Power at play in paranormal history
This article presents a collective object biography and discussion of the Cottingley Fairy artefacts – cameras, photographs, watercolour sketches and print materials – held at the National Science and Media Museum. I demonstrate how the controversial paranormal claims made about the Cottingley...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Science Museum, London
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Science Museum Group Journal |
| Online Access: | https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/power-at-play-in-paranormal-history/ |
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| author | Christine Ferguson |
| author_facet | Christine Ferguson |
| author_sort | Christine Ferguson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This article presents a collective object biography and discussion of the Cottingley Fairy artefacts – cameras, photographs, watercolour sketches and print materials – held at the National Science and Media Museum. I demonstrate how the controversial paranormal claims made about the Cottingley cameras by Arthur Conan Doyle and Edward Gardner relied on the manipulation and obfuscation of key episodes in their history of use, a strategy that worked to distance the objects from each other and from their young female working-class operators Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright. My article seeks to both interlink and restore the lost episodes in the histories of these objects as a way of redressing the power imbalance between the plebeian producers and elite cosmopolitan popularisers of the world-famous fairy photographs. I suggest how a new curatorial approach to the materials might reject the familiar – and largely inaccurate – narrative of deliberate hoax and deception still widely attached to the case, and instead use them to tell a new story about the technological experimentation, artistic aspirations and social restrictions experienced by working-class girls in early twentieth-century Britain. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c650da3138294fa98a92b9c73a08e409 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2054-5770 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Science Museum, London |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Science Museum Group Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-c650da3138294fa98a92b9c73a08e4092025-01-21T11:45:13ZengScience Museum, LondonScience Museum Group Journal2054-57702024-12-012210.15180/242201Power at play in paranormal historyChristine Fergusonhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2261-6290 This article presents a collective object biography and discussion of the Cottingley Fairy artefacts – cameras, photographs, watercolour sketches and print materials – held at the National Science and Media Museum. I demonstrate how the controversial paranormal claims made about the Cottingley cameras by Arthur Conan Doyle and Edward Gardner relied on the manipulation and obfuscation of key episodes in their history of use, a strategy that worked to distance the objects from each other and from their young female working-class operators Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright. My article seeks to both interlink and restore the lost episodes in the histories of these objects as a way of redressing the power imbalance between the plebeian producers and elite cosmopolitan popularisers of the world-famous fairy photographs. I suggest how a new curatorial approach to the materials might reject the familiar – and largely inaccurate – narrative of deliberate hoax and deception still widely attached to the case, and instead use them to tell a new story about the technological experimentation, artistic aspirations and social restrictions experienced by working-class girls in early twentieth-century Britain.https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/power-at-play-in-paranormal-history/ |
| spellingShingle | Christine Ferguson Power at play in paranormal history Science Museum Group Journal |
| title | Power at play in paranormal history |
| title_full | Power at play in paranormal history |
| title_fullStr | Power at play in paranormal history |
| title_full_unstemmed | Power at play in paranormal history |
| title_short | Power at play in paranormal history |
| title_sort | power at play in paranormal history |
| url | https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/power-at-play-in-paranormal-history/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christineferguson poweratplayinparanormalhistory |