when mathematician and Oxford University lecturer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (best known for his pen name, Lewis Carroll) embarked on a rowing trip along the river Thames with his friend Robinson Duckworth and the three daughters of Henry Liddell, Dean of Oxford’s Christ Church:Edith, Lorina, and Alice.

It was on this trip, beneath a sunny sky, when Dodgson dreamed up his tale of a curious girl named Alice who tumbles through a rabbit hole and emerges in a strange and wonderful land. A gifted storyteller, Dodgson’s tale captured the imaginations of his young passengers – so much so that the real Alice implored him to commit it to paper.

Dodgson was happy to oblige, and spent the next two years crafting a 90-page, hand-written book complete with an expanded story and 37 illustrations. In November 1864, he presented it to Alice under the title Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, with an inscription reading “A Christmas gift to a dear child, in memory of a Summer day”.