In 1917, around the end of the first World War, two young girls in West Yorkshire, England, took 2 very controversial photographs. Photographs of themselves, posing with fairies.

The two girls were Elsie Wright, then 16 years old, and her young cousin Frances Griffiths, then 10 years old. Frances had just come to England from South Africa with her mother and they were staying with Elsie's family.
Elsie and Frances liked to go and play down at the creek behind the house, even though their parents had forbid it. When questioned by their parents as to why they kept playing at the creek they replied that they went there to see the fairies. Understandably the parents were surprised with their answer and were disbelieving initially, so the girls borrowed Elsie's father's camera and took it down to the creek. This produced the first of the photographs, clearly depicting Frances with 5 small fairies dancing in front of her.

1.  F r a n c e s   a n d   t h e   F a i r i e s

The girls were very excited when they got back to the house with the camera and asked Elsie's father to develop the film straight away. The resulting photograph (pictured above) surprised everyone! Elsie's father however was not entirely convinced.
So a month later the girls took another photo, this time of Elsie with a small gnome.

2.  E l s i e   a n d   t h e   G n o m e

The photos didn't cause much of a stir until 2 years later when Elsie's mother decided to show them to a Theosophist ( a teacher of Theosophy; philosophy that informs of the possibility of nature spirits.) From that time on the photos were the centre of debate among the whole country. With the recent horrors of the war still fresh on everyones minds, these photos gave the weary population something sweet and innocent to believe in again, and the photos became big news.
The photos were sent away to a professional who would be able to tell if they had been faked, but he stated that they indeed real and that the negatives had not been tampered with as far as he could tell. It was after this that the photos were to come to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes books. He was intrigued by the photos and asked a friend, William Gardner, to go and meet with the girls. Upon meeting the girls he declared that he believed they were telling the truth. Conan Doyle, being very open minded about supernatural or fantastic things like fairies, included the photographs in a magazine article he was writing, which was to recieve much criticism.
In 1920 the girls were asked to take some more photos and after a few weeks came up with 3 more photos, makinga total of 5.

3.  F r a n c e s   a n d   t h e   l e a p i n g  F a i r y		4.  F a i r y   O f f e r i n g P o s y   o f   H a r e - B e l l s    t o   E l s i e		5.  F a i r i e s   a n d   t h e i r S u n - B a t h

Even though this is a lovely story, I'm sorry to say that the girls, as elderly women, did finally admit that the photos were faked. The fairies were in fact cut outs from a picture book from 1910, and the cut outs were held in place with hairpins.

I knew they were fakes, as I'm sure you did too. But there was still something nice about the fact that for so long it was a mystery to people and no doubt it still brought hope to some people, and sure did make for a nice story. I wish that it had stayed a mystery!

Made into a Movie!

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