Hilary Evans
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Hilary Agard Evans (6 March 1929 – 27 July 2011) was a British picture archivist, author and researcher into UFOs and other anomalous experiences. With his wife Mary he founded the Mary Evans Picture Library. He was a leading supporter of the psychosocial hypothesis, the view that UFO encounters are culturally shaped visionary experiences.[1][2][3]
Life
Evans was born in Shrewsbury and educated at St George's School, Harpenden. After national service in Palestine he read English at King's College, Cambridge, and took a master's degree at Birmingham University. He became an advertising copywriter in 1953.[1] In 1964 he and his wife Mary founded the Mary Evans Picture Library, an archive of historical illustrations based in south-east London.[1][2] Mary died in June 2010, and Hilary died just over a year later.[2]
UFO and anomaly research
In 1981 Evans co-founded the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP). He was also a member of BUFORA and the Folklore Society.[1][2] ASSAP's later chairman credited him as one of the first modern researchers to study hauntings, UFOs and other apparitions together rather than separately.[2]
Evans wrote 16 books on UFOs, visions and apparitions, as well as three novels and many books on art, illustration and social history.[2] His titles included The Evidence for UFOs (1983), Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors (1984) and Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians (1987). He co-edited the anthologies UFOs 1947–1987 (1987) and UFO 1947–1997 (1997).[1] With sociologist Robert Bartholomew he wrote Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behaviour (2009). His last book, SLIders (2010), was about people who believe they cause streetlights to go out.[1][2]
Historian David Clarke wrote that Evans's books became standard introductions to the psychosocial view of UFO encounters.[3] From 1992 he supplied a picture and commentary for every issue of the British magazine The Skeptic.[2] From 2003 much of his large collection of books and papers was moved to the AFU archive near Stockholm in Sweden for preservation.[3]
Reception
Skeptic Philip J. Klass called Evans one of the best-informed and most sensible of the pro-UFO writers, though he criticised an anthology Evans edited.[1] A New Scientist reviewer accused him of being too ready to accept paranormal claims, citing his description of a photograph of the medium Eusapia Palladino.[1] Magonia editor John Rimmer called him ufology's philosopher, and he was respected by both believers and skeptics.[2]
References
- Hilary Evans — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Chris French and Wendy M. Grossman, "Chris French remembers Hilary Evans, 1929–2011", The Skeptic · skeptic.org.uk · archived copy
- David Clarke, "Hilary Evans 1929–2011" (28 July 2011) · drdavidclarke.co.uk · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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