2026-07-08 Fairies on Film—The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor

     

    I have been running into photography in fiction recently. I randomly chose a book called The Cottingley Secret—by Hazel Gaynor at my local library. It was a stunningly juggled time warp featuring two cousins brought together during the First World War and a female descendent in Modern Ireland. It masterfully combines actual facts with fictitious elements.
    The book has two children record Fairies on film. Then they kept the secret of whether the photos had been faked for 70-years!
    Frances Griffiths was nine and a half when she returned from South Africa to England so her father could join the Army to fight the Germans in WW 1. Frances and her mother stayed with relatives who had a 16 year-old daughter named Elsie Wright. The two girls got to share a single bed. They also shared time at a “beck”, a small waterfall behind their row house. This is were the Fairies were found. 
    Frances was so fond of looking for Fairies she often returned home with wet skirts from playing at the edge of the beck. At the point of being banned from being able to go back, she sweet talked a loaded camera from her uncle (who had his own darkroom) so she could take a photograph of them.
    The two girls use two real cameras—a Midg and later a pair of Cameo’s— to capture Fairies. Their images were so convincing they passed examination by experts from Kodak who testified the negatives, “Had not been manipulated in any way.” 
    This attracted the interest of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—the author of Sherlock Holmes mysteries—who published the original two fairy images in his first Strand Magazine. He stated the pictures were proof fairies actually existed. Years later he featured more photographs of fairies the girls took for him
    It was mentioned in the book that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written propaganda during the War. He felt guilty about his writing afterwards because it had convinced many young men to go off to their deaths, including his own son. He felt the proof that fairies could be real was a ray of hope for those overwhelmed by the grimness of post war life.
    All the fairies captured in the photographs were drawings of fairies attached to hat pins. The girls tore the drawings into small pieces and threw them away. The pins were pushed into the ground. Then they were sort of trapped in their lie as neither wanted to get the other into trouble, so they would say, “they just captured what was actually there.” Between the Great Wars there were spiritual groups who had experts that were sure fairies were real that jumped on the validity of the photographs.
    I think it is pretty remarkable the girls took some very clear images working on their own with pretty advanced and complicated cameras. 

The Cottingley Fairy Photos

Frances and the Fairy Ring (1917)
The first photograph, taken by Elsie. This was labeled “Alice and the Fairies” in Conan Doyle’s first Strand Magazine article.

Elsie and the Gnome (1917)
The second photograph, taken by Frances. This was labeled “Iris and the Dancing Gnome” in Conan Doyle’s first Strand Magazine article.

Frances and the Leaping Fairy (1920)
The third photograph, taken by Elsie. This was labeled “Alice and the Leaping Fairy” in Conan Doyle’s second Strand Magazine article.

Elsie Presented with Flowers (1920)
The fourth photograph, taken by Francis. This was labeled, “Iris with Fairy carrying a bunch of Harebells” in Conan Doyle’s second Strand Magazine article.

Bower of fairies (1920)
The fifth photograph, taken by Francis. This was labeled, “Bower of fairies,” where just fairies were taken as they danced in a hollow in the grass. This image wasn’t faked with drawings and hat pins, but how or what it showed isn’t explained in the book.

Notes on the cameras from McKeowan’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras
11^th edition, 2001-2002

Butcher (W. Butcher & Sons, London, England)

Midg c1902-1920
A series of imported drop-plate magazine cameras in 3¼ x 4¼” or postcard (3¼ x 5½ “) sizes. The No.0 is the simplest, with built-in shutter and lens. Shutter speed dial is low on the front.

The Models 1,2,3 and 4 have a hinged front which conceals the better lens and shutter.

Cameo
A series of folding plate cameras imported from Germany, introduced around the turn of the century and continuing for many years in all sorts of variations.