Centenary Events

Centenary Events Honoring Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, was born on January 27, 1832 and died on January 14, 1898. He was a true genius as is shown by his accomplishments in the fields of mathematics, logic, religion, photography, and literature. He is most well known as the author of the world famous book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is no surprise that the centenary of his death was observed and his life celebrated all over the world.  Dates were in 1998 unless otherwise noted.

Events in the UK

  • 10th Jan. Evensong at 3 p.m. in Westminster Abbey, followed by a short commemorative ceremony and the laying of a wreath by a representative of the Lewis Carroll Society on Lewis Carroll’s stone in Poets’ Corner.
  • 11th Jan. Commemorative service at St Peter’s Church, Croft.
  • 11th Jan. Commemorative service at St Mary’s Church, Guildford, and the unveiling of a plaque above the pulpit where Lewis Carroll preached.
  • 14th Jan. Special dinner on the day of the centenary at Christ Church, Oxford, organised by the Lewis Carroll Society. Guest after-dinner speaker: Ralph Steadman.
  • Jan 14 – Feb 8 Lewis Carroll:The Photographer An exhibition in Christ Church Picture Gallery. Jan 14 – March 7 Alice in Wonderland An exhibition form the collection of Alan White at the Hertford Museum.
  • 18th Jan. Commemoration of the centenary of the death of Dean Henry Liddell, father of Carroll’s child muse, Alice Liddell, at Evensong at Christ Church, Oxford.
  • 6th Feb. Henry George Liddell and His Family. A look at the famous Dean of Christ Church and the family Lewis Carroll immortalised in the Alice books. Speaker: Anne Clark Amor
  • Between 11th Feb -8 May Crocodiles in Cream. Kevin Moore’s stage performance as Lewis Carroll, on select dates at various venues including Oxford and Guildford.
  • 13th Mar The Cat Without a Grin. A joint meeting of the LCS with the Children’s Books History Society with a talk by Chairman, Brian Alderson. Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1
  • 18th March Lewis Carroll in Guildford. A centenary talk to the Friends of Guildford House. Speaker: Anne Clark Amor. Venue: Guildford House, Gallery, Guildford, at 7.45 p.m.
  • 21st March Lewis Carroll Day School. A one-day event organized by Dr David Grylls, Director of the Literature Program, University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education. Speakers: Mavis Batey, Karoline Leach, Edward Wakeling and Anne Clark Amor. Venue: Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2J.
  • 29th March Exhibition and Book Fair. A book fair restricted to children’s books, with a special emphasis on Carroll, supported by talks and displays provided by the Daresbury Lewis Carroll Society. Venue: Walton Hall near Warrington.
  • Early April (Until 25th June) Alice: the Wonderful World of Lewis Carroll an exhibition at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA.
  • March – August, Cardiff, Wales events.
    • photography exhibition
    • 100 years of illustrating Alice exhibition
    • Word Games and Puzzles exhibition
    • Contemporary installations inspired by Alice
    • Films – Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, Dreamchild, etc.
    • Theatre
    • Concerts
    • Readings
  • April 1-5, 1998. Cardiff, Wales – an academic conference titled “The Lewis Carroll Phenomenon”. Organized by the University of Wales, Cardiff. Carroll biographer, Morton Cohen, and Alan Garner, will be keynote speakers.
  • 1st April (Until 31st May) Exhibition of drawings by Brian Partridge with a display of Carrollian collectibles. Venue: Minster Library, Ripon.
  • 8th May (Until 17th May) Centenary Celebrations in Guildford. Ten days of Carroll events including concerts, films, tours, and other activities for all the family. See below.
    • 8th to 17th May – Lewis Carroll Centenary Celebrations in Guildford
    • 9th May (a.m.) Guided walk beginning on the steps of Holy Trinity Church. Costumed actors and actresses will participate in the walk. (p.m.) Snark Hunt. A trip down the river in a decorated barge and a Snark hunt on the banks.
    • 10th May (a.m.) Guided Tour of the Mount Cemetery visiting Lewis Carroll’s grave and those of seven of his relatives who lived in Guildford (p.m.) Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, attended by costumed actors and actresses. Concert and readings from Lewis Carroll in the High School.
    • 11th May Film, talk and readings at the Electric Film Theatre.
    • 12th May Film, talk and readings at the Electric Film Theatre
    • 12th May Alice’s Adventures Underground, by Christopher Hampton, Mill Studio (Until to 15th May)
    • 13th May Long walk/ramble to Carroll sites
    • 16th May Guided walk
    • 17th May Church Service at St Mary’s, Guildford (11.15 a.m.). Literary lunch. Speaker: Morton Cohen
  • 9th June (Until 4th July) III For Alice: an exhibition of art work by Brian Partridge, Jean Stockdale and Rossina Conroy at the Museum of Oxford, St. Aldate’s, Oxford.
  • July An exhibition of Carroll photographs at the National Portrait Gallery.
  • July An exhibition in Christ Church Picture Gallery.
  • 3rd July (and 4th July) Outdoor performances of Jabberwocky, a play by Wyn Jones, around the lake at Clervaux Castle, just outside Croft, Yorkshire. During the same weekend, there will be a flower festival in St. Peter’s Church, Croft and tea in the Rectory garden.
  • 5th July Evensong in St. Peter’s Church, Croft.
  • 11th July (Until 5th September) Carroll Exhibition in the Oxford Museum
  • 8th Aug. (Until 31st October) Exhibition of drawings by Brian Partridge. Venue: York City Art Gallery.
  • 16th Aug. Commemorative Service for Lewis Carroll at Evensong in Christ Church, Oxford.
  • 16th to 22nd Aug. – Lewis Carroll Centenary Programme at Christ Church The major event of 1998, run by Christ Church, The Lewis Carroll Society and The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education. Included are lectures, tours, films and evening entertainment, with the opportunity to see parts of Christ Church normally hidden from the casual visitor. This fully residential event, gave those attending a rare chance to sample the atmosphere of a truly unique establishment. An extraordinary experience.

