Alice Pleasance Liddell
(1852-1934), Inspiration for 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'; daughter of Henry George LiddellSitter in 16 portraits
Her family moved from London to Oxford in 1856 and soon afterwards befriended Lewis Carroll. He became a regular visitor, playing croquet with the children, telling them stories and taking them on picnics by the river Isis. He also used Alice and younger sister Edith as subjects for his hobby, photography. On one of their picnics, in 1862, he created the story of Alice in Wonderland. Alice, aged ten, asked him to write it down for her; this he did, drawing his own illustrations, in a notebook that now resides in the British Library. It was published in 1865 as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, in 1871.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Lewis Carroll
wet collodion glass-plate negative, Summer 1858
NPG P991(1)
Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell; Alice Liddell
by Lewis Carroll
wet collodion glass plate negative, Summer 1858
NPG P991(3)
Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell; Alice Liddell
by Lewis Carroll
albumen print, Summer 1858
NPG P991(4)
by Lewis Carroll
wet collodion glass plate negative, Summer 1858
NPG P991(5)
Ina Liddell; Alice Liddell; Edith Mary Liddell
by Lewis Carroll
albumen prints, triptych, 1858-1860
NPG P991(10)
Alice Liddell; Ina Liddell; Harry Liddell; Edith Mary Liddell
by Lewis Carroll
albumen print, Spring 1860
NPG P991(7)
by Lewis Carroll
albumen print, July 1860
NPG P991(8)
'Open your mouth, and shut your eyes' (Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell; Alice Liddell)
by Lewis Carroll
wet collodion glass plate negative, July 1860
NPG P991(9)
by Lewis Carroll
albumen carte-de-visite, 25 June 1870
NPG P991(11)
by Julia Margaret Cameron
albumen print, 1872
NPG P988
by Unknown photographer
albumen print, circa 1880
NPG P991(13)
by Lewis Carroll
modern albumen print, Summer 1858
NPG x200146
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by Lewis Carroll
modern albumen print, Summer 1858
NPG x200147
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- Use this image
- Recent acquisition
Alice Liddell; Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell
by Thomas Edge
albumen carte-de-visite, mid 1860s
NPG Ax26265
Alice Liddell; Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell
by Thomas Edge
albumen carte-de-visite, mid 1860s
NPG Ax68108
'The Sisters' (Edith Mary Liddell; Ina Liddell; Alice Liddell)
republished by James Ryman, after Sir William Blake Richmond
stipple engraving, republished 1 March 1867 (published 2 February 1867)
NPG D37329
Related People
- Alan Knyveton Hargreaves (son)
- Caryl Liddell Hargreaves (son)
- Edith Mary Liddell (sister)
- Edward Henry ('Harry') Liddell (brother)
- Henry George Liddell (father)
- Lorina Charlotte ('Ina') Liddell (sister)
- Lorina Hannah Liddell (née Reeve) (mother)
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Bridget Liddell
21 February 2018, 09:46
My name is Bridget Alice Liddell. Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (nee Liddell) was my great great aunt as she was the aunt of my grandfather Henry George Magniac Liddell (son of Sir Frederick Francis Liddell, brother of Alice). As a family we have a lot of memorabilia and copies of photographs of Alice. My sister has a copy of Lewis Carroll's book signed by Alice. I look forward to seeing this exhibition.