Do You Believe In Fairies In Cottingley, England In 1917

Do you believe in fairies? If not, say you were presented with photographic evidence of fairies? Would you believe it then? That was the dilemma in Cottingley, England in 1917. When two young girls took five photos of fairies, sparking national discourse between believers and nonbelievers. In 1917, two girls were playing in their backyard, a little rougher than they were told they should. One of the girls, Frances Wright, slipped and fell into a streams near where they were playing. When she and her cousin, Elsie Wright, came home that day, Frances was scolded by her mother for coming home wet. Both Elsie and Frances insisted that she was wet because she fell when they were playing with the fairies. Of course her mother didn’t believe a word and Frances was sent to her room. Elsie wanted to cheer her cousin up and came up with the idea
Theosophists, people who dedicated their lives to the study of supernatural beings like fairies, went mad when they discovered the photos. They fully believed in the photos, using them as proof for the existence of fairies, and possibly other supernatural events. When Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a special article about the fairies and their existence, the newspaper sold out quickly, making the general public cause quite a scene. It wasn’t any surprise the general public were critics too. One man, Major hall-Edwards said, “On the evidence I have no hesitation in saying these photographs could have been ‘faked’...I believe that the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will result in later life in manifestations and nervous disorder and mental disturbances…” Of course the other side of the public criticized those who didn’t believe and accused the children of faking the photos. Although, those people who defended the children were the naive, optimistic type. At this time, who could blame them? Depressing war times were pushing everyone to believe and hope for something