Alex Owen, " Borderland Forms': Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion's Daughters, and The Politics of The Cottingley Fairies" (1994)

'Borderland Forms': Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion's Daughters, and the Politics of the
Cottingley Fairies
Author(s): Alex Owen
Source: History Workshop, No. 38 (1994), pp. 48-85
Published by: Oxford University Press
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'BorderlandForms':ArthurConan
Doyle, Albion'sDaughters,andthe
Politicsof the CottingleyFairies
by Alex Owen
In the popularimagination,the name Cottingleyinvokesa seriesof famous

or infamousphotographs.These are photographsof supposedlyreal fairies
that were taken in 1917 and 1920 by two young girls in the village of
Cottingley,in the North of England,and whichhave since found theirway
into countlessbooks on the paranormalandsupernatural.The mostfamous
of the photographsrecentlyand rathertypicallymade its appearancein the
'UnexplainedMysteriesof the World'picture card series promotedby a
well-knownBritishtea company,andhas therebypresumablyfounda place
in the heartsand minds(as well as the picturecardalbums)of the collecting
youth of the nation. The Cottingleyfairy photographsor, perhapsmore
accurately,the Cottingleyfairieshave attainedthe statusof popularicons,
and representin partan ongoingculturalfascinationwith a proposedveiled
or secretworld.
What is less known or rememberedis that the photographsowe their
existence in the public memory to Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer and
author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. It was Conan Doyle who cham-
pionedthe photographsas genuinein the early1920swhenhe wasover sixty
years old, and it was underhis auspicesthat the Cottingleyfairiesbecame
something of a sensation, first in Britain and then rapidlyin the United
States and the Britishcolonies. All this occurred,however,at considerable
cost to ConanDoyle's reputation.His espousalof the fairiesdismayedmany
of even his most ardentadmirers.Nevertheless,there were those who felt
that lingeringquestionsover the possible authenticityof the photographs
remained,andpublicinterestanddebatehave continueddownthe years. It
resurfacedbrieflybut dramaticallywith the 1980s confessionsof the two
photographers,by then old ladies of seventy-sixand eighty-two,that the
photographs,with the possibleexceptionof one, hadbeen faked.'
Concern with authenticityhas remained at the core of much of the
Cottingleydebate, and seriousconsiderationhas tendedto centreupon the
vexed question of whetheror not the photographswere forgeriesof some
kind. We have therefore heard a good deal about the camerasused, the
types of glass plates involved, shutter speeds and exposure times, sites
chosenfor the shots, possiblestudioworkinvolved,and, morerecently,the
resultsof 'computerenhancement'techniquesof the type used to analyse
UFO photographs.2As usualin cases concerningsupposedsupernaturalor
History Workshop Journal Issue 38 (C History WorkshopJournal 1994

CottingleyFairies 49
'Alice and the Fairies', taken in July 1917 and first published in the StrandMagazine.
In The Coming of the Fairies, Conan Doyle gives 'Alice' her real name: the caption
reads 'Frances and the Fairies'
PhotographicCollection,Universityof Wisconsin,Madison,Libraries.
'Iris and the Dancing Gnome', September 1917. In The Coming of the Fairies the
caption reads 'Elsie and the Gnome'.
PhotographicCollection,Universityof Wisconsin,Madison,Libraries.

50 History Workshop Journal
paranormalphenomena,bothsideshavelaidclaimto the truthandtherehas

been no agreement.Even the Cottingleyconfessions,with theirsuggestion
that one photographmight show real fairies, have failed to bring final
resolution. Cottingleycontinuesto enjoy its status, even if only in popular
mythology,as one of the 'unexplainedmysteriesof the world'.
In this article, however, I hope to show that Cottingleyhas far greater
relevancethanits standingas a disputedcase of fairysightingsmightsuggest.
My concern here is not with the authenticityor otherwise of the photo-
graphs, but with the social and cultural implicationsof the Cottingley
episodeitself. Cottingleywasundoubtedlyone of the lastmanifestationsof a
glorious Victorian and Edwardianfairy tradition, and equally a highly-
publicizedincidentin a farbroaderinterwarengagementwithmysticismand
the occult. I explore these themes in the ensuing discussion, paying
particularattentionto the historicalcontextthat gave the Cottingleyfairies
their validity, and the blurringof the boundariesbetween rationalism,
fantasy, and spirituality that facilitated belief in a twentieth-century
fairyland.At the same time, I examine the competingrepresentationsof
realityinherentin the drama,and the contestover meaningsthat lies at the
heartof this fairystory.
These issues are intimatelybound up with social questions, and Cot-
tingley is evidence of the necessary interrelationshipof the social and
cultural.Cottingleyaffordsa fleetingglimpseof the interiorworldsof two
early-twentieth-century working-classgirlhoods,and the way in whichthe
fancifulrealizationsof childhoodwere appropriatedand recast by a small
groupof middle-classmen. Powerrelationsare a crucialpartof the untold
story, and social andgenderanxietiesconstituteone of its majorunderlying
tensions. The Cottingley fairies were the embodiment of an enduring
Victorianromancewith fairylandbut, as we shallsee, the accomplishments
of youthful fairy seers were one thing, and the interventionof interested
gentlemenquite another.It mighthave takenyouthandfemininityto create
the Cottingleyfairies,but it was powerandprivilegethatmade those fairies
fly, as it were, in the face of the modernworld.
The Romance with Fairyland

In 1920when the fairyphotographsfirstcame to lightfairiesstillfeaturedin
children'sliterature,andcontinuedto resemblethe prettywingedcreatures
so beloved of Victorianillustrators.ConanDoyle's uncle, Richard'Dicky'
Doyle, whommanyconsideredto be one of the finestfairyillustratorsof his
day, paintedin thisVictoriantradition,as didConanDoyle's fatherwho was
also fascinated by fairies and the supernatural.3Although a family
involvement with fairylandis worth noting, it was far from unique. An
explosionof interestin fairieshadtakenplace duringthe firstdecadesof the
nineteenthcentury,and this was maintainedin its variousformsuntil well
after the firstWorldWar. Fairieswere part of a centuries-oldBritishfolk
tradition, but the Romantic movement and European collections of

Fairies
Cottingley 51
traditional tales and legends influenced a nineteenth-centuryliterary

engagementwith fairylandwhichrangedfromthe workof antiquariansand
folklorists,involvedin preservinga specificallyBritishinheritanceof ballads
and folk tales, to a related fantasyliterature.At the same time an entire
genre of fairy painting evolved which was parallelledin the theatre by
spectacularfairy extravaganzasand immenselypopularand visuallycom-
plex productionsof Victorianpantomime.
The nineteenth-centurylove affair with fairylandwas not confined to
Britain. Scholarsand enthusiastsin Germany,France, Norway, Finland,
Hungary,Serbia, and elsewherewere interestedin the nationalcharacter-
isticsof theirown language,fairytales, andfolklore,andbecameinvolvedin
popularizingfolklorictraditions.The Germaninfluencewas felt in England
as earlyas 1824when the tales of the Grimmbrotherswere publishedunder
the title 'GermanPopularStories',laterto become Grimm'sFairyTalesand
a perennialnurseryfavourite.A littleovertwentyyearslaterTheFairyTales
and Storiesof Hans ChristianAndersenbeganto appearin England,while
the French tales of Perraultand MadameD'Aulnoy were influentialand
popular. This strong European influencewas in part responsiblefor the
searchfor a Britishfolk tradition,but the intense activityof the firsthalf of
the centurywasalso a responseto the growingconcernthatfairybeliefswere
dying and in dangerof being lost. Attempts to documentBritishfolklore
became part of a broaderantiquarianinterestin the 'manners','customs',
and'superstitions'of ruralcommunities,whichin turnwasinfluencedby the
richheritageof a poetic romanticismthat gloriedin mythologizedpastoral
themes.
Investigationsof fairy lore in England, Scotland, and Irelandgathered
pace throughoutthe century,but the tone was set duringthe 1820sby the
publication of Thomas Keightley's The Fairy Mythology (1828) and
Thomas Croften Croker'sinfluentialFairy Legendsand Traditionsof the
South of Ireland(1825-8). The thirdvolume of Croker'sstudy deals with
Englishfairytraditions,whichhe felt had almostdisappeared.In acknow-
ledgementof this, and encouragedby Robert Southey, the novelist Anna
Eliza Bray worked with a young village woman to collect the lore of her
locality, and in 1836 published a three volume study of the traditions and
beliefs of Devonshire.4Mrs Bray'saccountsof the Devonshirepixies, the
term used in Devon and Cornwallfor fairies, had a lasting impact, and
many of her tales appearedin later collections. Meanwhile,early import-
ant work on Scottish'superstition',a term loosely employedto mean rural
tradition,was underscoredby Walter Scott's Letterson Demonologyand
Witchcraft(1830), which was in part concerned with the evolution and
characterof fairies and the relationshipbetween witchcraftand the fairy
world. The early Scottish interest in the convergenceof fairy and occult
beliefs anticipatedthe work of Edwin Sidney Hartlandand Andrew Lang
laterin the century.
The Celtic revival and the establishmentof the Folk-Lore Society in

52 HistoryWorkshopJournal
London in 1878 each contributedin differentways to the growingfield of

fairy studies. W.B. Yeats's compilationsof fairy and folk tales, and the
contributionsof PatrickKennedy,LadyWilde, andLadyGregorygave new
impetusto Irishresearches,whilstan increasingnumberof ethnographical
studies addedto the store of knowledgeabout fairiesand fairylore. By the
late nineteenthcenturya vast varietyof fairylife had been identified,and
national and regional differencesduly noted. It was now known that the
Scottishelf was not to be confusedwith the hairydwarfishbrownieof the
lowlandsandnorthof England;the green-cladwest countrypixie bore little
resemblanceto the Lancashireboggartor Britishgoblin;andnot all English
fairies resembledthe beautifuland benevolent fays of some shires. It was
also clearthat the appearanceof Britishfairieshadchangedover the course
of time. The fairyof the Irishsaga, Britishballad, or witch trial had often
been of mortal height or even taller, and had indicatedno propensityfor
flight.Latercommentatorsconcludedthat the creationof differenttypes of
fairyfolk in successivehistoricalperiodsrepresentedspecificstrataof 'folk
imagination',andthatgentle comelinesstogetherwithgossamerwingswere
probably the creation of the literary mind. Certainlythere seems little
necessarycorrespondencebetweenthe fairiesof traditionalBritishfolklore
and the winged and diminutivecreaturesof Shakespeare,Pope, and the
Victorianartisticimagination.5
The great Victorianfairypainterswere amongstthose most responsible
for establishingthe iconographyof Britishfairyland.Duringthe boom years
of 1840-1870artistslike RichardDadd, JosephNoel Paton,J.A. Fitzgerald,
and Richard Doyle, as well as those not generally associatedwith fairy
paintinglike EdwinLandseerandFrederickGoodall, produceda wealthof
canvassesdepictingfairylife. Often takingShakespeare'sThe Tempestand
A MidsummerNight's Dream as inspirational sources, fairy painters
contributedto the developmentof a genre. In paintingsthat anticipatedor
closely echoed Pre-Raphaeliteconcerns,they set minutelyconceivedfairy
figuresagainstor intertwinedwith a richlydetailedlandscapeto producean
intensealmostvisionaryeffect. They also introducedthe Victorianpublicto
a wide range of fairylife. Dadd's 'Come unto these Yellow Sands'(1842),
Paton's 'The Reconciliationof Oberon and Titania' (exhibited 1847), or
Fitzgerald's'TheDream'(1857), are examplesof paintingsin whichhostsof
fairies, flying, dancing, circlingOberon and Titania or a sleeping human
figure, are depicted, and with them other fairy forms: goblins, elves,
mischievous mannikins, chubby imps, as well as more grotesque and
misshapenfigures.The fairies'intentionsare not alwaysbenign, and fairy
paintingscansuggestan eroticor sinisterandmenacingside of fairylandthat
features as an aspect of Britishfolklore. Neverthelessit was here, in fairy
paintings, and in the related art of illustration,that the iconographyof
graceful and well-meaningVictorianfairies was most clearly established,
and flowinglocks, driftsof draperies,and transparentwings took manyof
the honours.6

This iconographywas reproducedon the stage, particularlyin produc-

tions of Victorianpantomimeand Shakespeare'sso-calledfairyplays. The
theatrebecame the scene of spectacularfairyextravaganzasrequiringhuge
casts, vast amounts of money to stage, and new approachesto set and
costumedesign. MadameVestris'srevivalof A MidsummerNight'sDream
at CoventGardenin 1840was noted for its pictorialemphasis,withthe final
scene of Act V setting the standardfor fairy spectacle throughoutthe
century. But probablythe century'smost famous, and possibly the best,
production was Samuel Phelps's MidsummerNight's Dream at Sadler's
Wells in 1853. In this productionPhelpsplaced less emphasison the usual
trappingsof fairycostume,tinselwings,whitemuslin,andso on, andsought
insteadto createan unreal,dream-likesettingfor the fairypartsof the play.
He achievedthis by placinga greengauzebetweenthe actorsand audience,
and by usingspeciallightingto create a green, misty, insubstantialeffect in
whichfairiesappearedto flitacrossa silentfantasticallandscape.In the 1855
revival,Phelpsintroducedsome of the humour,mischief,and misbegotten
aspects of fairies and fairylandin faithfulvisual interpretationsof native
folklore. A year later, however, Kean'shighlysuccessfulproductionof the
Dream reinstated the glittering fairy spectacle with a vengeance, and
broughtback the techniquesof the pantomimetransformationscene in a
gloriousevocationof Victorianfairyland.7
Visual reproductionand fairy literatureoften went hand-in-hand,as in
RichardDoyle's illustrationsfor Ruskin's The King of the Golden River
(1851), but fairies retained a literarystatus in their own right. European
fairy tales remainedpopular throughoutthe century, while the work of
Ruskin, Cruikshank (Fairy Library, 1853-4), and Thackeray (The Rose and
the Ring, 1855), was supplementedby the magical, sometimes mystical,
worksof CharlesKingsley,LewisCarroll,andGeorgeMacDonald.Andrew
Lang began to publishhis 'FairyBooks' in 1889, a venture not altogether
approvedof by his associatesin the Folk-LoreSociety, and the series ran
until 1910. Fairy literature aimed specificallyat children was becoming
increasingly popular, and whilst Edwardian adults and children alike
respondedwith enthusiasmto Peter'scry in PeterPan, "'Do you believe in
fairies? Say quick that you believe!"', J.M. Barrie's play, which first
appearedon the Londonstagein 1904,becamepartof a renewedfashionfor
fairiesin the nursery.The illustratorsArthurRackhamand EdmundDulac
carriedthe daywiththeirelves andwoodlandscenes, andthe strengthof the
Edwardianassociationof fairieswithchildhoodwas suchthatit survivedthe
greatwar and continuedwell into the 1930s.
Barrie'sPeterPan evokes the specialrelationshipof childrento fairyland,
but it also hints at a furthercharacteristicbut unsettlingassociation.The
playis suggestiveof whatVictorianfolkloristsalreadyknew, thatthe British
fairiesof traditionallore were often linkedwith death. The membersof the
Folk-LoreSocietydebatedwithconsiderableenergythe possibleoriginand
meaningof fairies, and noted the frequencywith whichfairieswere held to

be fallen angels, departed souls who were unable to enter heaven, or,
particularlyin the Celtic tradition,souls awaitingreincarnation.Mrs Bray
had recordedthe belief thatfairieswere the tiny souls of unbaptized infants,
and whilstfolkloristsascribedfairybeliefs variouslyto ancientmemoriesof
pagan faiths, mythological personificationsof natural phenomena, and
recollectionsof a dwarfishnon-Aryanracein England,one of the persistent
themesto emergefromtheirstudiesis the clearassociationof fairieswiththe
world of the dead.8Fairylanditself was said to replicatea kind of limbo,
whilstthe distinctionbetweenfairies,spirits,andghostswas often confused
or blurred.This connectionbetween fairylandand the occultor supernatu-
ral world of spiritswas to be refiguredin unexpectedways at Cottingley,
where an inventive childhood realizationof Edwardianfairy conventions
met the calculatingscrutinyof an adultagendaand desireto believe.
'How the Matter Arose'

