Café Scientifique

Until further notice, Café Scientifique events will take place online.

• Thursday 30 September 2021: Fairies photographed! The Cameo camera and the case of the Cottingley Fairies
• Thursday 27 January 2022: Caught on camera: Reflections on William Hope and the Crewe Circle spirit photographs

Fairies Photographed! The Cameo Camera and the Case of the Cottingley Fairies

Professor Christine Ferguson

In December 1920, The Strand Magazine published a series of sensational photographs taken by two young girls from Cottingley that allegedly showed real-life fairies dancing at the bottom of their garden. Their authenticity was vouched for by no less a person than world-famous author and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. The images immediately triggered a fierce public debate: were they evidence of the existence of otherworldly nature spirits, of the technical craft and duplicity of their creators, or of the suspect nature of photography itself? The cameras used to produce the pictures, along with Elsie Wright’s famous 1983 ‘confession’ letter, are today held in the collection of the National Science and Media Museum.

In this talk, Professor Christine Ferguson, Chair in English Studies at the University of Stirling and Principal Investigator on the Media of Mediumship project, will discuss what these objects can tell us about the long-standing relationship between technological innovation and alternative spiritual belief in modern Britain.

Caught on Camera: Reflections on William Hope and the Crewe Circle Spirit Photographs

Dr Efram Sera-Shriar

During the opening decades of the 20th century, William Hope was a well-respected medium amongst the spiritualist community in Britain, with positive endorsements from major scientific figures such as the chemist William Crookes and the author and physician Arthur Conan Doyle. He was often seen as one of the few mediums to be able to produce authentic spirit photographs.

However, all that changed in late February of 1922 when a team of investigators led by the famous British psychical researcher Harry Price claimed to have caught Hope cheating during one of his sittings and discovered that he was swapping blank photographic plates with ones containing existing images on them that appeared to be depictions of spirit entities. Hope was publicly exposed as a fraud, and what ensued was a major debate between believers and sceptics over the legitimacy of the medium’s alleged spirit photography.

Using surviving materials from the Senate House Library and Science Museum Group collections, including photographs, private correspondence, published sources, and camera technologies, this talk will explore this story, and reflect on what makes for trustworthy evidence in investigations of extraordinary phenomena.