New Charles Dodgson letters added to Christ Church Library’s collection

In 1855 he became a lecturer in mathematics, and while he later resigned from his lectureship due to the success of his writing career, he maintained his studentship and residency at Christ Church until his death in 1898. Perhaps best known for writing children’s stories, a recent addition to Christ Church Library sheds light on another creative aspect of Dodgson’s life that he describes in his diary as being his ‘one recreation’: photography.

The importance of photography in Dodgson’s life can be tracked by the proximity of his photographic studio to Christ Church. In 1863 he hired the yard of a furniture store on St. Aldates to serve as a studio site, a space he used until 1871. Later, having moved to different rooms at Christ Church in 1868, Dodgson seized the opportunity to build a studio from scratch on the roof above his rooms. This new space, consisting of a studio and dressing room, could be accessed by stairs in Dodgson’s rooms.

Dodgson’s fascination with photography began in the 1850s – the first decade in which picking up such a cumbersome hobby was possible for the (wealthy) amateur. The necessity of perfect lighting, exacting chemical treatments and statuesque sitters made this art form more of a labour of love than a relaxing pastime.

Interested in portraiture, Dodgson photographed local figures, including the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, Henry Liddell (1811–1898). Alice Liddell became the inspiration for a certain fictional Alice when she asked Dodgson to tell her a story during a boat trip on the Thames.

The recent addition to Christ Church Library’s Dodgson material consists of a selection of letters written to the family of the Reverend James and Sarah Anne Thresher. Written in March and October of 1875, these letters regard portraits he had taken of their children: Mary, Lucy and Elizabeth ‘Beta’ Thresher. Three out of the four letters are addressed as being written from Christ Church, and all are written in Dodgson’s characteristic purple ink. The black border around the letter dated March 17th is an example of mourning stationary, as Dodgson writes to give his sympathies for the death of Reverend Thresher’s aunt. These letters join a range of Dodgson material in the library, including manuscripts relating to his publications, original photographic prints, proof sheets and presentation copies of his various publications.

Dodgson was a prolific letter writer, writing roughly two thousand letters a year. While he corresponded on all manner of topics, the main theme of these recently acquired letters concerns Dodgson’s wish to obtain some of the Thresher girls’ dresses, ‘as “properties” for [his] photographic studio’. The first letter explains to the girls’ mother, Sarah Anne Thresher, that ‘old half-worn-out’ dresses are preferable for Dodgson’s photographic purposes, as ‘new ones would look theatrical’. His hope was that these dresses could be used to ‘dress children in who come to be photographed’. We discover in a later letter that this wish came to pass, as he writes to Mrs Thresher that the ‘welcome parcel arrived safe’.

These letters are an exciting addition to Christ Church’s collection as they provide an insight into the way Dodgson thinks about his craft. We glimpse his attention to detail in the concern over the appearance of a dress that might look too ‘new’. In his first letter inquiring about the dresses, he expresses his wish that he might meet with the Threshers the following summer as he can visualise a photograph he wishes to take of Beta. He describes the pose he would have her strike with precision: ‘pulling at a rope […] the attitude I remember seeing her in one day [dragging a mutual friend across the room] - it would be a picture such as I have seldom had the opportunity of taking’. It seems that for Dodgson, photographs existed in his mind’s eye as fully formed entities – all he needed to do was assemble the moving parts. He never managed to create this particular photograph of Beta, however. There is no record of him ever photographing the Threshers again.

Dodgson’s approach to photography, with his focus on things looking real, rather than ‘theatrical’, goes some way in capturing Victorian childhood, a concept that defied definition even then. What we also see in these surviving photographs is a particular moment in Victorian culture and artistic experimentation held in time, and, in the letters, the work undertaken to hold it there.

To see the photographs that Dodgson took of the Thresher children that began this chain of correspondence, see Edward Wakeling’s The Photographs of Lewis Carroll, A Catalogue Raisonné. Pages 256 to 261 show photos of the three daughters and their parents in various outfits and attitudes, and feature the dresses that came to join the “properties” in Dodgson’s photographic studio. Now a part of the library’s collection, the letters themselves are freely accessible to support study and research.

Explore the library’s Dodgson collection