ArthurConanDoyle chose to bringthe Cottingleyfairiesbefore the British
publicin an articlewrittenfor the Christmaseditionof the StrandMagazine
which hit the streets at the beginningof December 1920. The Strandhad
been establishedin 1891 for a general readership,and had publishedthe
early Sherlock Holmes stories thus launchingConan Doyle's career as a
hugelypopularwriter.ConanDoyle's latestarticlewas carefullytimedfor a
peak audience,andwasgiventhe intriguingtitle, 'FairiesPhotographed:An
Epoch-MakingEvent'. It is the first published account of the events
surroundingthe photographingof what were to become known as the
Cottingleyfairies, and its tenor, whilst seemingly cautious, constituteda
clearinvitationto believe. The magazinesold out in a matterof days.
In the article,ArthurConanDoyle describeshow he came upon the two
Cottingleyphotographs,brieflydiscussesthe attemptsto verify the photo-
graphsas genuine, considersthe role of EdwardL. Gardner,a memberof
the Executive Committeeof the TheosophicalSociety, in the matter, and
revealsthat the photographswere taken by two younggirls.9ConanDoyle
protects the identity of the girls by referringto them as Iris and Alice,
respectivelythe daughterand niece of a Mr andMrsCarpenterof Dalesby,
WestRiding(of Yorkshire,in the northof England).It is madeclearthatthe
photographswere takenthreeyearspreviously,in 1917,whenIrisandAlice
were sixteen and ten years old. A report written by Gardnerfor Conan
Doyle, and includedin the article, outlines Gardner'sown introductionto
the photographsand the trip he subsequentlymade to visit the Carpenter
familyin orderto verifyboth the familycredentialsand the locationsof the
photographs.ConanDoyle providesan overviewof the affairandconsiders
the possibleimplicationsof the photographs.
Thus a narrative of events emerges, one which was later elaborated in
Conan Doyle's 1922 book, The Coming of the Fairies, and complemented by
Gardner's account, Fairies, published over twenty years later. From these
accounts we learn that it was Edward Gardner who first heard of the

existenceof the Cottingleyphotographsearlyin 1920,thathe quicklytraced

them to theirsource, andcame into possessionof the originalnegatives.He
then had a second set of negativesmade fromwhichsubsequentprintsand
his own set of magic lantern slides had been prepared.10By May 1920,
Gardner was using these slides to illustrate his London theosophical
lectures,and it was in this month, andprobablyby way of a verbalreportof
the Gardnerlecture,thatConanDoyle firstgot windof the existenceof fairy
photographs. At that time Conan Doyle was preparing an article for
publication in the Strand on the subject of fairies, and he therefore
immediately set about tracing Gardner. The latter was well-known in
London's esoteric circles, and, havingsatisfiedhimself 'that Mr. Gardner
was a solid personwith a reputationfor sanityand character',he contacted
him by letter.11Gardner, praised by Conan Doyle as 'my most efficient
collaborator,to whom all credit is due', responded, sharingwith Conan
Doyle all that he knew.12
It seemed thatthe daughterandniece of MrCarpenterclaimedthatwhen
they were together they regularlysaw fairies, and that they had become
friendlywiththem. Some threeyearspreviously,in 1917,MrCarpenterhad
allowed the girls the use of his new Kodak camera, undoubtedlya prized
item, and with their firstplate Iris had capturedAlice togetherwith some
fairyforms. Mr Carpenter,a respectableworkingman, had developedthe
photograph himself. A few months later, the girls took a second fairy
photograph. Gardner had since struck up a correspondencewith the
Carpenters,commentingto Conan Doyle that 'all their letters were frank
and honest, professingsome amazementat the stirwhichthe affairseemed
likely to produce'.13
Conan Doyle, clearly intrigued,was relieved to discoverthat Gardner
had alreadysoughtto verifythe authenticityof the photographs,and thatit
was the originalnegatives, and not the printsmade from the second set of
negatives,thathe hadsubmittedto the scrutinyof photographicexperts.At
least one experiencedphotographer(Conan Doyle cites two) had formed
favourableconclusionsas to 'the genuinenessof the pictures'.This was Mr
Snellingof Harrow,Middlesex,a photographerwho owned his own studio
business.14 Now, apparentlyat ConanDoyle's urging,expertsfromKodak,
Ltd, were consulted.These, a studiochief andphotographersfromthe firm,
could find no evidence of faked work but were not preparedto supply a
writtenguaranteeof authenticity.Snelling,on the otherhand,wasprepared
to commit himself in writing.'5This was particularlypertinent as several
otherphotographersrefusedto take the photographsseriously,one alluding
to 'the elaborateParisiancoiffureof the little ladies', and anotherinsisting
that 'the backgroundconsistedof theatricalproperties,and that therefore
the picture was a worthless fake'.'6 Conan Doyle wanted to pursue the
matterpersonallybut was on the point of departurefor a tour of Australia
andNew Zealand.It wasthereforedecidedthat Gardnerwouldundertakea
tripnorthto visitthe Carpenterfamilyalone. He didso withthe criticismsof

yet two more expert photographers ringing in his ears and, he said, 'quite
preparedto findthat a personalinvestigationwoulddisclosesome evidence
of falsity' 17
Duly arrivingat 'a quaint,old-worldvillagein Yorkshire',Gardnerfound
the house and was welcomed by Mrs Carpenter and Iris. He was
immediatelytaken to the site of the photographs,a little valley behindthe
house, and here easily identifiedthe salient scenic featuresof each of the
pictures.He ascertainedexactinformationconcerningthe cameraused, the
settingup of the shots, and the dates of the two photographs(July1917and
September 1917), and heard that there had been some unsuccessful
attempts.IrisCarpenterdescribedin detailthe colouringof the fairyfigures,
an element lost in the black-and-whitephotographs.Mr Carpenterwas also
interviewed,andhis 'testimonywas clearanddecisive'."8Irishadpleadedto
be allowedthe use of the camera,he had at last givenway, the girlstook less
than an hour to obtain the firstphotograph,and he was bewilderedby the
result.All seemedcompletelyaboveboard.EdwardGardnerleft Cottingley
'quiteconvinced'of the 'entiregenuineness'of the photographs-'as indeed
would everyone else be who had the same evidenceof transparenthonesty
and simplicitythat I had' - and communicatedhis findingsand views by
letter to ConanDoyle.19
CottingleyRevealed
The barebones of thisstoryarepresentedin the 1920Strandarticle,together
with the two Cottingleyfairy photographsand three others taken during
Gardner'svisit.TwoshowIrisCarpenterstandingandthensittingcloseto the
locationsdepictedin thefairyphotographs,witha thirdsimilarone of Edward
Gardner. They are presumablyincluded for both personal interest and
verificationpurposes.The 1917Cottingleyfairyphotographsappearwiththe
captions'Alice and the Fairies',and 'Irisandthe DancingGnome'.
The first of these was taken by Iris Carpenter and comprises a
head-and-shoulders portrait of the ten-year-old Alice, garlanded,
thoughtful,andslightlysmilingas she restsherface uponherhandandgazes
into the camera. Upon a tall grassybank directlyin the foreground,and
perhapstwo feet fromthe camera,a smallgroupof wingedfairiesin a variety
of diaphanouscostumesare led in a dance by a centralfairyfigureplaying
upon a double pipe- 'the very sort', Conan Doyle comments, 'whichthe
ancientsassociatedwith fauns and naiads'.20These are the fairies, replete
with diminutivepert featuresand gossamerwings,thatwere so mucha part
of the Victorianfairytradition,andas suchbearlittlerelationto manyof the
fairies of Northern and Celtic folklore. They are, however, immediately
recognisable as the fairies of the nineteenth-centuryimagination, so
beautifullyillustratedby artistslike RichardDadds and 'Dicky'Doyle.
Thisphotograph,with its evocationof femininity,childhood,magic,and
fantasy, as well as a certain rural innocence, is the most famous of the
Cottingleyseries. The full and apparentlyunselfconsciousgaze of the child

invitesengagementandidentification,not only with her but withher world.

Conan Doyle's interestingchoice of pseudonymfor the figureof the child
perhaps reveals something of what the photographmeant for him. The
younggirlin a sylvansetting,framedby waterfall,rocks,andfairyfigures,is
suggestiveof that other Alice and representsa link with an Englandwhich,
in 1920, seemed foreverlost.
The second photographwas taken by Alice from a slight distance, and
shows Iris Carpenterapparentlyseated outside on the grassand extending
her hand to a small gnome. Iris, perhapsin honour of her senior status,
wearsa hat. The gnomicfigure,like the fairies,is winged,butseemsto be 'an
elderly male, while the elves [or fairies]are rompingyoung women'.21 He
looks suitablygnome-like, and is clothed in tights, a stripedjumper, and a
pointedcap. The gnome, too, appearsto ConanDoyle to be carryinga set of
doublepipes. Althoughthisphotographlacksthe charmof the first,it is still
intriguing,and Conan Doyle uses it for points of comparison.Ruminating
on the possiblesignificanceof both photographshe notes, for example,that
'the elves are a compoundof the humanand the butterfly,while the gnome
has moreof the moth'.22Thisreasoningcauseda good deal of amusementin
some quarters.
The press, however, quickto sense a good story, immediatelyturnedits
attentionto the two young fairyphotographers.The most importantresult
of the subsequentflurryof activitywas the revelationof the true identityof
the girls, and a fleshingout of the Cottingleydrama.In January1921 the
WestminsterGazettecarried a feature article, 'Do Fairies Exist? Investi-
gation in a YorkshireValley. Cottingley'sMystery.Story of the Girl who
took the Snapshot'.23The writeridentifiesthe village of Cottingley,a few
miles from Bingley, Yorkshire,as the scene of 'fairyland',and reveals the
"'heroine"of SirConanDoyle's story'to be MissElsie Wright,'whoresides
with her parentsat 31 LynwoodTerrace'.The youngerof the two girls is
named as FrancesGriffithsof Dean Road, Scarborough,cousin of Elsie.24
He goes on to providea little more detail of the Wrights,and rehearsesthe
eventssurroundingthe takingof the photographs.We learnthatMrandMrs
Wrightbothhad 'difficultyin acceptingthe photographsasgenuineandeven
questionedthe girlsas to how they faked them'. The girlsheld to theirstory
thatthey often sawandplayedwiththe fairies,andthe parentshad"'let it go
at that"'.25
The Gazette,however, presses furtheron the questionof Elsie Wright.
ConanDoyle had alludedto the fact that Iris (or Elsie, as we shallnow call
her) could draw,a relevantfactorwhen consideringthe possibilityof fraud,
but indicated that she was limited when it came to the drawingof fairy
figures.The Gazette reporternow discoveredfrom Mrs Wrightthat Elsie
had workedfor a photographerfor a few monthsafter leavingschool, and
had workedequallybrieflyfor a jeweller.26Elsie was currentlyemployedat
Sharpe'sChristmasCardManufactoryin Bradford,andit was here that she
now somewhatreluctantlyagreedto be interviewed.

