Ingenious Hoax? @ 7
tempted in imitation of the ones she claimed to have seen were "unin-
spired, and bore no possible resemblance to those in the photograph."
When he suggested to Elsie's father that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
might want to make use of the photographs, Wright demurred, and
when offered money he firmly declined, saying that if the photographs
turned out to be genuine, they shouldn't be spoiled by lucre.
With some di&culty Gardner got Wright to agree to their being
published, but only on condition that the family's name and that of the
vlllage be disguised.
In his report to Doyle, Gardner said he was impressed that the most
probable motives for fraud, money and notoriety, were obviously ab-
sent. He said he was impressed by the sincerity and candor of the
Wrights' testimony, which he considered unquestionably honest. He
was satisfied that if there were any dishonorable or counterfeit intent
behind the photographs, it was without their knowledge.
Satisfied on this crucial point, Doyle and Gardner agreed to publish
the photographs with a story that appeared in the Christmas 1922 issue
of Strand Magazine.
Realizing that an event such as "fairy photographs" would cause a
small hror and that they would need additional supportive evidence as
incontrovertible as possible, Gardner suggested that Elsie and Frances
each be provided with a camera and two dozen plates with which to
take more pictures.
Frances, who was then living in Scarborough, a traditional resort for
the working classes on the northeast coast of England, was invited to
spend part of her summer holidays at Cottingley with Elsie.
Gardner acquired two good Cameo cameras of the folding type that
used single plates and had the factory at Ilhngsworth provide him with
two dozen quarter-plates marked in such a way that only the factory
manager and hls technicians could recopze them when exposed.
On a second trip to Cottingley, Gardner gave the girls the cameras
and showed them the simplest way to use them, advising them to go
into the glen only on fine sunny days to "'tice" the fairies. He also sug-
gested the most obvious and easy precautions concerning lighting and
distance.