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Alice’s Day 2026

Oxford’s annual Alice’s Day festival will be held on Saturday 4 July.

The theme for 2026 is ‘Snarks, Rhymes & Riddles’.

During this day, all kinds of family-friendly events will take place, including storytelling, talks, games, crafts, trails, and tours, like a Magic Lantern talk, an opportunity to learn how to play croquet, the viewing of the 2023 film “The Hunting of the Snark”, and a shadow puppetry theatre that brings the poem Jabberwocky to life. The Story Museum offers half price entry to their immersive galleries, face painting and storytelling. The Museum of Oxford allows you to handle Alice related objects.

As usual, there will also be free talks from the Lewis Carroll Society: “Lewis Carroll’s ‘Useful and Instructive’ limericks” by Mark Davies, “Say ‘How D’Ye Do?’ and Shake Hands” by Matt Crandall, and “Lewis Carroll, Darwin, and The Hunting of the Snark” by Stephen Thetford. At the end of the day there will be an informal social gathering for society members, that is also open to anyone else who is interested in mingling with fellow Alice in Wonderland / Lewis Carroll fans!

The fun does not stop there, because the next day you’ll have the opportunity to do a leisurely walk around Christ Church Meadow with local historian, author and Lewis Carroll trustee Mark Davies, who will highlight in particular the role of the River Thames in the creation of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’. And there is a family event at the ‘treacle well’ that is mentioned in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The full programme for the day can be found on the website of the Story Museum.

 

Virtual tour: Exhibition of the archives of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

You can attend an online tour through the foyer display and cabinet exhibition of the Surrey History Centre, where parts of their archives of Charles Dodgson are on display.

Surrey History Centre has a significant Lewis Carroll collection. Senior archivist and curator Isabel Sullivan will give you a virtual walk through some of their exhibits..

On public view for the first time are items from important collections received over the past two years, including from the Dodgson family.

Date and time: 15 October 2025, 17:30 – 18:45
Location
: Online (Zoom)
Cost: £6
Booking: https://customer.surreycc.gov.uk/article/2169?eventid=9286-6051-4314-6635&bookingformid=602 (88 spaces available)
More information: https://customer.surreycc.gov.uk/surrey-heritage-upcoming-events

Summer school: Lewis Carroll’s Oxford

During this summer you can once more follow a week long course about Lewis Carroll in Oxford, UK.

During the course, you will explore Lewis Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and examine their origins in Oxford (town and gown, architecture, personalities) as well as hidden histories and controversies. The course will also look at Alice’s further adventures in art and popular culture, science and politics and the question of why, 150 years later, Alice is still so fascinating to us.

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Donation and exhibition: the Jon A. Lindseth Lewis Carroll Collection

American scholar and collector Jon Lindseth donated his Lewis Carroll collection to Christ Church. They have started cataloguing and digitising the collection, but you can already see highlights of the collection in an exhibition.

Lindseth, who amongst others initiated the “Alice in a World of Wonderlands” project, owned one of the world’s largest privately held collections of letters, photographs, books, illustrations and other materials by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). He recently donated the collection to Dodgson’s former place of residence: Christ Church, Oxford.

Included in the Jon A. Lindseth Lewis Carroll Collection are many early editions of Carroll’s works (including presentation copies and a first edition of the 1886 facsimile copy of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground inscribed to Alice’s mother), autographed letters, proofs of illustrations, photographs, and more.

In the exhibition “Pictures and Conversations: the Jon A. Lindseth Lewis Carroll Collection” you can already see some of the highlights of this collection, while Christ Church is still working on cataloguing and digitising the full collection. The exhibition runs until 17 April 2024. Enquiries about the collection can be sent to [email protected].

More information about the donation: https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/news/christ-church-receives-remarkable-lewis-carroll-donation
More information about the exhibition: https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/events/pictures-and-conversations-jon-lindseth-lewis-carroll-collection

Alice’s Day 2024

This year’s Alice’s Day will be held on the 6th of July in Oxford – and I have been invited to give one of the talks for the Lewis Carroll Society!

Each year around the 4th of July (the day the Wonderland story arose), Alice’s Day is held in Oxford, UK. The whole city celebrates all things Alice in Wonderland, with many activities for both children and adults. On Saturday 6 July 2024 there will be another celebration, and this year’s theme is ‘Fabulous Monsters and Curious Creatures’. Dressing up is highly encouraged!

Activities include playing croquet, making a giant Jabberwock sculpture, Wonderland facepainting, performances, exhibitions, walks, and much more.

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Exhibition and sale: prints from the original wood blocks

In the UK there is currently an exhibition of Alice in Wonderland illustrations printed directly from the original wood blocks. They are also for sale.

To be able to print John Tenniel’s illustrations, his illustrations were engraved in wood blocks. To avoid wear of these precious wood blocks, they were not used for the actual printing, but as masters from which electrotype copies would be made. (You can read more about this process on my website). The use of electrotypes does result in a slight loss of definition.

In 1981 the original wood engraved blocks were discovered in deed boxes belonging to Macmillan, the original publishers. Jonathan Stephenson at the Rocket Press subsequently printed 250 sets from these blocks – the first and last time that they were used for actual printing.

These prints, for both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there, are now exhibited in Adam’s Gallery. You can buy individual prints, as well as complete sets of all engravings in their original boxes.

woodblock prints exhibition

Date: 4th April to 26th May 2024
Location: Adam’s Gallery, Reigate, UK
More information
: https://www.adamsgallery.co.uk/alice-in-wonderland