In January1921Elsie Wrightwas about nineteen yearsold, and was tall

and slim, with a mass of auburnhair (Gardnerdescribesher as shy and
pretty). The Gazettereporterfound her uncommunicative,and notes that
she used 'the same expression as her fatherandmother- "I am 'fed up' with
the thing"'. Gradually,however, a conversationensued, but when asked
where the fairiescame from, Elsie repliedthat she did not know;when she
affirmedthat she had seen them arrive, she was nudged- 'she must have
noticedwhere they came from':
Miss Wrighthesitated, and laughinglyanswered, 'I can't say'. She was

equallyat a loss to explainwhere they went after dancingnear her, and
was embarrassedwhen I pressed for a fuller explanation.Two or three
questions went unanswered, and my suggestion that they must have
'simplyvanishedinto the air' drew the monosyllabicreply, 'Yes'. They
did not speak to her, she said, nor did she speak to them . . . The first
occasion on which fairies were seen, it transpired, was in 1915 . . . The
fact that nobody else in the village had seen them gave her no surprise.
She firmlybelievedthatshe andhercousinwerethe onlypersonswho had
been so fortunate,andwas equallyconvincedthatnobodyelse wouldbe.
'If anybodyelse were there', she said, 'the fairieswould not come out'.
Further questions put with the object of eliciting a reason for that
statementwere only answeredwith smilesand a finalsignificantremark,
'You don't understand'.27
The interviewandthe articleend withElsie declaringthatthe fairiesarenow

more difficultto see thanin previousyears, adding'You see, we were young
then'. Here, too, she refusesto elaborate.28
Elsie Wright'sdemeanourthroughoutthe interview,and her statement
that she was "'fed up" with the thing', were expressiveof her undoubted
currentdiscomfortwith the entirefairyepisode. Photographsthat hadbeen
taken over three years previously, and which were presumablyintended
only for the eyes of familyand friends,were suddenlythe focus of national
attention. More particularly,and unknown to anybody other than those
immediatelyinvolved, there had alreadybeen a greatdeal more activityon
the Cottingleyfront. As we now know, Gardnerpaid not one but several
visits to Cottingley during the summer of 1920, and had visited Frances
Griffithsin Scarboroughwhereshe lived with her parents.Furthermore,at
his urging,the two girls had been broughttogetheragainto try for further
fairyphotographs.29
Further Fairy Photographs

In July 1920 Conan Doyle sent Elsie Wrighta present of a book, and this
arrivedat the same time as Gardner'sletter requestinga firstvisit. During
this visit Gardnersuggestedthat FrancesGriffithsshouldcome and stay at
Cottingleyduringher August school holidayswith the expressintentionof

aidingwith furtherphotographs.Meanwhile,followingGardner'spositive
reportto ConanDoyle, the two men agreedthat the mattershouldbe made
public. ConanDoyle thereforecompletedhis contractwith the Strand, and
both he and Gardneragreed to remainsilent until the publicationof the
ChristmasCottingley article. In the event, this became the first of two
articlesthat ConanDoyle wrote on the subjectfor the magazine.
Withina month of the initialvisit, Gardnertravelledto Scarboroughto
meet FrancesGriffithsand her mother, and Francessubsequentlytook up
the invitation to spend the second half of August with her cousin at
Cottingley. Gardnerthen made a second trip to Cottingley.He took with
him two new camerasand a supplyof two dozen specially-markedplatesfor
the girlsto use in this second attempt.Elsie and Franceswere instructedon
the use of this new equipment,the cameraswere dulyloaded, and Gardner
took his leave tellingthemto simplygo to the glen on fine daysandsee what
happened.Accordingto Gardnerthe weatherwas bad, and he feared that
rainwouldpreventa successfuloutcome.30At the end of August, however,
he receiveda letterfromElsie sayingthat, althoughthey hadonly been able
to visit the glen on two occasions, they had managed to take three
photographs.She enclosedthe three negativeswith her letter. One showed
Franceswitha leapingfairy,a secondwasof a fairyofferinga posy of flowers
to Elsie, and the third was a hazy tangle of images - 'a dense mix-up of
grasses and harebells[sic] with intertwinedfiguresand faces'.3"This third
photographlaterbecamethe objectof particularinterest,in partbecauseso
muchcould be readinto it, andwas entitled'FairiesandtheirSun-Bath',or
'Fairies'Bower'for short. It is the only photographin whichone or other of
the girlsdoes not appear.
Upon ascertainingfromhis supplierthat the plates were indeed three of
those that he had suppliedto the girls,Gardnerwrotea triumphantletterto
ConanDoyle: 'MyDear Doyle, Greetingsandbest wishes!Your lastwords
to me beforewe partedwere thatyou wouldopen my letterwiththe greatest
interest. You will not be disappointed- for the wonderful thing has
happened!'32 The 'wonderfulthings'was, of course, that the girlshad been
able to reproducetheirsuccessesof threeyearsago, andGardnernow made
a third visit to Cottingleyto hear Elsie's detailed account of all that had
transpired in the glen. This included a description of the minutiae
surroundingthe taking of the photographs.Gardnerthen concluded his
subjection of the photographsto expert analysis (Snelling was the first
personhe visited), and madea finalreportto ConanDoyle who was by then
in Melbourne,Australia.
Both men now agreedthatthe firsttwo of the new photographsshouldbe
published in a second more general article on fairies and modern fairy
sightings for the Strand. This duly appeared in March 1921 and largely
constitutedthe piece that ConanDoyle had been workingon when he first
heard of the Cottingleyfairies.33Meanwhile,by November 1920, a month
before the firstarticlewas due to come out, Gardnerwas alreadyinforming

ConanDoyle thathe hopedto take the matterfurtherin the earlysummerof

the followingyear, 1921. If notorietyhad not been partof the girls'original
motivationfor taking photographsof fairies it is small wonder that Elsie
Wrightwas guardedand 'fed up' by the time she was interviewedby the
reporter from the WestminsterGazette early in 1921. For, true to his
intention, Gardnerwas indeed negotiatingduringthis period to bringthe
girlstogetheronce againin an attemptto get a thirdset of photographs.
This time, however, he professed himself 'anxious to check the clair-
voyantabilityof the girls',and to this end inviteda giftedclairvoyantfriend
of his to join them at Cottingley that summer.34Conan Doyle refers to
Gardner'sfriend as 'Mr. Sergeant',a sensible and 'honourablegentleman
with neitherthe will to deceive nor any conceivableobject in doing so'.35 In
fact, he was GeoffreyHodson, a manin hisearlythirtiesanda theosophistof
good reputationwho was subsequentlyto publisha series of books on fairy
life. Hodsonwas persuadedto give up a week of his summerholiday,andit
was arrangedthat he would travel to the village in order, to use Conan
Doyle's blunt phrasing, 'that we might use him as a check upon the
statementsof the girls'.36Thiswas a new development,andthe reasonsfor it
are not clear. EitherGardnerwas harbouringdoubts,or he consideredthat
Hodson's testimony would add substance to the girls' claims. The girls'
feelingsare not recorded,but they clearlyco-operated.
In August 1921GeoffreyHodson, accompaniedby his wife, travelledto
Cottingleywhere he met Elsie WrightandFrancesGriffiths.It appearsthat
Gardner was also present. The girls had been furnished with the best
photographicequipment, and it was ferventlyhoped that there would be
some dazzlingresults. These, however, failed to materialize.Once again,
the weather was bad, hamperingphotographicsuccess, and also, it was
thought,the emergenceof the fairiesthemselves.To makemattersworse, a
smallseam of coal had been found in the glen, threateningit withindustrial
activity.Most particularly,however, as ConanDoyle comments,'the chief
impedimentof all was the change in the girls', a point to which we shall
return.37Whateverthe reason, the girls, hemmed in by a party of eager
experts from the south of England, were unable to take photographsof
fairies.
The visit, though, was not a complete failure. Hodson and the two girls
madeat leastfivetripstogetherto Cottingleyglen duringa seven-dayperiod,
sometimesby day, but also at night.Here, despiteall inhibitingfactors,they
managedto viewthe fullpanoplyof fairyexistence.Accordingto Hodson,the
glen 'was swarmingwith manyformsof elementallife, and he saw not only
wood-elves, gnomes, and goblins, but the rarerundines, floatingover the
stream'. Moreover,he statesthathe saweverythingthe girlssaw, andmore,
and verifiesthat the girlswere able to give accuratedescriptionsof what he
himselfwitnessed,'withinthe limitsof theirpowers'.39Inhisnotes, writtenon
site and reproducedby both Conan Doyle and Gardner, Hodson gives
lengthydescriptionsof the Cottingleyphenomena:

In the fieldwe sawfiguresaboutthe size of the gnome. Theywere making

weird faces and grotesque contortionsat the group. One in particular
took greatdelightin knockinghis knees together.These formsappeared
to Elsie singly - one dissolvingand another appearingin its place. I,
however, saw them in a group . .. Francessees tiny fairiesdancingin a
circle, the figuresgraduallyexpandingin size till they reachedeighteen
inches . .. Elsie sees a verticalcircleof dancingfairiesflyingslowlyround
... A groupof goblinscamerunningtowardsus fromthe wood to within
fifteenfeet of us . . . Elsie sees a beautifulfairyquitenear;it is nude, with
golden hair, and is kneeling in the grass . . . We catch impressions of
four-footed creatures being ridden by winged figures . . . Frances saw
seven wee fairiesquite near . .. Francessees a fairyas big as herself ...
She has a verybeautifulface withan expressionas if invitingFrancesinto
Fairyland.40
Hodson'snotes readlike a folklorist'sdream,but we are not told whatElsie

Wrightand FrancesGriffithsmade of it all at the time. In the 1970sFrances
Griffithswas to declarethatHodson 'wasa phoney, we knewhe was', but in
1921 the girls seemingly chose to keep this to themselves.41They were
probably simply thankfulthat, with their failure to obtain a third set of
photographs,the Cottingleyfairieswould at last be laid to rest. If so, the
girls had reckonedwithoutConanDoyle. The followingyear he published
TheComingof theFairies,in whichthe entireepisodewasonce againhauled
before the readingpublic.
Building the Case

In 1922 when The Coming of the Fairies appeared Conan Doyle was in his
sixtiesandperhapsat the heightof his fame. Well-knownas a writerof both
fictionandnon-fiction,his renownresteduponthe SherlockHolmesstories.
Indeed, as contemporariesremarked,he was almost synonymousin the
publicmindwithhis fictionalVictoriandetective.But he was also something
of a British institution. Born into an Irish Catholic family, he had
neverthelesscome to representa certaintype of Englishmanand a mythic
nationalidentitywhichwas almostan anachronismby the 1920s,althoughit
still strucka popularchord at home and abroad. He was the bluff, hearty
sportsmanwho harboureda soft spot for the old bare-knuckledprize-
fighting, and who as a younger man had played excellent cricket; the
imperialistandpatriotwhoselove of countryandEmpiremanifesteditselfin
his defenceof Britain'sconductduringthe Boer War(in partresponsiblefor
his knighthoodin 1902), bellicose anti-Germanrhetoric during the first
WorldWar, and a heartfeltdesireto be usefulduringtimesof nationalneed
or emergency;he was a fighterof injustice,and, when occasiondemanded,
an upholder of unpopular causes. Conan Doyle represented the old-
fashionedvirtuesof honesty and decency, gentlemanlybehaviour,and the
honourablecode. It is of no smallmoment,then, that this was the manwho

brought before the British public, and ultimately much of the English-
speaking world, evidence that might substantiate the existence of fairies.
In the 1920Strandarticle,reproducedin his book, ConanDoyle seeks to
achieve a cautious, balancedtone, confidingin his concludingremarks,'I
must confess that after months of thought I am unable to get the true
bearingsof thisevent'.42At the sametime, however,he leaves his readersin
no doubt that he is signalling a discovery of potentially momentous
importance.He begins:
Shouldthe incidentshere narrated,and the photographsattached,hold

theirown againstthe criticismwhichthey will excite, it is no exaggeration
to say that they will markan epoch in humanthought.I put them and all
the evidence before the public for examinationand judgment. If I am
myself asked whether I consider the case to be absolutelyand finally
proved, I shouldanswerthat in orderto remove the last faint shadowof
doubt I should wish to see the result repeated before a disinterested
witness. At the same time, I recognize the difficulty of such a request,
since rare results must be obtained when and how they can. But short of
final and absolute proof, I consider, after carefully going into every
possible source of error, that a strong prima-facie [sic] case has been built
up.43
Here Conan Doyle swiftly evokes a judicial, even scientific, tenor:

'evidence' will be laid before the public 'for examination and judgment'.
There is talk of a 'case', and of 'proof', and the desirability(despite an
acknowledgementof the difficultiesinvolved) of repeating the 'results'
before a 'disinterestedwitness'. Thus the 'incidents' narrated and 'the
photographsattached'becomepartof the evidence,the validityof whichthe
public will judge.
The passive construction of Conan Doyle's opening Strand sentence,
'Should the incidents here narrated', disguises for the moment the fact that it
is he who is narrating the incidents, indeed, who is partially responsible for
some of them. It is symptomatic of a technique by which Conan Doyle
appears to offer an impartial account of the Cottingley affair whilst actually
presenting a carefully constructed case. In his book, Conan Doyle takes his
readers on a narrated tour, crafted in part in the form of a documented
search for the truth. The search for Edward Gardner, possessor of the
Cottingley photographs, gives way to the attempts to verify the photo-
graphs, which in turn moves into the investigation of Cottingley and its
characters, in particular, Elsie Wright and her family.
The principalinvestigatorsalso receive their share of scrutiny.Edward
Gardner, Conan Doyle's middle-aged 'collaborator', emerges as a reserved,
well-balanced, and industrious partner, whilst Geoffrey Hodson, although
disguised by the name 'Sergeant', is introduced as a highly reliable expert
witness. The importance of Hodson's testimony corroborating the existence

of fairies in Cottingleyglen, is not lost on Conan Doyle, who informshis

readers that the clairvoyant served his country during the war, is a
gentleman, and thoroughlysound. Conan Doyle thus seeks to reassure
those who mighthave entertaineddoubts,moralor otherwise,about a man
who professesto see fairies.This, then, is a painstakingsearchfor the truth
by trustworthymen. But it is the author himself, who, whilst playing no
personal part at Cottingley, assumes the most importantrole - that of
impartialjudge and publicist.There is an unwritten,unspokenassumption
that he is, in all respects,the manfor the job. Indeed, this is reflectedin the
understandingbetween Gardnerand ConanDoyle that the former'should
handle the personalside of the matter, while I should examinethe results
and throwthem into literaryshape'.44
At firstglance, the matterdoes appearto have been throwninto literary
shape. Thereis a sense of haste, even of urgencyto the accountin the Strand
article,whichis even moremarkedin the book. Thisis achievedin partbythe
way in which letters, reports, notes, newspaperarticles(includinghis own
Strandarticles)and excerptsare reproducedor rehashed,linkedonly by a
commentary.Infact,however,it is bythismeansthatConanDoyle createsan
affectof objective,down-to-earthreportingwhilstactuallyelevatinghismass
of materialto the statusof documentarysupportingevidence. It is through
these documents that the truth is established, but, above all, the events
themselvesare given an auraof documentedauthenticity.
Letters are particularlyimportantin this context. In the book, Conan
Doyle utilizesthe epistolarydevice at the outset to documenthis searchfor
Edward Gardner. He does so via the reproductionof a wide correspon-
dence, mostof it withwomen. ConanDoyle publisheslengthyexcerptsfrom
these letters, together with names and full addresses,ostensiblybecause
they give 'a complete inside view of all that led up to so remarkablean
episode'.45The letters are also used as types of evidence. Conan Doyle's
narrationof the Cottingleyepisodeis in detectivemode, andthe effect of the
letters is not only to help build narrativeinterest via a series of clues and
leads, but also to form in the reader's mind an initial impression of
Cottingleyas a case and his conductof it. The letterssuggestthat he left no
stone unturnedin the searchfor Gardner(therebyimplyingthe thorough-
ness of his investigationas a whole), whilst simultaneouslyconveyingthe
messagethatthereare othersensible,educated,andresponsibleindividuals
- individualswith highlyrespectableLondonaddresses- who take a serious
interest in such matters. The tone of the published letters establishes a
genteel, moderate, English tone - 'Dear Sir, I am sending the two fairy
pictures;theyare interesting,arethey not?'- butthey alsoimparta dramatic
sense of breakthrough.As May Bowley, who had seen and examinedthe
photographs,expressedit when she wrote to ConanDoyle in June 1920, 'If
they werereallytaken, as thereseemsgood reasonto believe, the event is no
less than the discoveryof a new world'.46If these excellentwomencan take
this view, ConanDoyle implies,why not you and me?

