Christ Church College, Oxford, UK
(Charles Dodgson / National Media
Museum / Science & Society Picture Library
/ Getty)
Six-year-old Alice Liddell is photographed here by Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. Around four years later, on July 4, 1862, Dodgson made up a story to entertain Alice and two of her sisters while boating from Oxford to nearby Godstow. Dodgson developed the story, and in 1865 it was published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford, had befriended Alice and her family when her father, Henry Liddell, became Dean of Christ Church. Many of Dodgson’s photographs, like this one, were taken in the grounds of Christ Church.
Alice Liddell married a wealthy cricketer and became a member of high society. She had three sons, two of whom were killed in the First World War. Alice died, aged eighty, in 1932.
‘The beginning of Alice was told one summer afternoon when the sun was so burning that we had landed in the meadows down the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a new-made hayrick. Sometimes to tease us – and perhaps being really tired – Mr Dodgson would stop suddenly and say, “And that’s all till next time,” and pretend to go to sleep, to our great dismay.’
Alice Lidell
