Ransom Center Magazine

Lewis Carroll

Family Day at the Ransom Center

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Visit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on Saturday, April 25, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and enjoy free activities for the young and young at heart. You can participate in writing activities with teaching artists from Austin Public Library Friends Foundation’s Badgerdog Creative Writing Program or engage with Lewis Carroll–inspired math activities with local math literacy organization Math Happens. University of Texas at Austin museum theater students will lead visitors through the galleries. Additional activities include docent-led exhibition tours and story times in the theater.  Family days are generously supported by a grant from the Austin Community Foundation, with in-kind support provided by Terra Toys.

 

Below is a detailed schedule:

 

Teaching artists from Austin Public Library Friends Foundation’s Badgerdog Creative Writing Program will lead writing activities at the top of the hour from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m.

 

Join a docent-led tour of the exhibition at noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m.

 

Enjoy story time in the theater at 1:15 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.

 

Follow University of Texas at Austin museum theater students through the galleries between 10 a.m. and noon.

 

Complete Lewis Carroll–inspired math activities with Math Happens as you tour the galleries.

 

Museums and Libraries Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Famed Work

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2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Since its publication in 1865, the book has never been out of print. It has been translated into countless languages and has become a work that truly transcends the time and culture in which it was written.

In honor of the book’s legacy the Harry Ransom Center presents Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This exhibition follows the evolution of Carroll’s story through time, around the world, and across different types of media, from stage and screen to children’s toys. The exhibition offers something for everyone and provides interactive opportunities throughout. Highlights of the exhibition include a rare copy of the 1865 “suppressed” edition, Carroll’s own photograph of Alice, Edith, and Lorina Liddell, the sisters who inspired the story, and Salvador Dalí’s 1969 illustrations.

View the Ransom Center’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland video preview.

Museums and libraries around the world are joining in the observance of Alice’s sesquicentennial. In New York City, the Morgan Library & Museum will display Dodgson’s original manuscript (on loan from the British Library) in its upcoming exhibition Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland, while Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library will exhibit an early printing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland alongside other works of fantasy from the period. John Tenniel’s original drawings will be shown at Harvard’s Houghton Library, and Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library will exhibit Carroll’s letters to publisher Alexander MacMillan and a first edition of the book from his library.

The Photography of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)

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Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), "W. L. Dodgson," 1869. Albumen print, 7.5 x 6 inches. Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center.
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), “W. L. Dodgson,” 1869. Albumen print, 7.5 x 6 inches. Gernsheim Collection.

On Tuesday, March 10, at 4p.m., Roy Flukinger, Senior Research Curator of Photography, speaks about the photography of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—better known to the world as Lewis Carroll. Flukinger will discuss Dodgson’s pursuit of photography and his recognition as one of the most accomplished amateur photographers of the Victorian Era. The program, presented in conjunction with the Ransom Center’s current exhibition Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, and doors open at 3:30 p.m.

In July of 1865, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson returned home from a visit to the family of Rev. Conyngham Ellis, the Rector of Cranbourne. In a letter quickly posted to the eldest Ellis daughter, Dymphna, Dodgson asked for help with a bit of unfinished business. He wrote,

Of course I left something behind—always do: this time it was my album of photographs (and autographs). And we also forgot to get your names written in it. So will you please turn 2 or 3 pages on after ‘Mary Millais,’ and then sign your name in the same place in the page as she did, only about half an inch lower down, and then get Mary, Bertha, and Kate to do the same thing in the 3 following pages. And then will you send it by train to Croft Rectory, Darlington. Thank you—much obliged.

Dymphna followed Dodgson’s instructions and returned the album, which Dodgson titled Photographs Vol. III. One hundred and fifty years later, it is one of five Dodgson albums held in the photography collection at the Harry Ransom Center.

Dodgson carried his albums with him on visits to friends and family, using them not only to show off his photographic work, but also to help him persuade parents and their children to pose for him. The letter to Dymphna Ellis reveals Dodgson’s method of collecting signatures on blank leaves of albums when he made the portraits. He then packed away the albums and negatives and returned to his darkroom to make the albumen prints, pasting them to the appropriate album pages. Photographs Vol. III contains more than a dozen pages bearing a signature but no mounted photograph, suggesting that the photographer did not always secure a final portrait that met his expectations.

Dodgson’s albums offer crucial information about his working process but also provide a tangible record of his artistry. Like his diaries, they also reinforce the record of his travels and his interactions with numerous acquaintances throughout Victorian Britain. And, perhaps most critically, they subtly provide us with a deeper and more richly nuanced portrait of the man himself.