In a similar vein, letters and reports are later used to document the
controversycausedby the firstStrandarticle,andto introducethe testimony
of other fairy seers. This testimony assumes the status of 'independent
evidence for fairies', a chaptertitle in the book, but, withoutappearingto
commithimselftoo absolutely,ConanDoyle points his readersin the right
direction:'To waive [sic] aside the evidence of such people on the ground
that it does not correspondwith our own experience is an act of mental
arrogancewhich no wise man will commit'.47Thus the 'evidence'of those
who see fairiesis to be weighedagainstthe 'experience'of those who do not,
withthe consequencesof a faultyjudgmentwritlarge.Forwho does not wish
to be includedin the ranksof the wise?
In this context, the photographsassumeenormousimportance.They are
presentedas documentaryevidenceof the existenceof fairies,andverifiable
artefactsin their own right. Photographyhad come into its own duringthe
Victorianperiod,and, althoughConanDoyle does not makethisexplicit,he
was a keen and informed photographerwho had published a series of
articles, technical and otherwise, in the British Journal of Photography
duringthe 1880s.48Conan Doyle does not involve himself directlyin the
discussionof the technicalaspectsof the photographs,choosinginsteadto
reportthe findingsof the expertswho examinedthe photographicplatesand
were unableto findclearevidenceof tampering.That the men from Kodak
also state that they could probablyproducesimilarpicturesthemselves'by
naturalmeans',is disregarded.49
The Cottingleyphotographs,particularlythe first,'Alice andthe Fairies',
have a theatricalquality,the air of a stagedevent. This was not, of course,
the girls' intention. They had wanted the photographsto represent a
spontaneoussnapshotof the domesticvariety,somethingmade possibleby
cameraslike the Wrights''Midg'whichhad democratizedphotographyand
placedit withinreachof a 'cultivated'workingfamily.The girlsrecognized
the potentialof the camerato recorda supposedlymagicalevent andprove
the truthof their Cottingleyclaims. They accordinglyset out to producea
seeminglyunrehearsedglimpseof a hiddenbut realworld.As we know, the
photographsfailed to impress their intended audience and instead were
subsequentlypublishedby ArthurConanDoyle in an actualizationof what
RolandBarthes,referringto the camera'spotential,hascalled 'thepublicity
of the private'.50The photographsare framedby a ConanDoyle narrative
which simultaneouslydocuments and constitutes the Cottingleyepisode,
and constructsa particularrealityconfluentwith his claimsto truth.
Indeed, once ConanDoyle had satisfiedhimselfthat he had adequately
dispensed with the 'cry of "fake"', he accepted the photographs to be exactly
as purportedby the girls- a faithfulrecordof realfairies.51ForConanDoyle
and Gardner, the Cottingley photographscapture an actually occurring
moment, freezing it for posterity and making that moment real. The
appearance of reality in the photograph becomes evidence, and the
photographitself is constitutedas proof. For all his show of objectivityand

attempts at qualification,Conan Doyle believed the photographsto be

genuinein all sensesof the word, as is clearfromhis responsewhenGardner
sent him the threefurtherfairyphotographstakenin 1920.On thatoccasion
ConanDoyle repliesthat his 'heartwas gladdened'by 'the three wonderful
printswhich are confirmatoryof our publishedresults',but adds tellingly,
'You and I needed no confirmation. . . .52
Criticswere quick to point up what they regardedas the false logic of
ConanDoyle's position. MauriceHewlett, the writer,noted:
If he believes in the photographstwo inferencescan be made ... one,

that he must believe also in the existence of the beings; two, that a
mechanical operation, where human agency has done nothing but
preparea plate, focus an object, press a button, and printa picture,has
renderedvisiblesomethingwhichis not otherwisevisibleto the common
nakedeye. Thatis reallyall that SirArthurhas to tell us. He believes the
photographsto be genuine.The rest follows. But why does he believe it?
Because the youngladiestell him that they are genuine. Alas!"3
Hewlett is right, but only up to a point. Conan Doyle's belief in the

Cottingleyfairies did not rest solely on the tautologicaltestimonyof the
girls. His confidencein the photographswas undoubtedlyboosted by the
lack of obvious evidence of faked work, by Snelling'swarmendorsement,
and by Gardner'ssubsequentverificationof the photographs'Cottingley
settingswhichwas vital for a refutationof claimsof clever studio work. A
further predisposingfactor, although not one presented as part of the
argument,is that neitherConanDoyle nor Gardnercouldbringthemselves
to believe that two village girls were capable of producingphotographs
which could fool the experts in London, or, for that matter, such men as
themselves. Gardner, dismissingthe suggestion that Elsie Wright might
herselfhavebeen capableof a forgery,states, 'Wearenot quiteso credulous
as that, nor were we able to believe that two children,alone and unaided,
could producein half an hour a faked photographof the type of Alice and
the Fairies'.s4
Whilst others might murmurthat there have always been ingenious
childrenin the world,GardnerandConanDoyle wereunwillingor unableto
acceptthat Elsie WrightandFrancesGriffithswere capableof perpetrating
a clever fraud. The relative ages and social positions of those involved
(factors to be consideredhereafter)played a part here. More significant,
however, at least as far as ConanDoyle and Gardnerwere concerned,was
the fact thatthe girls,theirtestimony,andthe photographs,were eminently
believablefor other reasons.Hewlett was, perhaps,closer thanhe realized
when he referredto 'a mechanicaloperation'rendering'visiblesomething
which is not otherwisevisible to the common naked eye'. Photographing
otherwiseinvisiblespiritshad been an acceptedpracticeamongstspiritual-
ists for the past fiftyyears, as ConanDoyle well knew. Equally,younggirls

had long held a hallowed place in the advent of modern spiritualism.In

orderto appreciateandunderstandsomethingof ConanDoyle's acceptance
of the girlsand theirfairies,the entireepisode mustbe set againsta broader
backdrop.ArthurConanDoyle's involvementwith andchampioningof the
Cottingleyfairiesconstitutespartof a differentbut relatedstory.
RationalManat the EnchantedBoundary

Conan Doyle, althoughcharacterizedby Hesketh Pearsonin the 1940sas
'the man in the street', was a more complex personality than has
traditionallybeen allowed.55The imperialistwas deeply concerned with
Belgian colonial policy and atrocities(The Crimein the Congo, 1909), and
with the 'native question' in South Africa; the patriot had unsuccessfully
defended Sir Roger Casement, a homosexualIrishmanaccusedof aiding
GermanyduringWorldWar 1; the man who had opposed the suffragettes
andtheircausewaspresidentof the DivorceLawReformUnion. Evenin his
writing,in his fictionalworld, there is more to ConanDoyle thanmeets the
eye. The cool, detachedSherlockHolmeshas his darkerunderside,andthe
decency of Dr. Watson is more than matched by the invocation of the
macabre and putrescent in Conan Doyle's horror stories. It has been
remarkedelsewhere that Conan Doyle had a heightened interest in the
disgustingandsadistic,butwhatis clearis thathe was a manof manyparts.56
Nowhere was this more apparentthan in what many perceived to be the
great aberration of Conan Doyle's life - his passionate espousal of
spiritualism.
Conan Doyle's life (1859-1930)roughlyspannedthe yearsduringwhich
an interest in the occult, and perhaps particularlyin spiritualism,was a
markedfeatureof Britishculture.Spiritualism,whichespousesthe viewthat
the spiritsof the dead not only survivebut are capableof communicating
withthe living,hadreacheda peak of popularityduringthe 1870sand 1880s,
andflourishedanewamidstthe devastatinglosses of the firstWorldWarand
its aftermath.For many, particularlythe bereaved, the spiritualists6ance
took on a religious,almostholy, aspect,for others(particularlyan educated
male elite) it promised a means by which to explore the mysteries and
potential of the human mind, and for still more it representedsimply a
popular if sometimes unsettling parlour game. In its various guises
spiritualismsucceeded in attracting men and women from across the
spectrumof social class, and its widespreadappeal was still in evidence
throughoutthe 1930s.57
Conan Doyle had been raised a Catholic and attended three Jesuit
institutionsbefore going on to study medicine at EdinburghUniversity.
Here he read Huxley, Darwin,Spencer,and Mill, and his growingdistaste
for what he saw as the 'uncompromisingbigotry of the Jesuit theology',
combinedwiththe severe difficultiesof reconcilingCatholicteachingwith a
'scientificdesirefor truth',led to his abandonmentof RomanCatholicism.58
At the same time, scientificmaterialismseemed to him a poor explanatory

mechanism for the glories of the universe. Conan Doyle settled for
agnosticism and, like many of similar mind during the 1880s, became
interestedin psychicalresearchand its examinationof spiritualistclaims.59
As a young man, Conan Doyle attended seances, became a subscriberto
Light, one of the more sedate spiritualist publications, and read spiritualist-
related literature. In a comment foreshadowing his later stand on the
Cottingleyfairies,he observedin a letterwrittento Lightin July1887,'After
weighing the evidence, I could no more doubt the existence of the
phenomenathanI coulddoubtthe existenceof lionsin Africa,thoughI have
been to that continentand have neverchancedto see one'.60His 1889novel
The Mysteryof Cloomberis a furtherindicationof Conan Doyle's early
interestin spiritualism.
It was not, therefore,as manycriticsassumed,a suddenor rashdecision,
when Conan Doyle announced his conversion to spiritualism in 1916.61 Nor
was it a grief-stricken reaction to the deaths of his son and brother, which
occurred late in the war and around the time that he began his proselytizing
mission. It was a decision that had been long in the making, and Conan
Doyle threw himself into the spiritualistcause with all the resourcesand
energy at his disposal.Fromthat point on, it becamethe majorfocus of his
life. Throughoutthe 1920she was an internationalspokesmanfor spiritual-
ism. In 1920-1he undertookthe firstof his greatspiritualisttourswith a visit
to AustraliaandNew Zealand.Thiswasthe touruponwhichhe wasaboutto
embarkwhen the Cottingleyfairiesfirstattractedhis attention.In 1922and
1923 he made two lecture tours of the United States and Canada, and he
visited South Africatowardsthe end of his life. ConanDoyle wrote eleven
non-fiction books dealing with some aspect of spiritualism between 1918 and
1930, and saw to it that the popular fictional Professor Challenger was
converted to spiritualism in the 1926 novel, The Land of Mist.62After his
death, Conan Doyle's beliefs and activities were played down by a
succession of biographers,no doubt embarrassedby this seeming anach-
ronismin an otherwiserespectablelife.63ConanDoyle, however,regarded
his spiritualist crusade as the most important work of his life, and
spiritualismis the key to understandinghis positionon the Cottingleyfairies.
For many, however, the Strand articles and The Coming of the Fairies had
all the appearance of the picturesque outpourings of a man who has taken
leave of his senses. Erstwhileadmirerscould only wonder, "'ConanDoyle,
the apostle of common sense? . . . Conan Doyle of all people?"'.'4 The
incredulitywhichgreeted ConanDoyle's espousalof fairiesand spiritswas
undoubtedlydue in partto hisidentificationin the publicmindwithSherlock
Holmes, the super-rationalist creation of his own making. One American
review of The Coming of the Fairies was entitled, 'Poor Sherlock Holmes -
Hopelessly Crazy?', whilst Punch settled for a gentle lampoon showing
Conan Doyle, head in the clouds, manacledto a scowlingHolmes.65It is
only when seen throughspiritualisteyes that everythingfalls into place.
Even the fairy photographstake on new meaningwhen viewed alongside

spirit photography, a phenomenon which so fascinated and convinced

Conan Doyle that he wrote a book on the subject which appearedin the
same year as The Coming of the Fairies.6'This is not to say that all
spiritualistsgreeted the Cottingleyfairieswith unabashedenthusiasm.On
the contrary,some of his greatestcriticswerespiritualistswho fearedthathis
espousalof fairyfolk would cloud or belittle the issue of humansurvival.67
But it was ConanDoyle's view thatthe Cottingleyfairiesmightpave the way
towards the acceptance of the yet more subtle and complex truths of
spiritualism.
ConanDoyle hoped that the 'recognition'of fairy'existencewill jolt the
materialtwentieth-centurymind out of its heavy ruts in the mud, and will
make it admitthat there is a glamourand a mysteryto life':
Havingdiscoveredthis, the worldwill not findit so difficultto acceptthat

spiritualmessage supportedby physicalfacts whichhas alreadybeen so
convincinglyput before it. All this I see, but there may be much more.
When Columbus knelt in prayer upon the edge of America, what
propheticeye saw all thata new continentmightdo to affectthe destinies
of the world? We also seem to be on the edge of a new continent,
separated not by oceans but by subtle and surmountablepsychic
conditions.I look at the prospectwith awe.68
Here MayBowley'searlierreferenceto 'the discoveryof a new world'in her

