Cottingley Fairies

http://www.cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairies.htm

This website talks about the story of the Cottingley Fairy hoax.

In 1916/17 two girls names Frances and Elsie had been teased because they had told a story about them seeing fairies. Elsie borrowed her father's camera, took some pictures, and when they were developed there were pictures of the girls with fairies.
Mr. Wright, the developer banned her from using his camera again and put the pictures into a drawer. He thought that the fairies must have been made out of paper, but his wife however thought that it was real.

A year later Frances wrote letters to friends in South Africa talking about her everyday life and just mentioning the fairies in casual conversaiton, like it was an everyday thing. She put a picture in the envelope too.

Then, a couple years later Mrs. Wright went to a lecture on fairies and told the story of the pictures of the girls with fairies. People overheard her conversation and a man named Edward Gardner asked to see them. Gardner brought the pictures to a photographer who had the ability to examine them fully to see if they were authentic. The photographer said that they were completely genuine and unfaked. Gardner then wanted one other expert (Kodak's) to look at the photo and if they were not faked, he would write an article about them in the Strand article.

Kodak said that the pictures had not been tampered with, but fairies aren't real, so something is not right about the photo.

Gardner then went to Cottingley to interview and speak with Mrs. Wright and Elsie. So when the kids were out, Gardner went through the girl's rooms and looked around outside for any sign of something that would tell him the pictures were either real or fake. He didnt find anything. So in 1920 we published an article called "An Epoch Making Event- Fairies Photographed".

after that there was a lot of controversy and even more people coming out and saying that they saw fairies and wrote books about seeing fairies.

In 1983 Elsie wrote a letter saying that the fairies had been drawn by them, cut out, and pinned with hatpins. So that solved the mystery!

BUT in 1986 Frances maintained in her last television appearance that "there WERE fairies at Cottingley"

so the mystery lives on....


duh duh duh.