The Ransom Center’s exhibition Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is on view through July 6.

Draw Me: A history of the illustrated Alice

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Sir John Tenniel. Dalí. Yayoi Kusama. What do these artists of vastly different styles, mediums, and artistic movements have in common? Each, along with many other artists, has tried their hand at illustrating Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a tale so whimsical it demands illustrations. Alice appeals to such a broad range of artists because the creative quality of the story gives artists freedom to interpret the look of the story in any way they please, and the book’s quirky sense of fun is irresistible.

The novel’s first illustrator was none other than its author. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—alias Lewis Carroll—created a handwritten manuscript with 37 illustrations for the story’s muse, Alice Liddell, after she asked him to write down the fantastical story he told her one lazy summer afternoon on a boat ride. Although somewhat amateurish, the ink illustrations depict a sweet, pretty Alice, not unlike the famous Tenniel illustrations. Indeed, Tenniel, a famous Victorian political cartoonist, and Dodgson worked closely together in creating the now-classic illustrations for the first published edition.

Tenniel’s classical and rather prim imagining of Alice remained the standard throughout the nineteenth century and still remains the most recognizable Alice illustration today. It was not until the turn of the twentieth century that other illustrators tried their hands at Alice. These illustrations reflect the aesthetic of their time. Mabel Lucie Attwell’s 1910 rendering of Alice and Margaret W. Tarrant’s 1916 version are sweet and feminine and still very much geared toward a young audience.

By the middle of the century, illustrations of Alice became more experimental. German illustrator Wiltraud Jasper’s 1958 version is edgy and minimal, all in black and red. In 1969, iconic surrealist Salvador Dalí put his spin on Carroll’s story, creating a dreamy, abstract, and characteristically melty Wonderland in a melancholy color palate.

More recently, Japanese pop artist Yayoi Kusama has re-imagined Alice in her signature polka dots in a 2012 Penguin publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Kusama steers away from the “classic” scenes of illustrations and instead focuses on details. For instance, the Mad Tea Party chapter features a red-and-black polka-dotted bowler hat instead of the traditional scene of the eccentric cast of characters tucking into high tea at a long table.

At the very onset of her story, Alice muses to herself about the importance of illustrations: “‘And what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without any pictures?’” What use indeed? Would Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland be the classic book and cultural phenomenon that it is without pictures? Likely not—both readers and illustrators alike have fun with the creative freedom offered by the Alice books.

See examples of some of these illustrations in the Ransom Center’s current exhibition Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, on view through July 6. Share with #aliceinaustin.

Please click on the thumbnails to view larger images.

In the Galleries: “The Rectory Magazine”

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The man who became famous as Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832. Dodgson, the third of 11 siblings, grew up in northern England surrounded by his brothers and sisters. Together they put on plays and created family publications like The Rectory Magazine, named for their home in Croft-on-Tees. Dodgson’s father was an Archdeacon in the Church of England and lived in a rectory, or a residence for the parish clergyman.

This edition of The Rectory Magazine includes essays, poems, and short stories, as well as hand-drawn and colored illustrations. The sense of humor and parody that appear in much of Carroll’s later work is already evident in The Rectory Magazine, produced when Dodgson was 18 years old.

Visitors to the Ransom Center’s exhibition Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, on view through July 6, can turn the pages of a digital version of The Rectory Magazine on a touchscreen in the galleries.

Please click on the below thumbnails to view larger images.

Video preview: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

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Starting today, the Ransom Center celebrates 150 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with an exhibition for the curious and curiouser of all ages. Learn about Lewis Carroll and the real Alice who inspired his story. See one of the few surviving copies of the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Discover the rich array of personal and literary references that Carroll incorporated throughout Alice. Explore the surprising transformations of Alice and her story as they have traveled through time and across continents. Follow the White Rabbit’s path through the exhibition, have a tea party, or watch a 1933 paper filmstrip that has been carefully treated by Ransom Center conservators. The Center’s vast collections offer a new look at a story that has delighted generations and inspired artists from Salvador Dalí to Walt Disney.

 

The exhibition can be seen in the Ransom Center galleries, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended Thursday hours until 7 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays the galleries are open from noon to 5 p.m. Daily public tours are offered at noon, Thursdays at 6 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

 

The exhibition runs through July 6.

Share the exhibition with #aliceinaustin.

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