letter to Conan Doyle has taken root, and is transposedliterallyto mean
both the new world and a world operatingin a differentregister:'a new
continent'. Any reader with sympathiesfor or knowledge of Victorian
spiritualism would not miss the reference to 'that spiritual message
supportedby physical facts' which constitutesa direct allusion to seance
phenomena. Nor would the enthusiastmistake the bow to America, the
nineteenth-centurybirthplaceof modern spiritualism.Those for whom
these referencesmeantnothingwerenot excludedfromthe prospectoffered
by the fairies, but the invitationwas crystalclear to those who understood
whatConanDoyle was about.
Spiritualismframedthe Cottingleyepisode for ConanDoyle, was partof
his motive for publicizingit, and made possiblehis readyacceptanceof the
fairiesas authentic.In fact, ConanDoyle, Gardner,and Hodsonwere each
predisposedto believe preciselybecausethe Cottingleyfairieswere so easily
absorbed into an already existent psychic framework established by
spiritualismand theosophy. Spiritualistsarguedthat if spiritscould take on
humanshape and appearat seances, then it followed that this both proved
the existenceof spiritsandindicatedthattheyembodiedan unknownkindof
matter. This was conceptualizedas 'spiritmatter',a rarified,invisible,and
generally uncharted'psychic force'. Conan Doyle, like the theosophists
Gardnerand Hodson, acceptedthe idea of a substanceso fine that it could
not be measuredby physicalmeans, and had no difficultyin applyingthe

concept to fairies. ConanDoyle furtherhypothesizedthat fairiesare 'only

separatedfrom ourselvesby some differenceof vibrations',and 'wouldbe
invisible unless we could tune ourselvesup or tone them down'. Familiar
with both esoteric lore and the physics of light and electricity, he thought this
no more unlikely than the fact that light travelsin waves or 'high-tension
electricity can be converted by a mechanical contrivanceinto a lower
tension, keyed to other uses'.69
This adaptationor extensionof existingnaturallaw was partof a broader
spiritualistappeal to a rational, scientificexplanationfor what seemed to
believers to be incontrovertibleevidence of spirit existence. Although
ConanDoyle's approachto spiritualismwas uncritical,even reverential,his
beliefs seemed to him to be entirely consistent with his much earlier
'scientificdesirefor truth'.He wascriticalof Victorianscience,statingthatit
'is in truthbut a little lightin the darkness',althoughone which'wouldhave
left the world hardand clean and bare, like a landscapein the moon', but
nonethelessinvokedthe methodsof scientificenquiryin defenceandpursuit
of his cause.70Conan Doyle, like many educated spiritualists,thought of
himself as existing in the traditionof scientificexplanationwhilst simul-
taneouslychallengingthe arid materialismwhichit so often implied. Thus
the Cottingleyfairies,presentedin narrativetermsas a case to be examined
with due scientificrigour,representedfor him that 'glamourand a mystery
to life' whichprovedthe limitationsof scientificknowledgeandthe limitsof
materialism.Indeed, althoughConan Doyle's rationalizationof the Cot-
tingleyfairieswasitselfbasedupona kindof speciousmaterialism,he hoped
ferventlythatthe episodewouldhavethe effect, as he explainedin a letterto
Gardner,of helpingto prove 'thatmatteras we have knownit is not really
the limitof our universe9'.71
As theosophists, Gardner and Hodson largely shared Conan Doyle's
views. They subscribedto the notion of rarifiedand invisible forms of
matter,a subjectupon whichtheosophyhad muchto say, and Gardnerwas
confident that he could offer 'a rational explanation . . . which will be at
least intelligibleto a logicalmind,if not entirelyconvincing'.72
In supportof
this claim, both men were able to identifythe Cottingleyfairiesas just one
exampleof whatGardnercalls'a sisterstreamof evolvinglife' whichswarms
unseenin our world.73This 'sisterstream'refersto a deva (meaning'shining
ones', and adapted from a Sanskritterm) evolution which theosophists
believe exists in parallelwith humandevelopment.It comprisesa vast array
of different kinds of elementals, Nature-spirits,fairies, and higher devas
(angels), all of which work together in the service of Nature. Indeed, the
sessionswith Hodson and the two girls appearedto supporta theosophical
cosmology.
The fairiesdepictedin the Cottingleyphotographswere thus interpreted
by Conan Doyle, Gardner, and Hodson in the light of all they knew of
esoteric lore, and in turn slipped easily into an already developed
naturalistictheosophicalparadigmof elemental fauna. The photographs,

read accordingto specific intellectual, philosophical,and specularcodes,

served to confirm those very codes. The fairies accordinglyprovided
evidence for the extension of the known limitsof naturalism,and a visible
inventoryof one elementof devalife. Thussuitablyidentifiedandclassified,
the fairieswere positionedin an explanatorysystemin whicheverythinghad
its cataloguedplace andpurpose.Theirmake-up,even the reasonsfor their
existence, becamepartof an ordered,hierarchical(the 'grotesque''blackor
peat-brown'gnome is near the bottom of the evolutionarychain), and
perhapsquintessentiallyVictorianworld.74
Ultimately, and in common with leading spiritualistand theosophical
figures, Conan Doyle and Gardnerbelieved that occultismled the way in
understandingthe higher secrets of the universe. Annie Besant, leader of
the Theosophical Society, and C.W. Leadbeater, a fellow theosophist,
suggested that the scientist was only then slipping across the enchanted
boundaryalreadytraversedby those engagedin esotericlearning:
as the physicist nears the confines of his kingdom he finds himself

bewildered by touches and gleams from another realm which inter-
penetrateshis own. He findshimselfcompelledto speculateon invisible
presences, if only to find a rationalexplanationfor undoubtedphysical
phenomena,and insensiblyhe slips over the boundary,and is, although
he does not yet realizeit, contactingthe astralplane.75
The gentlemeninvolvedwith the Cottingleyfairiesundoubtedlyconsidered

that they, too, were scrupulousandintrepidexplorersof 'anotherrealm'.
But whatwas this other 'realm'that 'interpenetrateshis own', andwhere
was the 'boundary'?For ConanDoyle it was clearlya spiritworld, and the
boundarywas a spatialborderland,elusiveterritorywheretwo worldsmeet
- or, more accurately,interpenetrate.He refersto the Cottingleyfairiesas
examples of 'borderland forms, which come or go either in fact or
imagination- the latter most frequently,no doubt', neverthelessexisting
and manifesting'in fact' somewhereon this boundary.76 We might, though,
equally think of the borderlandsas existing not so much in dichotomized
'fact' or 'imagination',but at the point of interpenetrationof the uncon-
sciousand consciousminds.Borderlandformsin this readingsymbolizethe
phantasmswhichemergefromthe depthsof the unconsciousto assumetheir
placein the coherentself-consciousnarrativeof ourseeminglyrationallives.
They are actualbut 'invisiblepresences'froma realmof whichwe arehardly
aware.
Conan Doyle seems almost to suggest such an interpretation,although
this was certainlynot his intention, when he commentsthat 'outside' the
'limitedcircleof definiteknowledgewe see the loom andshadowof gigantic
andfantasticpossibilitiesaroundus, throwingthemselvescontinuallyacross
our consciousnessin such ways that it is difficultto ignore them'.77It is
almost as though the unconsciousis here initiatingits own dialogue with

twentieth-centuryrationality,for in a further suggestive moment Conan

Doyle writesthat fairiesmustbe encouraged'by sympathyor otherhelp, to
emergefromthe deep andmanifestuponthe margin'. 7 His referenceto the
'deep' might be a consciousallusionto the nineteenth-centuryfolklorists'
equation of fairylandwith a pre-ChristianHades, the dark underworldof
the dead, but it is significantthat he assumesthat fairies emerge from the
depths - be those depths the personal underworldof the psyche, an
archetypalunderworld,part of a collective, mythic unconscious,or the
undergroundfairylandof traditionalfolklore.
ConanDoyle, as a committedspiritualist,was keen to stressthe limitsof
the knownbutwas not preparedto acknowledgethe relevancefor his beliefs
of unconsciousdesire. He did acceptthat 'borderlandforms'could 'comeor
go' in the 'imagination',but insisted that his reasons for believing in the
Cottingley fairies were purely rational. The fairies existed for him as
perfectly explicable examples of 'fairy and phantom phenomena, which
have been endorsedby so many ages, and still even in these materialdays
seem to breakinto some lives in the most unexpectedfashion'.79We might,
however,note thatwhenConanDoyle's fairiesbrokeinto his life they didso
by emergingfrom 'the deep' to 'manifestupon the margin';and further
suggestthat this marginis a metaphoricline drawnin ever shiftingsands. It
marksan enchantedboundary,a figurativeborderlandwhere two worlds,
whetherconceptualizedin occultor in post-Freudianterms,shadeinto each
other to produce a differentorderingof reality. And we do not need to
acceptoccultexplanationsof fairyphenomenain orderto acknowledgethat
it is here, in a particularstructuringof belief and unconsciousdesirewhich
calls into question the supposed distinctionbetween the rationaland the
irrational,that ConanDoyle's fairiesexist.
Power Relations
The Cottingleyfairies,though,were not simplyConanDoyle's 'borderland
forms'. They emerged from the making of a specific fairyland, that of Elsie
Wright and Frances Griffiths. In 1920, when Gardner travelled north to
investigate the incidents at Cottingley, Elsie Wright was nineteen and living
at home with her parents in Cottingley village. Frances Griffiths was thirteen
and lived with her mother in the northern seaside town of Scarborough. Her
father,a regimentalsergeant-majorwho hadbeen decoratedin the war,was
stationed nearby. Scarborough, a popular holiday resort, was a different
environmentfrom the one in whichthe Cottingleyfairieshad manifested,
although Frances had been staying at Cottingley in 1917 when the first
photographshad been taken. Whatemergesfrom Gardner'slater account,
however, althoughhe makeslittle of it, is that Franceshad hardlylived the
life of an Englishcountrygirl at all. The Griffithshad been living in Cape
Town, South Africa, until 1917, when Francesand her motherreturnedto
stay with the Wrights at Cottingley while Mr Griffiths went to serve in
France as a volunteer of the South African contingent. Perhaps even more

notably, it has recentlycome to light that the Wrightfamilyhad spent the

four years between Elsie Wright'sfourth and eighth birthdaysin Canada,
and that Elsie had returnedto Cottingleywith a much-deridedCanadian
accent. Furthermore,her father worked in a position of authorityon a
millionaire'slocalestate, andwasreferredto in the villageas 'MrWright'- a
clear mark of respect, and one which set him apartfrom the other men.
Neithergirlwas simplya villagelass.80
The probablemarkingof FrancesGriffithsas an outsiderandElsie Wright
as differentin a smallvillage,whereaccentandslightlyelevatedsocialstatus
were enoughto set them apartfromthe otherchildren,mightbe one clue to
their involvementwith fairies. Fairyplaymatescould have been a kind of
ten-year-old(as Franceswas in 1917)one-upmanship,but they also perhaps
brought'glamour'and 'mystery'to the austereconditionsFrancesencoun-
tered at Cottingley,and helped replaceplayfellowsof the humanvariety.8"
Elsie Wright no doubt had her own fairyland agenda, but she was certainly
youngfor her age, still playedwith dolls at sixteen, and seemed happyto be
Frances'lone companionat the beck. She had been besotted with fairies
long beforehercousin'sarrival,andin recentyearsshe hasgone on recordas
sayingthat the girlsfaked the photographsin orderto substantiateFrances'
story that she fell in the beck and got her clothes wet whilst "'playingwith
Fairies" .82
The other interesting element that emerges from Gardner'saccount,
althoughagainit goes unremarked,is thatthe Cottingleyhouseholdin 1917
was overwhelminglyfemale. MrsWrightand Elsie had been joined by Mrs
Griffiths,who was MrsWright'ssister, andFrances.ArthurWrightwas the
only man. Althoughthis was no rarityin wartimeBritain,it was a common
factorin the developmentof spiritualistmediumship.It was often in homes
where women outnumberedmen, and where the women had an interestin
psychicmatters,as it seems MrsWrighthad, that mediumshipflourished.83
Mediumship cannot have been far from Conan Doyle's mind as the
Cottingley story unfolded. His spiritualistcrusadewas in full swing, but
more to the point Elsie Wrightand FrancesGriffiths(althoughprobably
unawareof it) conformedperfectlyto a particularprofile of stunningand
innovative mediumship established in the nineteenth century by the
adolescentFox sistersin AmericaandFlorenceCook in Britain.Youth and
femininitywere traditionallyhighly prized in Anglo-Americanspiritualist
circles, and certainlythe parallelsbetween Florence Cook, a respectable
working-classgirlfromLondonwho producedthe firstspiritmaterialization
seen in Britain, and Elsie and Frances, upper-working-class girls of only
sixteen and ten yearsof age at the time of the firstfairyphotographs,would
not have escapedConanDoyle.84
Conan Doyle and Gardner were agreed that both girls possessed
clairvoyantpowers. Gardnerassertsthat 'both the girls were good simple
clairvoyants,quite unspoiltbecause unawareof it', and meant by this the
girls' extra-sensory perception which enabled them to 'see . . . the subtler

