🧚A 1917 tale now told, of how two young girls outsmarted a nation.

I found this adorable story during reading here and there, where roads dropped, and the shape of things became blurred by the many shenanigans of summer.

Please permit me to share it with you.

The Cottingley Fairies story is a delicious blend of childhood mischief, spiritual longing, and the power of belief...where cardboard cutouts enchanted the imaginations of millions. One where whimsy outwitted reason and two young girls captivated the world with scissors and a camera.

It’s a story that intertwines between innocence and illusion, belief and skepticism.

🌿 The Beginning: A Beck and a Camera

In the summer of 1917, two cousins - Elsie Wright (16) and Frances Griffiths (9) - were living in the village of Cottingley, West Yorkshire. They often played near a stream called Cottingley Beck, returning home soaked and muddy. When scolded, they claimed they were visiting fairies.

To prove it, Elsie borrowed her father’s Midg quarter-plate camera. Within an hour, they returned with a photo showing Frances surrounded by dancing winged figures. A second photo followed months later, showing Elsie with a gnome-like creature. The girls had crafted paper cutouts, propped them with hat pins, and staged the scenes with remarkable skill.

📸 The Photos That Fooled the World

Elsie’s father, an amateur photographer, dismissed them as fakes. But her mother believed. In 1919, she showed the photos at a Theosophical Society meeting. There, they caught the eye of Edward Gardner, a spiritualist who saw them as proof of the supernatural.

Gardner shared the images with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and a devout spiritualist. Doyle was enchanted. He published the photos in The Strand Magazine in 1920, claiming they were genuine evidence of fairy life.

🔍 The Investigation and More Photos

Gardner gave the girls new cameras and asked for more photos. They produced three additional images, including one that Frances later insisted was real. Experts examined the negatives and found no signs of tampering. Public opinion split - some believed, others scoffed.

🧙‍♂️ Belief vs. Skepticism

Doyle’s endorsement gave the story global reach. Lectures were held, prints were sold, and the fairies became a cultural phenomenon. Yet skepticism lingered. The girls remained silent for decades, letting the mystery grow.

🕰️ The Confession

Then, in 1983, both women - now elderly - admitted the first four photos were faked using cutouts from a children’s book. But Frances maintained that the fifth photo was genuine, claiming she truly saw fairies that day.

Here, Elsie at 17 and her wide-eyed cousin, caught in the hush of a fairy encounter🧚‍♀️.

The scene feels like a secret kept by the woods: harp-strumming fairies, mossy ground, and two girls suspended between belief and wonder. It’s a tribute to the Cottingley spirit, but with a touch more intimacy - like the fairies came not to perform, but to commune.

📸 Their Photos completely Fooled the World - Just imagine if they had the internet. How much more of a Sensation would they have been.

For the images were surprisingly convincing for the time in which they lived. Elsie had worked in a photographer’s studio and knew how to manipulate images.

🖼️ The Legacy

The Cottingley Fairies became one of the most famous photographic hoaxes in history. Today, the original prints and cameras are housed in museums, and the story continues to inspire books, films, and exhibitions. A full set of the photos was recently rediscovered and auctioned for thousands of pounds.

Here is - Elsie with the gnome-like creature, a likeness captured in the second Cottingley photograph 🧙‍♂️

This whimsical figure, with his pointed hat and impish stance, feels like he’s stepped out of a folktale and into the frame. Elsie’s calm gaze and the gnome’s jubilant pose create a moment suspended between mischief and mystery - where belief tiptoes just beyond reason.

Where would we be without our fairy tales and the people who inspired them. Opening our eyes to so much more which exists beyond ourselves.

....................................

The Cottingley Fairies have inspired two notable films, both of which are based on the true story of the hoax. These films are:

FairyTale: A True Story (1997): This film, which is based on the true story, is set in the actual location where Frances and Elsie supposedly encountered the fairies in 1917.

Photographing Fairies (2000): This documentary also explores the Cottingley Fairies and their hoax, providing a deeper look into the events that led to the creation of the photographs.

Both films have contributed to the enduring fascination with the Cottingley Fairies and their mysterious photographs. They have been a subject of interest for years, with the hoax still holding a place in the realm of paranormal and folklore studies.