The Cottingley fairies: A study in deception

The greatest hoax of the 20th century? A new online exhibition and curator’s talk tell the story.

Frances and the Fairies, July 1917. Image credit: Special Collections, University of Leeds

Do you believe in fairies? Arthur Conan Doyle, the literary genius behind detective mastermind Sherlock Holmes, did!

Just over 100 years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published the world-famous Cottingley fairies photographs in The Strand magazine. Unbeknown to him, these fairies were just a figment of two girls’ imaginations.

‘The Strand Magazine’, December 1920. Image credit: Special Collections, University of Leeds

The greatest hoax of the 20th century began in July 1917 when Elsie Wright took a photograph of her cousin Frances Griffiths with a group of dancing fairies next to Cottingley Beck in West Yorkshire. After getting into trouble with her mother for having wet shoes Frances had been asked why she was playing by the beck. Frances replied, “I go to see the fairies.” Elsie came to her cousin’s aid and borrowed a camera from her father to get proof.

For three years these fantastical photos remained a puzzling family anecdote, until 1920 when they found their way to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, via Edward L. Gardner of the English Theosophical Society. By this point Conan Doyle’s long-standing interest in spiritualism had hardened into a blinkered obsession. This led him to risk his reputation by endorsing the fairy photographs as genuine in his December 1920 Strand article.

Elsie and the Gnome, September 1917. Image credit: Special Collections, University of Leeds

For the next sixty years, Frances and Elsie continued to deny that they had faked the photographs and the Cottingley fairies retained the interest of the public and the media. Elsie finally wrote a letter of confession in 1983. In an interview in 1985 Elsie admitted that she and Frances were too embarrassed to tell the truth after fooling Doyle: “Two village kids and a brilliant man like Conan Doyle — well, we could only keep quiet.”

The University of Leeds Special Collections holds nearly all the most important documents and artefacts relating to the Cottingley fairies. Discover more about this fascinating collection and the story behind it in a new online exhibition and curator’s talk: The Cottingley Fairies: a study in deception.