although Mrs. Wright was a firm believer of the fairies and the supernatural in general, Mr. Wright always knew that it was a trick, and instructed Elsie never to accept monetary gifts, lest the day come that the girls would be exposed and accused of trying to scam in money.

Cut outs would leave mutilated magazines or remnants from paper drawings - why were none found?

See question one above. The fairies were all drawn by hand, and disposed of in the water after the girls were done with them. Any other evidence was probably burned, or hidden outside of the house until such time when it could be safely disposed of.

Surely it would be difficult for children to make sure all traces were disposed of without anyone noticing.

It depends. The girls had a little alcove all to themselves, and they spent all their time there, talking, drawing, and sleeping. None of the adults bothered them. Furthermore, when the original photos were taken, no one was expecting any fairies, and so searching for any evidence after the fact, was a bit of a moot idea.

Why didn't the hat pins show through paper or thin card?

The hat pins did show, especially on the gnome photographed. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle claimed it was the gnome's bellybutton, go figure. Decades later, an adult Frances would say that she would always look at those photographs and cringe when she would see the hat pins sticking through.

Is it believable that all the photos were taken without any hitches? It would be difficult to get rid of any "mistakes" with the type of plates and film used at that time.

Some of the photos did have hitches. The gnome photo has a slight slant, giving Elsie the appearance of abnormally long hands. The last photo of the fairies bathing was a double exposure, and the first photograph of Frances and the dancing fairies was so bright, that the fairies did not even show up, until the photograph was retouched.

--------------
Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live.

[–] Hecate-3 18 years ago

An English country estate would certainly have a working fireplace, but I seem to recall that Elsie said something about disposing of the drawings in the beck. But she probably burned the scraps from the cutouts.

BTW, Elsie was 15 or 16 years old when the pictures were taken. She was not a small child. At the time, she was considered a young woman. Indeed, she had a job outside the home and drew a salary. IIRC, she had been working as an assistant in a photographer's studio.

[–] stevie-quinn 18 years ago

I read a great article on this - I cannot recall where - it was many years ago, but there are some more photos that were found in an old box many years later. These show the hoax really as they were photos that were under or over-exposed by Elsie who had full access to the darkroom.

They were left lying with all the original literature etc. These are publish photographs - or have been at least once and as I say I've seen them.

Still a warm story though.

[–] i_like_flapjacks 19 years ago

Has anyone read the curious incident of the dog at nighttime by mark haddon? It said that Sir Arthut Conan Doyle (Author of Sherlock Holmes), wrote in an article how he believed it was true.

"Children - there's a time and place for ever thing, it's called college" - chef

[–] v_v_60 19 years ago

This was sooo interesting thankyou for for posting it.... I can remember seeing one of the girls (very old lady}interviewed on Nationwide many many years ago when i was about thirteen always fascinated me, they asked her at the end of the interview if any of it was true and my mum turned it off quickly and said to my sister and me lets not find out some things are best left as a mystery!! I was miffed at the time but totally agree with her now....

[–] wakazashi 18 years ago

Oh my god, Elsie looks like my mom

[–] corimcd 18 years ago

....Frances was born 1907 and following the fairy affair returned to South Africa. She always maintained that at least one of the photos was not fake. She died in 1986.....................

Do you know , or does anyone know, which photo that would be??

I also wonder how they did the leaping fairy photo ?

[–] nieko-ner 18 years ago

have read somewhere that she said the last photo was real, the one with fairies in a sunbath.

[–] corimcd 18 years ago

Sorry it took me so long to get back here.

thank you for answering my question nieko-ner.

That photo does look somewhat different compared to others.
I wonder why she said that one was real ?

This story really interests me. I hope to find some books
on the subject.

thanks again...

[–] SnowMoonFalling 18 years ago

Although I'm fond of faeries--and like to believe in them--I never thought the photos were real. The posted pictures, above, are very clear and I have to wonder how grown people would judge them as Real, even if a little unbalanced by grief. They are so obviously faked. You can't blame the girls--it would seem to me to have been a private thing that the adults ran away with. I always thought it made Conan-Doyle rather an a**.

Nevertheless I think this is a cute movie and one of the better ones for children.

"Blame is for God and small children."--Louis Degas Papillon

[–] actorlady 18 years ago

Even if the photos are fake fairies could still exist. I believe in fairies.

[–] Horseman123 18 years ago

The photos are so obviously fake. I mean look at them. Why is it that all the faries are flat? They aren't three dimensional like the girls are. Even when you look at the faries closer you see a black dot from where the pin sticking out is. Why is it that none of these photos have faries behind her? Around her? Why are they always infront? You can tell this is a posing photograph. Just like when you pose for a picture everyone is in front. This was clearly set up. Why is it there is never more than one photo for each section? For example the one where there are fairies dancing infront of her. Why is there only one picture for that? It seems they only took one picture in a different area, planning it out. If these fairies were indeed moving and dancing around her there would be no problem taking numerous pictures. They clearly took time setting up things so they couldn't take as many pictures.

I mean for petes sake people look at the freaking paper cutouts. They are just horrible. The legs don't equal eachother. The arms are disproportionate to the body. In some of these pictures one foot is bigger than the other and when you look at the legs and wings they are rigid and not smooth.