physical region'.85He and Conan Doyle were impressed by Elsie's

explanation,closelyalliedto seanceetiquette,of how she enticedthe fairies:
'the way to "'tice them", as she called it, was to sit passivelywith her mind
quietlyturnedin that direction;then, when faint stirringsor movementsin
the distanceheraldedtheirpresence,to beckontowardsthem andshowthat
they werewelcome'.86 Elsie also fittedthe classicnineteenth-centurypicture
of young female mediums;she was 'not robust',and 'was describedby her
late schoolmasteras being "dreamy"'.87 But it wasthe youngergirlto whom
Conan Doyle and Gardner ascribed the greater psychic powers. It was
Frances Griffithswho was mediumistic.She had the 'loosely knit ecto-
plasmicmaterialin her body' upon whichthe fairiescould drawin orderto
strengthentheir own forms and thus be photographed,and it is clear that
both Conan Doyle and Gardnerlikened the procedure to that of spirit
materialization.88
The spiritualistexplanationfor the process of materialization,where a
spiritsupposedlydrawsupon the medium'sectoplasmicmaterialin orderto
make an appearance,was thusappliedto andin turnmadesense of the fairy
case. For this reason, the gentlemenwere neithersurprisednor alarmedby
the girls'insistencethatthey mustbe togetherif they were to take successful
photographs.It was generallyacceptedin occult circlesthat the additional
presence of sympathetic participantshelped strengthen the medium's
powers. As Conan Doyle says, 'the associated aura of the two girls is
needful', whilst Gardnernotes in his reportto ConanDoyle, 'the need for
two people, preferablychildren,is fairlyobvious . '. 89
But why 'preferablychildren'?The themeis reiteratedby ConanDoyle in
his second Strandarticleand, in an apparentconfirmationthat youth was a
vital factor, Elsie Wrighttold the reporterfrom the Westminster Gazettein
1921 'that in their more recent appearances the fairies were more
"transparent"than in 1916 and 1917, when they were "ratherhard"'. She
then adds, althoughshe refusedto explainher remark,"'You see, we were
young then"'.90Certainly,Conan Doyle and Gardnerwere in agreement
that 'emotionalsympathy,childlikein its innocenceandsimplicity'hadbeen
vital to the successesin Cottingleyglen.9'The emotionalresponseto which
they referred,however, had a specificconnotation.Both men had in mind
an emotionalpuritywhichcould only stem from sexual innocence, and, in
the case of FrancesGriffiths,a pre-pubertalstateof psychicgrace.This, they
believed, in a classicevocationof childhoodas an Eden untroubledby the
serpentinecoils of sexuality,was the kind of innocenceso necessaryto the
conjuringof spiritsandfairies.
Childhood,and perhapsparticularly,female childhood,is centralto the
account.In fact, when GardnerfirstvisitedCottingleyin 1920he was aware
thatElsie Wrightwas then nineteenyearsof age, but pointedlyrefersto her
as a 'child'.In his laterbook, he consistentlydropsthree yearsfromElsie's
actual age. In 1920, though, it was FrancesGriffithswho most concerned
Conan Doyle and Gardner.Conan Doyle was worriedthat Francesmight

alreadyhave slipped acrossa boundaryof her own. He comments, 'In my

heart I hardlyexpected success, for three years had passed, and I was well
aware that the processes of puberty are often fatal to psychic power'.92
Equally, Gardner warned, 'I fear now that we are late because almost
certainlythe inevitablewill shortlyhappen, one of them will "fallin love"
and then - hey presto!!'9 These were both references to the well-
documented effect of puberty and romantic involvementsupon female
mediumship, and indicates how closely both men associated Elsie and
Franceswith spiritualism.
By the summer of 1921, when the third and unsuccessfulattempt at
photographswas made, their worst fears had been realized. Franceshad
apparentlyreached womanhood. She was now fourteen years old and,
despite the clairvoyantsessions with Hodson, the attemptat photographs
was a failure.Gardnerrecalls:
The girlswere togetheragainin the glen, andthe conditionsseemedto be
precisely as they had been previously- but though the nature spirits
would 'come out' and approachthe girls, they would not use Frances'
aura to strengthentheir forms. With a sort of gesture of dislike they
retreatedalmostat once. Now that, strictly,is all I can say about it. My
surmise, which I conveyed to Sir Arthur, was that the attainmentof
pubertyquiteprobablywas the reasonfor the failureto get photographs.
Sufficientlydense materialof a suitable nature was not to be had or,
rather,was unacceptable- and I mustleave it at that.94
There are no details of this final 1921attempt, but we can probablysafely
assumethat Gardnerwas not present. Equally,there is nothingto suggest
that either Hodson or his wife were at the scene. If so, it was the girlswho
relatedthis accountto Gardner,perhapsseekingto put an end once andfor
all to the Cottingley fairies. Nevertheless, the wording of Gardner's
commentis interesting.His 'gestureof dislike' is both specificand vague.
And why 'that, strictly,is all I can say', and 'I must leave it at that'?The
impressionis overwhelminglyof a man who has somethingto say but is
reluctantto speak. Pubertyis mentioned,what, then, is not?
Gardnerremains tight-lippedon the subject. Conan Doyle, however,
remarkstersely in his book that 'the chief impediment'to successin 1921
'was the change in the girls, the one throughwomanhoodand the other
throughboard-schooleducation'.95As Elsie was then twentyyearsold, and
had left school before the firstCottingleyphotographswere taken, she was
presumably 'the one' who had changed 'through womanhood'. The
commentabout educationmustthen have been aimed at FrancesGriffiths.
Frances was, indeed, not only still at school, she was a scholarshipgirl,
apparentlyindustriousand intelligent,who no doubt alreadyfar outshone
heroldercousin. Elsie Wrighthadbeen thankfulto leave schoolat the age of
thirteen-and-a-half.96We can only assume,then, that the changein Frances
was somethingto do with school, and included but extended beyond the

physical changes of puberty. There might be a clue in Conan Doyle's

comment that 'it is with childhoodthat certain forms of mediumshipare
associated,and there is alwaysthe tendencythat, as the child becomes the
woman,andas the mindbecomesmoresophisticatedandcommonplace,the
phase will pass'.97
In Conan Doyle's lexicon, both 'sophisticated'and 'commonplace'are
undoubtedlytermsof disapproval.Sophisticationwas a markof the times,
part of the new milieu of post-warBritainin which a fashionable,worldly
cynicismprevailed;it also connotes a particularkind of feminine sexual
maturity,one whichConanDoyle could not admire.The incipient'flapper'
was perhaps, in fact, a species that he could barely recognize. 'Common-
place' operatesat a differentregister.It suggestsa hackneyedordinariness,
to whichis addedmorethana hintof classdisapprobation.PerhapsFrances,
alreadytechnicallya woman,wasexhibitinga certainknowingness,a lackof
refinementin mindor manner,whichput her at odds with Gardner,and, by
association,ConanDoyle. No longersimplya prettycountrychildin a white
pinafore, Franceswas by now a bright, and possiblysexuallyand socially
disquieting,young person. Perhapsit was this new FrancesGriffiths,with
her 'sophisticated and commonplace' mind, that the fairies, or their
spokesmen,so disliked.
Social class remainsthe unspoken, and perhaps,for Gardner,unspeak-
able element of the Cottingleycase. Childhoodhad its privileges,but social
distinctionsremained.The fact is that, just like the Fox sistersandFlorence
Cook before them, Elsie WrightandFrancesGriffithswere separatedfrom
the worldof ConanDoyle and Gardnerby the greatsocial divide. For their
part, Conan Doyle and Gardnerrecognizedthat if they were to probe the
secrets of Cottingleyglen, at least one of them must deal face-to-facewith
these working-classdaughtersof Albion and theirfamilies.The uneasiness
with which they viewed their position is as evident in the accountsof both
men as it is in the documentedresponsesof Victorianpsychicalresearchers
fifty years earlier. Then, investigatorsof spiritualismhad assumed that
working-classspiritualistmediumswere less trustworthythan any middle-
class counterpart.This assumptionwas based largelyon unacknowledged
classsuspicionand hostilitywhichmanifesteditself in fearsof working-class
immoralityand cupidity,but it was also based on the realizationthat the
prospectof financialgain mightact as an inducementto fraudin the case of
working-classindividuals.
Conan Doyle and Gardnermake no explicitreferenceto class consider-
ations or tensions, but possible motives for fraudulencein the Cottingley
case were clearlyon Gardner'smind when he visited the Wrightfamilyin
1920.He was sharplywatchfulfor anyhintof pecuniarydesignsor desirefor
advancement,and comments:
The case resolved itself at an early stage into the examinationof the
personalelementandthe motivefor fakedwork.It was thisthatoccupied

us so strenuously,forwe fullyrealizedthe imperativeneed of overwhelm-

ingly satisfyingproof of personal integrity before accepting the photo-
graphsas genuine.98
Whenall is said and done, then, it is 'proofof personalintegrity'withwhich

Gardnerand ConanDoyle were 'so strenuously'concerned,and whichfor
themwouldconstitutethe ultimatevalidationof the Cottingleyphenomena.
It seems, perhaps typically, that the moral element was particularly
importantfor ConanDoyle who statesthat, 'Itwasclearthatat the lastit was
the characterand surroundingsof the childrenuponwhichthe inquirymust
turn, ratherthanupon the photos themselves'.' In the final,and for Conan
Doyle determining,analysis, everythinghung on the acceptabilityof the
girls and their home environments.In the event, the Wrightfamily and
Frances Griffithsproved acceptableto Conan Doyle and Gardner.Most
importantly,there was no obvious motive. The family shunnednotoriety
and refusedmoney. Thus, Gardnerconcludes,'the strengthof the case lies
in its amazingsimplicityandthe integrityof the familyconcerned.It is on the
photographic plus the personal evidence that the case stands'.'0? All
concernedhad passedthe litmustest of moralrespectability.
Over sixty years later Elsie Hill (nee Wright)finallyconfessedto having
constructedthe fairyfiguresout of WindsorandNewton Bristolboard.Her
techniquehad requiredno tamperingwith camerasor photographicplates;
she had drawnthe fairies, cut them out, paintedthem with water-colours,
and secured them to the ground with hat pins.101As we know, but in a
development which could never have been anticipated, the photographs
were subsequentlysprungupon the world by Conan Doyle. Suddenlythe
girlsfound themselvescreditedby the famouswriterwith the power to see
fairies and offer proof of their existence. Importantpeople visited them
fromLondon, took note of whatthey had to say, and showedgreatinterest
in their photographs.Articles and books were written about them. This
perhapsgave the girlsa certainsense of importance,even of power, andit is
possible that this was somethingthey were unwillingto relinquish.On the
other hand, having clung to their story from the start, it perhaps then
becameimpossibleto divulgetheirsecret.
Lookingback, Elsie Wrightsaidthat at the time she couldnot bearto see
ConanDoyle 'destroyedby two villagekids':
I was also feeling sad for ConanDoyle, we had readin the newspapersof
his getting some jarring commints [sic], first about his interest in
Spiritualismandnow laughterabouthis belief in ourfairis[sic],therewas
also a crual[sic]cartoonof him in a newspaperchainedto a chairwithhis
head in a cloud, and SherlockHolmes stood beside him, he had recently
lost his son in the war and the poor man was probablytryingto comfort
himselfwith unwordly[sic] things. So I said to Francesall rightwe wont
[sic] tell as Conan Doyle and Mr Gardener [sic] are the only two we have

knownof, who havebelievedin ourfairyphotos andthey both mustbe at

least 35 yearsolderthanwe are, so we will waittill they have both died of
old age, then we will tell.'02
They did not immediately'tell', however.Any limitedpowerthat Elsie and

Francesmightonce have felt or hadin the affairhadlong sincebeen eroded.
For the fairies, once mobilizedby Conan Doyle, took on a momentumof
theirown andrefusedto fly away.Elsie Wrightwas drivenin her twentiesto
seek anonymityand solace in the United States, and both womenwere to a
certainextent hauntedby the episode throughouttheirlives.
But whatof GardnerandConanDoyle, the apparentdupesof two young
girls?Poweris relational,andthe Cottingleyepisodewas shapedas much,if
not more, by social relationsas by any psychicalpower that the girlsmight
have been deemed to possess. The gentlemenwere actuallyin a far better
positionto protecttheirintereststhan were the girls. Nowhereis this more
clearly illustrated than in the handling of the worldly aspects of the
Cottingley case. As we have seen, Gardner and Conan Doyle were
concernedaboutfraudandthe possiblemotivesfor it - concernswhichhad
theirbasisin classantipathy.Similarly,Gardnerwaswritingto ConanDoyle
priorto his firstvisit to Cottingley:
By the way, I am anxiousto avoid the money consideration.I may not

succeed, but wouldfar rathernot introduceit. We are out for Truth,and
nothingsoils the way so quickly.So far as I am concernedyou shallhave
everythingI can properlygive you.'03
WhatGardneris sayinghereis thathe does not wantto offerthe girlsmoney

as nothing'soils'the searchfor 'Truth'more effectively.
In an ironic twist, however, it is Conan Doyle and Gardner who
recognizedthe commercialpossibilitiesof the Cottingleyfairies, and who
were takenup with the issuesof publicityandmoneyin the earlydaysof the
case. The Wrightfamily, on the other hand, were extremelyreluctantto
have details of the incidentpublished,and 'almostindignantly'rejected a
suggestedmoney payment.'" Far from it being the Wrightswho sought to
gain from the Cottingley episode, it was Gardnerwho obtained free of
charge from Arthur Wright the copyrightof the photographs,and pro-
ceeded to lecture up and down the countrywith them, taking them on a
lecturetourto the United Statesin 1927;ConanDoyle who usedthemas the
basisfor his lucrativeStrand articles,his book, and in his subsequenttours;
and Snelling, the photographer, who sold prints of the photographs,
receivinga thirdof the profits,the rest being dividedbetween ConanDoyle
and Gardnerwith the formerholdingout for the lion's share. This was the
secret and starkrealityof Cottingleyas a businesstransaction,the detailsof
whichwere not published.Gardnerhad indeedproducedfor ConanDoyle,
as promised, 'everythingI can properlygive you'. And yet Conan Doyle

could still trumpetpubliclythat 'anymercenaryconsideration'might'taint'

fairytestimony,andGardnercouldstillpeer aboutfor unacceptablesignsof
working-class greed.105
Although this is perhapsthe most obvious and disturbingexample, the
operationof unequalpowerrelationsis elsewhereevidentin the Cottingley
story.The Cottingleyphotographswere takenby two girls,one of them still
very young, in an attempt to construct a tangible and immediately
identifiableconfirmationof the realityof theirprivateworld. If, as she later
claimed, Elsie Wright devised the plan to support her young cousin's
adamant insistence that she played with fairies, something which got
Frances into trouble with Mr and Mrs Wright, the photographswere
intendedto be used as currencyin the old familialstrugglebetween age and
youth. " In this context, the photographsrepresentan effort to seize the
initiativein an indirectand ingenious confrontationwith adult authority,
and mustalwaysstandas a beautifullycontrivedand executedtestimonyto
childhoodfriendship.
If, however, for the girls,the majorpoint of the fairyphotographswas to
convinceElsie Wright'sparentsthatFrancesdidindeedplaywithfairies,the
criticalfactor as far as the photographerswere concernedwas that Frances
shouldappearwith a suitableselectionof elfincreatures.In this respect,the
first and most famous of the photographs,'Alice and the Fairies', is as
perfect a specimen as the girls could have wished. That FrancesGriffiths
regardedthe firstphotographas specifictestimonyto her associationwith
fairyfolk, is clearfroma lettershe wrotein November1918to a youngfriend
in SouthAfrica:
. . . all think the war will be over in a few days, we are going to get our
flags to hang up in our bedroom. I am sendingyou two photos, both of
me, one is me in a bathingcostumein our back yard, uncle Arthur[Mr
Wright]took that, while the other is me with some fairiesup the beck,
Elsie took that one. 107
On the backof the photographshe wrote, 'Elsie andI are veryfriendlywith

the beck fairies . . .'. The whole point of the photograph for Frances
Griffiths,then, was that it is 'of me'. As far as she was concerned,she is as
much the subject of the photographas the fairies. There is also a sense in
whichElsie Wright,as the photographer,is equallypresent.It was she who
organizedthe figuresaccordingto her vision of a worldshe inhabitedwith
the younger girl. At one level an assertion and celebration of youthful
subjectivity, 'Alice and the Fairies' invites the viewer to enter the rich,
fantasticalworldof two early-twentieth-century girlhoods.
For Conan Doyle, however, none of this pertained. He was primarily
interested in the fairies themselves. As he provides the caption and
accompanyingcommentaryfor the published photographs,it is he who
names and contextualizesthe depicted scenes for the viewer. Thus in his

