'Beyond the Appliances of Art': Lewis Carroll and his Illustrators

Opening times: Tuesday 10am-1pm; Wednesday 1pm-4pm; Thursday 10am-1pm.

This exhibition explores how Lewis Carroll worked with artists to create the illustrations for his books and to make sure that the pictures in his books matched his ideas and fitted his text. The exhibition explores how Carroll's works have inspired later artists and illustrators to produce their own interpretations. It also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.

A highlight of the exhibition is the Michelson Alice, donated jointly to the Bodleian Libraries and Christ Church in 2025 by Ellen A. Michelson, a distinguished collector and philanthropist. The Michelson Alice is one of just 22 known copies of the 1865 true first edition of Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and was Lewis Carroll’s personal working copy, enhanced by his markings as he planned the contents of The Nursery Alice and by ten of John Tenniel’s original preliminary pencil drawings for the illustrations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.