And gosh their faces. I mean c'mon people, their faces are litterally dots. Some people may so oh it's because they are smaller so you can't really see. But if these were indeed people we would see alot more detail. I mean look at their faces! It's just black dots for shadow! And in one of the pictures the lady doesn't even have a mouth!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ForeverMagicle 18 years ago

I think it's very possible that they really did see fairies.

Maybe some of the photos were fakes because they just needed some sort of proof so that people would believe them. (It's also possible there not fakes)

And when one of the girls confessed that it was a hoax she could have just been pretending it was a hoax so that people would leave her alone.

And one of those photos looks very real to me.

I don't know about all of you, but that's what I think.

[–] baileypinkrose 18 years ago

I think what we had here were incredible young artists with great imaginations. I saw a painting that one of the girls did and it was full of detail, it was colorful and just amazing.

Not to say that fairies aren't real, though. I do have to say the one with the sunbath, the fairies do look 3 dementional. And that is the one the girl maintained was the only real picture. I guess you would only really know if you saw one yourself.

"If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide."-Gandhi

[–] heather_blus 18 years ago

"I think it's very possible that they really did see fairies.

Maybe some of the photos were fakes because they just needed some sort of proof so that people would believe them. (It's also possible there not fakes)

And when one of the girls confessed that it was a hoax she could have just been pretending it was a hoax so that people would leave her alone.

And one of those photos looks very real to me.

I don't know about all of you, but that's what I think. "

I think you need psychiatric help if you believe in fairies.

[–] ForeverMagicle 18 years ago

I wasn't asking your opinion.

I'm not judging you by what you think, so don't judge me.

[–] heather_blus 18 years ago

"I wasn't asking your opinion.

I'm not judging you by what you think, so don't judge me."

I have a right to my opinion, and I think anyone who believes in fairies is not playing with a full deck. By the way, Elsie never claimed to see fairies. Do you still believe now that she did even though she admits she didn't? If so, then that's saaaaaaaaaad.

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

Yeah, heather_blus, you've got a right to your opinion, but remember it's just that: your opinion. It's not automatically superior judgement, and it's not automatically the truth.

You seem pretty aggressive and condescending here. Perhaps it's you who needs psychiatric help ?

Regarding fairies: I can conceive of such a thing existing, but that doesn't mean I actively believe.

My own take on the photos is that they're constructed. Fake, in other words. They look like two girls got creative with their hobbies of drawing and photography, and produced something they expected their parents to find pleasing or endearing, but that it all got out of hand and blown out of proportion. It must have just got harder and harder to 'fess up, and I can imagine it became something of a quiet embarrassment to the women as the years passed.

I was amused by the reference on the website to the sun-bath photo, that pointed out the "magnetic bath" (what?!??) feature as being something fairies supposedly actually do but that the girls wouldn't have known about when they made the shot, as if that unproven assertion somehow authenticates the picture. So I want to know: who's the alleged "authority" that says this is real-world fairy behaviour, and what's the source of their own "knowledge" ... other than this very picture, I mean.

[–] heather_blus 16 years ago

"You seem pretty aggressive and condescending here. Perhaps it's you who needs psychiatric help ?"

Nope, I just calls ems as I sees em.

Funny how you say this, yet you yourself take the time to reply. Hmmm....

[–] dreamer-santiago80 10 years ago

Opinions guys, stop trying to one up each other like children.

[–] goopah 17 years ago

I find all this debate quite amusing.

In the end, does it really matter if they're real or not?
Some of life's greatest pleasures can be found in the mysteries, not the solutions.

There are a lot of things we don't know about.
Maybe it's best that way.

[–] fantasmic_magik 17 years ago

In my opinion, what I see is 4 very clever fakes by some girls that wanted their loved ones to believe in what they both saw. The media blew it out of porpotian and so they got tired of it..but the last picture. looks different form all the rest. I'm a photography student with Darkroom expirence and even to me it has quality's that make it look real. So maybe they did see faires and faked some photos to make themselves and others feel better...but in the end, it dosent matter because as long as someone believes, fairys exist. :p

I sail the seven seas with Jack and brew potions in the dungon. I'm a *beep* Bleeder as well.

[–] liz_friz 16 years ago

Doesn't anybody have a creative eye? Surely, you can see that the lighting is all wrong and they are flat.
Look, I have no problem with you all believing in fairies if the image makes them appear real...these just look far too fake.

*Tugging my braid since 1991*

[–] Lazaka 16 years ago

They're so fake it's pathetic. I think they were trying to make their families believe so it would make them feel better and give them hope in a troubled time. Else was 16 when she did these and an adult when all the press hit, I suppose that is why she confessed in the end. Besides, you can see the pins, lol.

For someone not to believe the confession is pretty disturbing to me. Believe in Faries if you want (wouldn't we all love it if they were real, but alas I do not believe) but don't discredit someone's confession when they're trying to clear their conscience, it's not very nice.

Mr. President Barack H. Obama =)

[–] lulupalooza 13 years ago

fantasmic_magik: "...but the last picture. looks different form all the rest. I'm a photography student with Darkroom expirence and even to me it has quality's that make it look real."

I guess you haven't heard or read about that photo. They used double exposure to pull off that 5th photo. By that time, people had been using that technique to hoax ghosts and spirits of loved ones.

As a photography student you will probably learn about historic technique and, hopefully by now, realize how easily it was done. In our current world of digital, the general public rarely does double exposure...now its After Effects, Photoshop, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4

[–] lulupalooza 13 years ago