Figments of Our Imagination
“Either the most ingenious and elaborate hoax ever played upon the public, or else... an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch-making…” With these words, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, presented to the world five photographs, declared to be genuine and featuring unmistakable images of real fairies. How did the Cottingley fairies become one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century, and why do so many of us want to believe?
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben, with the voice talents of Jack Krause and Lenny Scovel and original music by Purple Planet.
The Cottingley Fairy Photos
1. Frances and the dancing fairies
2. Elsie and the gnome
3. Frances and the leaping fairy
4. Fairy offering a bouquet of harebells to Elsie
5. Fairies and Their Sun-Bath
Music
Purple Planet - Daybreak
Purple Planet - Dawn of Time
Purple Planet - Tears of Beauty
Purple Planet - Teamwork
Purple Planet - Spiritual Moment
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Coming of the Fairies. Project Gutenberg.
Cooper, Joe. “Cottingley: At Last the Truth.” The Unexplained 117. No. 2: 338–340.
“Fairies, Phantoms, and Fantastic Photographs.” Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers. ITV. Season 1. Episode 6. May 22, 1985.
Secondary
Anderson, Douglas A. “Fairy Elements in British Literary Writings in the Decade Following the Cottingley Fairy Photographs Episode.” Mythlore 32, no. 1 (123) (2013): 5-18.
Dobson, Eleanor. “Oscar Wilde, Photography, and Cultures of Spiritualism: ‘The most Magical of Mirrors.’” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 63. No. 2 (2020): 139-161.
Dooley, Miranda. “Fairy, Fairy, Quite Contrary.” New Moon 10. No. 2 (2002): 24.
“The First, and Best Known, of the Cottingley Fairy Photographs.” Nature 346, no. 6281 (1990): 232-232.
Forsberg, Laura. “Nature’s Invisibilia: The Victorian Microscope and the Miniature Fairy.” Victorian Studies 57, no. 4 (2015): 638-666.
Gardner, Leslie. “Notes on Mr S. F. Sanderson’s Presidential Address, 21 March 1973, on ‘the Cottingley Fairy Photographs’.” Folklore 86, no. 3-4 (1975): 190-194.
Heydt, Bruce. “The Adventure of the Cottingley Fairies.” British Heritage 25, no. 2 (2004): 20.
Levine, Timothy R. (ed). “Cottingley Fairies.” Encyclopedia of Deception, 226–228. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2014.
Loxton, Jason, Jillian Baker, Jim W. W. Smith, and Daniel Loxton. “The Cottingley Fairies.” Skeptic 15, no. 3 (2010): 72–81.
Owen, Alex. “‘Borderland Forms’: Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion’s Daughters, and the Politics of the Cottingley Fairies.” History Workshop 38 (1994): 48-85.
Sanderson, S. F. “The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: A Re-Appraisal of the Evidence.” Folklore 84, no. 2 (1973): 89-103.
Sandford, Christopher. “Spookists and Other Rationalists.” The Hedgehog Review 19, no. 3 (2017): 12.
Wynne, Catherine. “Arthur Conan Doyle and Psychic Photographs.” History of Photography 22, no. 4 (1998): 385-392.
