A Mysterious Light

A previously unknown image from among the famous O’Malley children faerie photographs. The photograph was found between the pages of Mary O’Malley’s girlhood diary, which was only recently brought to light through the opening of the O’Malley family archive at Cambridge University. Dated 11 June 1897, the photograph was likely taken on the grounds of Undershaw, the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Hindhead, England where the O’Malley children had been invited to spend the summer by Conan Doyle’s son Kingsley. Mary O’Malley’s diary entry for this date is brief but illuminating: “More rambles through the woods today. P. brought his camera and we spent all morning hunting, though the rain kept most of them away. K. insists on showing his father, but the four of us swore him to secrecy. I believe he’ll keep quiet, but P. doesn’t think so.”

The Gang

October 5, 1904. Meeting of the Mad Hatter’s Club at the University of Illinois. Already infamous for its wild co-ed parties, gambling, and sideways cello playing, the MHC stunned this sleepy central Illinois community a few weeks later when all thirty members streaked through an election rally for Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt being held in the University gymnasium. This is the first recorded act of naked subversion, largely forgotten until its drug-induced resurrection in the 1960s. When news of the bacchanalian interruption reached Roosevelt he roared “Bully!” and proceeded to regale standers-by with stories of his naked escapades down the Amazon River with only a pith helmet and bayonet for protection.