Christ Church holds three distinct collections of material relating to Lewis Carroll, aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, including autograph letters, manuscripts, original photographic prints, proof sheets, presentation copies and a large number of editions of the “Alice” books in different languages.

Illustrated editions include 19th century black and white etchings and a huge range of 20th century illustrations. Some illustrators are famous in their own right, like Salvador Dali, Ralph Steadman and Barry Moser. The collections also include an impressive array of secondary material (biographies, books about various aspects of Carroll’s work, etc.) and are available for the use of researchers upon application to the Library.  

The whole corpus of the Lewis Carroll collection is currently the object of intense study and scrutiny, being reviewed and catalogued. This is a work in progress. A significant part of the Lewis Carroll collection has now been digitized. More will follow in due course. This project aims to provide an enhanced experience for viewers, allowing them to flip the pages, zoom in, and read very detailed descriptions. 

Access to all fully digitized resources is made available both through this website, or directly via the Digital Bodleian portal. Crucially for research, our digitized items are integrated with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), a set of software standards established and adhered to by an ever expanding community of libraries and cultural heritage institutions, including the British Library, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cambridge University Library, Harvard University Library, MIT, Stanford University, Trinity College Dublin, the Vatican and Yale University. All this gives scholars an unprecedented level of uniform and rich access to image-based resources hosted around the world.

The Making of 'Alice'

Various manuscripts in Christ Church Library Special Collections help reveal the process undertaken to transform the original manuscript story into the printed book known as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Other Works by Lewis Carroll

Photography

This is the first in a series of photographic albums and individual prints by Lewis Carroll, many of which are still to be digitized.

Miscellaneous Carroll Material

Carroll Friends and Contemporaries