Cottingley Fairies 79
narrativethe fairies become the subjects, and Elsie Wright and Frances
Griffithsare reducedto marginalfiguresin an elfin landscape.The girlsare
mere accessories,useful to indicatescale and position. This parallelsa shift
in emphasisin the 'incidentshere related',wherethe girls,whilstat the heart
of the matter,are hardlycentral.ConanDoyle's is the masternarrative,and
it is his interpretiveschema which shapes the 'incidents'into a coherent
whole. However, he, Gardner,andHodson, are eachgranteda directvoice
in this accountvia their letters, notes, and reports,whilstthe two girls are
present only indirectly.The closest we really get to one of the girls is the
reproductionof Elsie Wright'sconversationwith the WestminsterGazette
reporter.In a similarvein, the potentialConanDoyle saw in the 'incidents'
andthe photographs,andhis interpretationof them, wasnot sharedby Elsie
Wrightand FrancesGriffiths,and bearslittle relationshipto anythingthey
had in mindin 1917. Once, however,the gentlemenbeganto get involved,
the girlswere set at a profounddisadvantage.They foundthemselvesin an
untenableposition,unableeitherto controleventsor to retract.All thatwas
left to them, if they wantedto maintainface, was to go alongwith the quite
differentagendaof the investigators.Hence, presumably,the endless(and,
in the circumstances,possibly excruciating)trips to Cottingleyglen with
Hodson in 1921.
The Cottingleyfairyphotographsare a fragmentof 1917childhoodwhich
Conan Doyle appropriatedand invested with new meaning, and the
intentionsand dreamsof the girlswere subsumedin the process. Intended
by Elsie Wrightand Frances Griffithsto stand as a personal record and
confirmationof their relationshipwith the Cottingley fairy world, the
photographswere instead circulatedby ConanDoyle for publicconsump-
tion in order to supporthis own dearlyheld beliefs about spiritualism.But
thereis a sense in whichCottingleywasstructuredaroundan ambiguousand
shiftingbalanceof power. After all, it was the girlswho possessedthe much
desiredfirst-handknowledgeof the fairykingdomandthe abilityto produce
fairyphotographs.And in a furthertwist, just as Conan Doyle's interpre-
tationof the Cottingleyphotographsand episode marginalizedthe girls, his
championingof the Cottingleyfairiesserved to furthermarginalizehim in
the eyes of a titillated but disbelievingpublic: poor Sherlock Holmes -
hopelesslycrazy. It is the Cottingleyfairiesthemselves, those 'borderland
forms', who, far from existingsimplyon the 'margin',have outlived their
creatorsand promotersto secure for themselvesa permanentplace in the
culturalmythologyof the twentiethcentury.
Conan Doyle's fairyland was inextricably linked with a fantasy of
childhood, a complex weaving of his own ideas, beliefs and desires with
those of two girlsin a northernvillage.His responseto the Cottingleyfairies
came closer than he probablyknew to traditionalbeliefs which associated
fairieswith the spiritsand ghostsof the other world, but for him they were
conditionalon a nostalgicnotion of childhoodinnocence and represented
spiritualvalues in a world strippedof 'mystery'and 'glamour'.If glamour

was what Conan Doyle sought in the aftermathof the great war, the grey
yearsof reconstruction,and a modernworldmadeover to aridmaterialism,
he most certainlyfoundit at Cottingley.ConanDoyle's longingfor a world
remade, one in which magic and spiritualitystill had their place, found
expressionin a girlhoodfairylandandthe prettydancingcreaturesof 'Alice
and the Fairies'.
But the fairies are not alwayskind. We know from traditionalfolk tales
that misfortune can befall the traveller who seeks out or accidentally
witnessesthe glory of faerie, whilstglamouris one of the formsof sorcery
most usuallyassociatedwiththe fairies.It is by this meansthatthey are able
to enchantmere mortalsand affect scenes of transformationin which the
spellboundexperience haystacksas palaces, wooded glens as banqueting
halls, and, perhaps, Yorkshiredells as fairyland.108 The price of enchant-
ment, though,is invariablydisenchantment.The Cottingleyfairiesbrought
unwelcomenotorietyto Elsie WrightandFrancesGriffiths,somethingthey
spent much of their lives tryingto escape, and did little to enhanceConan
Doyle's reputation.Indeed, he musthave been awareat one level that the
Cottingleyfairieswouldflyonly in certainesotericcirclesandin the popular
imagination.It is significantthat, consummatepublicistas he was, Conan
Doyle made no attemptto submitreportsof the Cottingleyphenomenato
the Society for PsychicalResearch, the Folklore Society, or the British
Journal of Photography.These august associations maintained a stony
silence on the subjectof the Cottingleyfairies, and broke it only after the
passageof some fiftyyears.109
The Cottingleyepisode can be characterizedas a moderntransformative
event, one in whichappearancesdeceive andrealityis redefined.It pointsto
the complexity of the processes by which meaning is constructed. The
Cottingleyfairies were presentedas proof of the existence of a particular
truthand reality.They serveinsteadas a confirmationof the contingencyof
reality, the multiplesignificationsof commonly-heldculturalsymbols, and
the formidablepowerof photographicimages.Realityis a movablefeast. If
WindsorandNewtonartboardbreathedlife, it wasbecausethe actorsin this
particulartransformationscene shareda specificculturalframeworkwithin
whichbelief, desire, and fantasyinteractedto structureindividualinterpre-
tationandexperience.The fairiesof childhoodand'borderlandforms'were
two competingbut interdependentarticulationsof reality. The fact that it
was as 'borderlandforms'thatthe Cottingleyfairiestravelledthe globe only
serves to remind us once again of the reciprocityof those systems of
representationand social relationsthat in partmakeup whatwe thinkof as
the real world.
NOTES
Thisis an extendedversionof a papergivenat the Universityof California,Berkeley,in April

1991.I shouldlike to thankthat audience,andCarolineFord,Alison Light,RaphaelSamuel,
andmy HistoryWorkshopJournaleditors,for theirconstructivecommentson an earlierdraft.

1 After the initialinterestduringthe 1920s,the Cottingleyfairiesreceivedintermittent

attentionduringthe 1930sand 1940s(see, for example,JosephJastrow,Wishand Wisdom,
Episodesin theVagariesof Belief, 1935,and,J.A. Hamerton,MonstersandFairies,1943),and
surfacedagainstronglyfromthe 1960sonwards.It seems likelythatthisresurgenceof interest
waslinkedto an emergingfascinationwiththe occult.Foran ideaof the rangeof coverage,see:
DailyExpress,24 May1965,28 May1965;1971BBCtelevision(Nationwide)interviewwiththe
elder of the Cottingleyphotographers,Elsie Hill (nee Wright),and 1976Yorkshiretelevision
interviewwithFrancesWade(nee Griffiths),the younger;Weekend,12-18February1975;R.
Sheaffer,'Do FairiesExist?', TheZetetic,Fall/Winter,1977;BBC television(Channel2) play
entitled 'Fairies',a reconstructionbased on interviewswith the Cottingleyphotographers;a
series of articleson Cottingley,The Unexplained:Mysteriesof MindSpaceand Time,Vol. 2,
Issues20, 21, 22 (1981),andVol. 10, Issues116and 117(1982);GeoffreyCrawley'sperceptive
and sympatheticseriesof articleswhichhe claimsfinallypersuadedElsie Hill (nee Wright)to
make her confession,'ThatAstonishingAffair of the CottingleyFairies',BritishJournalof
Photography,24 December1982-18February1983,and 1 April1983-8April1983;concluded
May 1985 and July 1986. Mrs Hill's confessionalletter was writtento GeoffreyCrawleyin
February1983, and a facsimileappearedin the same journal, 1 April 1983, p. 335. Frances
Wade(nee Griffiths)madea confirmingstatementto TheTimes,18 March1983.Joe Cooper,
TheCaseof theCottingleyFairies,1990,is an absorbingaccountof the author'sfriendshipwith
Elsie Hill and FrancesWade in old age. He claimsthat FrancesWade confessedto him in
September1981.
2 The technicalaspectsof the photographsfeaturein the argumentsof advocatesand
criticsalike.A representativecriticalapproachis takenby JamesRandi,Flim-Flam!TheTruth
aboutUnicorns,Parapsychology andOtherDelusions,NewYork, 1980,pp. 12-42,whofollows
in the nineteenth-century traditionof magicianswho relentlesslysoughtto debunkspiritualist
andalliedpsychicalphenomena.The best accountto dateof the Cottingleyepisodeis provided
by Crawley,'ThatAstonishingAffairof the CottingleyFairies'.
3 See MichaelBaker, TheDoyle Diary, 1978.
4 Mrs Bray, A Descriptionof the Partof DevonshireBorderingon the Tamarand the
Tavy;itsNaturalHistory,Manners,Customs,Superstitions, Scenery,Antiquities,Biographyof
EminentPersons,etc., in a Seriesof Lettersto RobertSouthey,Esq., 1836.
5 See, for example, Lewis Spence, The Fairy Traditionin Britain,p. 13, pp. 135-6;
KatharineM. Briggs,TheFairiesin Traditionand Literature,1967.
6 For a concise accountof the Victorianfairy painters,see, JeremyMaas, Victorian
Painters(1969) 1978,pp. 148-162.
7 See, MichaelBooth, VictorianSpectacularTheatre,1981,pp. 35-39; ShirleyS. Allen,
SamuelPhelpsandSadler'sWellsTheatre,Middletown,Conn., 1971,p. 236.
8 RichardM. Dorson, The BritishFolklorists:A History,Chicago, 1968, providesa
detailed accountof the debates withinthe Folk-LoreSociety concerningthe originof fairy
beliefs. See also, Carole Silver, 'On the Originof Fairies:Victorians,Romantics,and Folk
Belief', BrowningInstituteStudies14, 1986,pp. 141-156.JacquelineRose (The Caseof Peter
Panor theImpossibilityof Children'sFiction,London&Basingstoke,1984,p. 38) alludesto the
suppressedmotif of deathin PeterPan, and to Barrie'ssuggestionthat 'Peteris only a sortof
deadbaby . . .'.
9 The TheosophicalSocietywas inauguratedin New York in 1875by MadamHelene
Petrova Blavatskyand her close associate, Colonel Steel Olcott. The Society promoteda
complexamalgamof the core teachingsof the greatreligiousand arcanephilosophiesof the
world,andattractedmanywell-educatedmiddle-classmen andwomen.
10 Gardnerexplainsthis in the reportto ConanDoyle includedin the Strandarticle.The
fact that the printswhichwere ultimatelyto come undersuch close scrutinywere enlarged
positivesmade from a second set of negatives,has not been lost on critics.Gardnerhimself
elucidated years later: 'The instructionsI then left . . . were that the originalsmust be
absolutelyuntouched;contactpositiveswere to be madefromthem, and the negativesfrom
these could be modified or strengthenedto get good-class prints, but nothing more, no
re-touchingor treatments,andthattwo glasslantern-slidesbe made'.See EdwardL. Gardner,
Fairies:the CottingleyPhotographsandtheirSequel(1945)1966,p. 18. Gardnermakesit clear,
however,thatConanDoyle had 'examinedthe originalnegatives'(Gardner,Fairies,p. 19).
11 ArthurConanDoyle, TheComingof theFairies,1922,p. 16.
12 'FairiesPhotographed:An Epoch-MakingEvent. . . Describedby A. ConanDoyle',
TheStrandMagazine,Dec. 1920,reproducedin ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 29, whereit is

unalteredexcept for the removalof a referenceto a spiritualistmedium.Citationshere are to

