Posted on 09/27/2018 7:05:53 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Elsie’s father, a keen amateur photographer who developed the prints, never doubted they were fakes, his wife Polly was a believer and in 1919 she took prints of the two photographs to show members of the Theosophical Society in Bradford where they were giving a lecture on fairy life.
From there things spiralled out of control, first through the enthusiastic belief of leading society member Edward Gardner, who used photography expert Harold Snelling to produce photographic prints of them to be sold at Gardner’s theosophical lectures in 1920. It was during 1920 that Conan Doyle, a committed and leading spiritualist believer, became aware of the photographs and wanted to use them for an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for The Strand Magazine.
Gardner and Doyle sought further expert opinions from the photographic companies, while Gardner met the Wright family and organised a camera and plates for the girls to try and capture more photographs of the fairies.
During the summer of 1920 the youngsters managed to “capture” three more images of themselves with fairies.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
More than Dianne Feinstein’s fairy hoax will be worth on Monday.
I’ve always wondered about that. Maybe it was a mix of the spirit of the times, when there was a great interest in the ‘supernatural’ and in alternative spiritual ideas, and the fact that photography was relatively new and many people didn’t know much about it (though the father should have been less credulous...)
It seems to me those photos would go for more than that...
Heck, they believed in the PILTDOWN MAN, around the same time, as well.
Photography was new in those days, and people didn’t have the concept of its being manipulated. Also, they did want to believe. “Real life” was World War I, and it was horrible. That’s why Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to believe.
I’m surprised the Doyle connection didn’t drive the price higher. Where were the Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts?
The existence of fairies in the mainstream media is no hoax.
Of possible interest
we have our own fairies in West Hollywood..
They wear boots man, you gotta believe me...
You can go to New Orleans or San Francisco and get lots of pictures of Fairies.
One of them appears daily at noon on Fox News.
Early Photoshop.
She can tinker bell me anytime.
Dakwanda will sell you real pictures for a fraction of that.
Famous pics.
You’re right, those photos were taken as authentic at the time. I often wonder if people then had a different sense of evidence than we do today. Perhaps we are more sceptical generally, but then I think about all of our modern conceits which require us to believe in things just as ridiculous as fairys.
“I’m surprised the Doyle connection didn’t drive the price higher. Where were the Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts?”
Yes, “Sherlock Holmes and the Fairy Photographer” would be ripe for a reboot movie.
Just as long as she’s 5’8”, send her over to my house. I’m ronery. :-(
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