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Is Seeing Believing

Is Seeing Believing: Case of the Cottingley Fairy Photographs

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The case of the Cottingley Fairy Photographs
In 1917, two young girls in England claimed to have photographed some fairies. The photographs were
the subjects of a major controversy and even a book by the famous writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

NOTE: Even though the photos below look very much faked to our 21st century eyes, you must
remember that at the time the photos were taken (1917) many people believed that photographs
represented reality.

These web pages provide additional background:
http://www.randi.org/library/cottingley/
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/photos/cottingley.html

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/cooper.htm

Cottingley photo 1

Photo 2

The Cottingley fairy photograph story was the subject of a a motion picture:

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Film Study Guide

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