thisversion.
13 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 31.
14 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 30. ConanDoyle (TheComing,pp. 16-17)publishesa letter
from Edward Gardnerwhich indicates that the second expert was from Leeds and was
experiencedin exposing"'psychic"fakes'.He, too, was'entirelysatisfied'.In hisarticle,Conan
Doyle choosesto dwellon Snelling,a manunconnectedwithspiritualistor psychicalcircles.
15 Gardner, Fairies, pp. 18-19, reproducesSnelling'sletter of 31 July 1920 and the
communicationfrom Kodak. The formerstates that the 'two negativesare entirelygenuine
unfakedphotographsof singleexposure,open-airwork,showmovementin all the fairyfigures,
and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper models, dark
backgrounds,paintedfigures,etc.'. Kodakassertsthat 'Theplatesshowno signof beingfaked
work,but thatcannotbe takenas conclusiveevidenceof genuineness'.The Kodakstudiochief
felt thatsome studioworkmighthave been involved.
16 ConanDoyle, 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 32.
19 'FairiesPhotographed'.
20 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 39. It was, in fact, Iriswho pointedout the pipesheldby the
gnome, and who commentedthat if all was quietin the wood 'it was possibleto hearthe very
faintandhighsoundof the pipes'(p. 37).
23 'Do FairiesExist?', Westminster Gazette,12 Jan. 1921, reproducedin ConanDoyle,
TheComing,pp. 43-50. Citationsreferto thisversion.Cooper,CottingleyFairies,p. 48, states
that the Gazettewas not the firstnewspaperat the scene. The Daily Heraldapparentlyhad a
reporterat Cottingleywithina week of the publicationof ConanDoyle's article.
24 'Do FairiesExist?',p. 44.
26 ConanDoyle notes thatshe 'hadactuallyat one timedone some designsfor a jeweller'
(Conan Doyle, 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 40). Cooper (CottingleyFairies,p. 22) notes that
Elsie Wrightleft schoolbeforeshe wasfourteen,andattendedBradfordArt College.
27 'Do FairiesExist?',pp. 48-9.
29 ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 66, collapsesthese events. Gardner,Fairies,pp. 24-27,
describesthemin greaterdetail.
30 Randi,Flim-Flam!,p. 26, disputesthe claimthatthe weatherwasbad.
31 Gardner,Fairies,p. 26.
32 Letter, Gardnerto Conan Doyle, 6 Sept. 1920. Cited, ConanDoyle, The Coming,
p.67.
33 Conan Doyle, 'The Evidence for Fairies, with more Fairy Photographs',Strand
Magazine,March1921,pp. 199-206.The articlewasreproducedin ConanDoyle, TheComing,
pp. 87-106, exceptfor a one-paragraph descriptionof fairieswhichwasexcisedandplacedlater
in the book (ChapterVII, 'SomeSubsequentCases').Citationsreferto TheComing.
35 ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 75.
36 TheComing.
37 TheComing,p. 74.
38 TheComing,p. 75.
39 TheComing.
40 TheComing,pp. 76-85.
41 CitedCooper,CottingleyFairies,p. 65.
44 ConanDoyle, TheComing,pp. 17-18.
45 TheComing,p. 10.
46 TheComing,p. 15.
47 ConanDoyle, 'TheEvidencefor Fairies',p. 99.
48 See Essays in Photographyby ArthurConan Doyle, ed. John MichaelGibson and
RichardLancelynGreen, 1982. Crawley('That AstonishingAffair') notes that as a skilled

amateurphotographerConanDoyle musthaveknownthe possibleimplicationsof thatsecond

set of negativesfromwhichall futureCottingleyprintswereto be produced.(see n. 10).
50 RolandBarthes,CameraLucida:Reflectionson Photography,trans.RichardHoward,
New York, 1981,p. 98.
52 Letter, Conan Doyle to Gardner,21 Oct. 1920. Cited Conan Doyle, The Coming,
p.68.
53 Maurice Hewlett writing in John o'London. Cited Conan Doyle, The Coming,
pp. 59-60.
54 Gardner'sresponseto MajorHall-Edwards.CitedTheComing,p. 59. See also, Conan
Doyle, 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 32.
55 HeskethPearson,ConanDoyle, His LifeandArt, 1943.
56 See Ronald Pearsall'scomments(in overblownFreudianmode), Conan Doyle: A
BiographicalSolution,1977,pp. 134-6.The ConanDoyle literatureis vast,butfor a treatment
relevantfor this discussion,see CarloGinzburg,'Morelli,FreudandSherlockHolmes:Clues
and ScientificMethod', History WorkshopJournal9, Spring, 1980, pp. 5-36. The article
appearsin differentform in Ginzburg's,Clues, Myths,and the HistoricalMethod,London,
1989,pp. 96-125.
57 For recent majorstudiesinvolvingdifferentaspectsof spiritualismand the occult in
Britain see, Janet Oppenheim, The Other World:Spiritualismand PsychicalResearchin
England,1850-1914,Cambridge,1985;Logie Barrow,IndependentSpirits:Spiritualismand
EnglishPlebeians,1850-1910, 1986;Alex Owen, TheDarkenedRoom: Women,Powerand
Spiritualismin Late VictorianEngland,1989;DianaBasham,The Trialof Woman:Feminism
and the OccultSciencesin VictorianLiteratureand Society,Basingstoke,1992;Anne Taylor,
Annie Besant:A Biography,Oxford, 1992;Joy Dixon, 'Gender,Politics, and Culturein the
New Age: Theosophyin England,1880-1935',Ph.D. Rutgers,The State Universityof New
Jersey,1993.
58 ArthurConanDoyle, MemoriesandAdventures,1924,p. 20.
59 The Society for PsychicalResearchwas establishedin 1882 by a small group of
intellectuals,and ConanDoyle becamea memberduringthe 1890s.He resignedonly shortly
beforehis death,buthadlongbeen criticalof the Society'sconductwithrespectto spiritualism.
ConanDoyle was finallyprovokedto resign,whichhe did amidsta flurryof controversy,by
Theodore Besterman'sharshreviewfor the Society'sjournalof GwendolynKelley Hack's
book, ModernPsychicMysteries(1929).For ConanDoyle's letterof protest,andthe Society's
response,see, Journalof theSocietyof PsychicalResearch26, March1930,pp. 45-52.
60 See ArthurConanDoyle, Lettersto the Press,ed. JohnMichaelGibsonand Richard
LancelynGreen, 1986,p. 25.
61 He did so in an article in Light, 4 November 1916, entitled, 'A New Revelation:
SpiritualismandReligion'.Two booksquicklyfollowed, TheNewRevelation(1918), andVital
Message(1919).
62 The spiritualistworksincludedthe two-volumeTheHistoryof Spiritualism(1926), as
well as numerousarticleson relatedsubjects.
63 The earlyexceptionis JohnLamond,ArthurConanDoyle:A Memoir,1931,whichis
writtenfroma spiritualistperspective.Morerecently,see TrevorHall, SherlockHolmesand
His Creator,1977;RonaldPearsall,ConanDoyle: A BiographicalSolution;KelvinI. Jones,
ConanDoyle and the Spirits,Northamptonshire,1989. See, also, JeffreyL. Meikle, "'Over
There":ArthurConanDoyle andSpiritualism',LibraryChronicleof the Universityof Texasat
Austin n.s., no. 8, Fall 1974, pp. 23-37. For a furtherdiscussionof spiritualismand the
biographicalissue, see Jon L. Lellenberg,The Questfor Sir ArthurConanDoyle: Thirteen
Biographersin Searchof a Life, CarbondaleandEdwardsville,1987.Thisvolumeis a helpful
commentaryuponandcorrectiveto the majorConanDoyle biographies.
64 JohnDicksonCarr,TheLifeof SirArthurConanDoyle(1949)New York, 1975,p. 400.
65 See, 'Poor SherlockHolmes - HopelesslyCrazy',featuredin, MichaelBaker, The
Doyle Diary, p. xix; and Punch, 12 May 1926. The drawingis by Punch'sstar cartoonist,
BernardPartridge.
66 ArthurConanDoyle, TheCasefor SpiritPhotography,1922.
67 See ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 18.


71 Letter, Conan Doyle to Gardner,21 Oct. 1920. Cited Conan Doyle, The Coming,
p.69.
72 Gardner'sIntroductionto Geoffrey Hodson, Fairiesat Workand at Play, 1925,
pp. 11-12.
74 Hodson, Fairiesat Workand at Play, p. 35. Conan Doyle considersrelated evol-
utionaryissuesin both the secondStrandarticleand TheComing.
75 Annie BesantandC.W. Leadbeater,Thought-Forms (1925)Wheaton,Ill., 1969,p. 1.
The term 'astralplane' refersto a level of matterso subtle that it is affectedby feeling and
emotion.
77 'Evidence',pp. 88-9.
78 'Evidence',p. 89.
79 'Evidence',p. 88.
80 Cooper,CottingleyFairies,p. 7.
81 Cooper(p. 126)notes thatFranceswasusedto a variedsociallife in SouthAfrica,and
foundconditionsat Cottingleydifficult:therewereno servants,she hadto eat blackbread,and
she sleptin a crampedatticwithElsie.
82 See TheTimes,18March1983and 13July1986.See, also, Crawley,'ThatAstonishing
Affair',1 April1983,p. 338.
83 ConanDoyle commentsthatGardner'sinitialapproachto the Wrightfamilywas'made
more easy because Mrs Carpenter[Wright]was a readerof theosophicalteachingsand had
gainedspiritualgood fromthem'. See ConanDoyle, 'FairiesPhotographed',p. 31. According
to Cooper(CottingleyFairies,p. 11), both MrsPollyWrightandMrsAnnie Griffithsattended
TheosophicalSocietymeetingsin Bradford.
84 Owen, DarkenedRoom, examinesthese issuesin detail.For women'sinvolvementin
Americanspiritualismsee Ann Braude,RadicalSpirits:Spiritualismand Women'sRightsin
Nineteenth-Century America,Boston, 1989;and a valuablechapterin R. LaurenceMoore,In
Searchof WhiteCrows:Spiritualism,Parapsychology, andAmericanCulture,New York, 1977.
87 'Do FairiesExist?',p. 45 andp. 47.
89 ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 66; and'FairiesPhotographed',p. 37.
93 Letter,ConanDoyle fromGardner,25 June 1920.CitedTheComing,p. 17.
96 See TheUnexplained2: 21, pp. 414-17;Cooper,CottingleyFairies,p. 22.
97 ConanDoyle, TheComing,p. 51. He is commentinghere on Elsie'searlierremarkto
the Westminster Gazettereporterthatthe fairiesbecamemoretransparentas she andFrances
got older.
98 TheComing,p. 58.
99 TheComing,p. 23.
100 TheComing,p. 58.
101 Accordingto Cooper (CottingleyFairies,p. 124), FrancesWade told him in September
1981 that Elsie Wrighthad based her Cottingleyfairieson illustrationsin the 1915Princess
MaryGiftBook thatshe hadbroughtwithherto Cottingleyin 1917.
102 Facsimileof Elsie Hill'sletterto GeoffreyCrawley,'ThatAstonishingAffair',1 April
1983,p. 335. Elsie'sreferenceis to the 1926Punchcartoon.See also TheTimes,4 April1983,
for an articlein which Elsie Hill paraphrasesher letter, remarkingthat 'It would have been
terriblefor him [ConanDoyle] to havebeen destroyedby two villagekids'.
103 Letter, Gardnerto Conan Doyle, 25 June 1920. Cited Conan Doyle, The Coming,
p. 17.
104 Gardner,Fairies,p. 23. TheTimes,4 April1983,reportsthateachof the girlsreceived
?20 in war bond certificates.However, accordingto Crawley('ThatAstonishingAffair', 28
January 1983, pp. 91-3), Elsie Wright eventually received ?100 in war bonds. Crawley bases his

accounton the unpublishedcorrespondencebetween ConanDoyle and Gardnerheld in the

BrothertonLibrary,Universityof Leeds, and makes the point that much of their original
correspondencewas taken up with the issue of money. I am indebtedto Crawley'saccountof
Cottingley'sfinancialaspects.
105 ConanDoyle, The Coming,p. 107. In old age Elsie Hill and FrancesWadebeganto
consider separate book projects detailing their youthful experiences. Cooper, Cottingley
Fairies,p. 105, considersthat by this point both women were 'muchconcernedwith money
(perhapshugesums). . .'.
106 Elsie Hill said uponhearingof Frances'deathin 1986,'To thinkit all startedwithme
tryingto cheerthe kid up andget her out of a scrape'.FrancesWade,for her part,maintained
untilthe day she died thatfairieshad actuallyexistedin Cottingleyglen. See, 'Fairyladydies
withher secret', TheSundayTimes,13July1986.
107 The letter was reproducedin the South African newspaper,the Cape Argus, 25
November1922, after the publicityfollowingthe publicationof The Comingof the Fairies.
CitedGardner,Fairies,p. 31.
108 LewisSpence,BritishFairyOrigins,1946,pp. 17-18.
109 Gardner'sFairiesreceiveda harshreviewin the Journalof the Societyfor Psychical
Research(1946);the Cottingleyphenomenonwasofficiallyrecognizedby the FolkloreSociety
in Stewart F. Sanderson'sPresidentialAddress, 'The Cottingley Fairy Photographs:a
re-appraisalof the evidence', Folklore84, Summer1973; GeoffreyCrawleyintroducedthe
subjectin the BritishJournalof Photography(1982-3):see footnote 1.


Alex Owen, " Borderland Forms': Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion's Daughters, and The Politics of The Cottingley Fairies" (1994)

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Alex Owen, " Borderland Forms': Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion's Daughters, and The Politics of The Cottingley Fairies" (1994)

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'Borderland Forms': Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion's Daughters, and the Politics of the

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In the popularimagination,the name Cottingleyinvokesa seriesof famous

History Workshop Journal Issue 38 (C History WorkshopJournal 1994

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paranormalphenomena,bothsideshavelaidclaimto the truthandtherehas

The Romance with Fairyland

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traditional tales and legends influenced a nineteenth-centuryliterary

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London in 1878 each contributedin differentways to the growingfield of

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This iconographywas reproducedon the stage, particularlyin produc-

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'How the Matter Arose'

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existenceof the Cottingleyphotographsearlyin 1920,thathe quicklytraced

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invitesengagementandidentification,not only with her but withher world.

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In January1921Elsie Wrightwas about nineteen yearsold, and was tall

Miss Wrighthesitated, and laughinglyanswered, 'I can't say'. She was

The interviewandthe articleend withElsie declaringthatthe fairiesarenow

Further Fairy Photographs

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ConanDoyle thathe hopedto take the matterfurtherin the earlysummerof

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In the fieldwe sawfiguresaboutthe size of the gnome. Theywere making

Hodson'snotes readlike a folklorist'sdream,but we are not told whatElsie

Building the Case

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Shouldthe incidentshere narrated,and the photographsattached,hold

Here Conan Doyle swiftly evokes a judicial, even scientific, tenor:

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of fairies in Cottingleyglen, is not lost on Conan Doyle, who informshis

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attempts at qualification,Conan Doyle believed the photographsto be

If he believes in the photographstwo inferencescan be made ... one,

Hewlett is right, but only up to a point. Conan Doyle's belief in the

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had long held a hallowed place in the advent of modern spiritualism.In

RationalManat the EnchantedBoundary

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spirit photography, a phenomenon which so fascinated and convinced

Havingdiscoveredthis, the worldwill not findit so difficultto acceptthat

Here MayBowley'searlierreferenceto 'the discoveryof a new world'in her

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concept to fairies. ConanDoyle furtherhypothesizedthat fairiesare 'only

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read accordingto specific intellectual, philosophical,and specularcodes,

as the physicist nears the confines of his kingdom he finds himself

The gentlemeninvolvedwith the Cottingleyfairiesundoubtedlyconsidered

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