Events in the U.S.

  • October 17-18, 1997. Collegeville, Minnesota, St. John’s University and the College of St. Bendict. The first annual conference on creativity titled “The Creative Imagination of Lewis Carroll”. Morton Cohen, keynote speaker. Lewis Carroll Society of North America meeting coincided with the conference and members were present to engage in discussions and help answer questions.
  • Nov. 1997 – February 1, 1998. New York City. Elmer Bobst Library, NYU. Exhibition of items from the Alfred Berol collection.
  • Jan. 12, 1998. David Loftus presented a memorial reading of excerpts from the works of Lewis Carroll at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, 1005 West Burnside, on Monday, Jan. 12 at 7:30.
  • Jan 25 – April 12. Princeton, New Jersey. Milberg Gallery in the Firestone Library, Princeton University. Exhibition of items from the Morris Parrish collection.
  • Various events in the NY area during the week of March 22. Visits to Princeton and the Rosenbach Library.
  • March 28 – 2:00PM LCSNA meeting at the Bobst Library, NYU. Nina Demurova, Russian Translator, delivered the first Stan Marx Memorial Lecture. Also speaking were Genevieve Smith and Donald Rackin.
  • March 28 – 7:00PM LCSNA hosted a black tie dinner honoring the extensive contributions of Morton Cohen to Carroll studies and the LCSNA. This gala affair was held at the Cornell Club in NYC, and included a surprise tribute to Cohen by actor Andrew Sellon as Lewis Carroll.
  • March 29 – Maxine Schaefer Memorial reading for young children at the New York Children’s Museum. Morton Cohen delivered a lecture at the Pierpoint Morgan Library at 2:30PM.
  • April 1 – May 29. New York City. Grolier Club. An exhibition of about 75 items from the collection of Jon Lindseth
  • May 22 – August 30. New York City. Pierpont Morgan Library. Exhibition of items from the Arthur Houghton collection plus some items from the Disney archives.
  • July 15-20. C. S. Lewis Centenary Conference with the annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society, Mythcon 29 was held in Wheaton, Illinois. (The 1998 Mythopoeic Conference celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of C. S. Lewis. but there was also be a day of special programming (Thursday, 16 July) on Lewis Carroll in recognition of his centenary as well.)
  • There was a call for papers in place for anyone interested in presenting a 15-20 minute original paper on any topic relating to Lewis Carroll’s works at the Mythlore conference. Special interest was placed on papers dealing with Lewis Carroll’s special knowledge or use of language, his use of puns, and his linguistic riddles.
  • The Cheshire Society in Seattle, WA held a weeklong celebration of the Lewis Carroll Centenary.  Alice lovers were invited to join in two events: the Mad Tea/Wonderland Ball and the run of the original stage-play ALICE: Through the Looking Glass, Darkly.  The Mad Tea and Wonderland Ball took place in the elegant Century Ballroom on the second floor of Capitol Hill’s Oddfellows’ Hall 915 E Pine St Seattle, WA 98122 on October 4th, 1998 from 5 pm to 10pm. With the Mad Tea lasting until 7, after which the Wonderland Ball began.
  • Sept. 8 through December 18, 1998. Leeds Gallery (Flawn Academic Center, 4th floor) The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin held an exhibition titled: “Reflections in a Looking-Glass: A Centenary Exhibition of Lewis Carroll.” Included were materials from the Ransom Center’s Weaver and Sewell collections of Lewis Carroll as well as the Gernsheim History of Photography collection. Also, in the afternoon on Oct. 11, 1998 a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was held for children in grades Kindergarten through 6th grade.
  • Nov.7-8 Fall meeting of the LCSNA. Meetings at UCLA on Nov 7 and at the Huntington Library on Nov 8. There were exhibits at both venues.

 

Events Elsewhere

  • “Looking for Alice” – An exhibition of works by Kay Steventon and Kim Tarpey at the Eltham Wiregrass Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. NOVEMBER 2 – 16 1997. The works included beaded and braided oil on canvas, ceramic sculpture, etchings and linocuts. The artists have not sought to illustrate Carroll’s Alice books; rather, they have explored their personal associations with the characters and events in the stories.
  • An exhibition of the photo-illustration of “ALICE IN WONDERLAND” by Carmela Llobet was held from Nov 14th 1997 to Jan 8th 1998 in the Center Forum Can Baste in Barcelona.
  • January 1st: The Annotated Alice was published, with a translation into Hebrew by Rina Litvin.
  • Jan. 8th: Alice in Wonderland, a painting exhibition was opened in Beit Ariela, Tel-Aviv’s public library. There was a “mad tea party” at the opening, and Mr. Roni Milo, the mayor of Tel Aviv spoke in front of the TV cameras which covered the event.
  • Jan 15th:A conference in Beit Ariela: Prof. Zohar Shavit (head of Children’s literature in Tel-Aviv) spoke about the book, Rina Litvin spoke about the new translation, Dr. Anat Bilezky (Philosophy department, Tel Aviv uni.) spoke about logics and absurdity in Alice, Dani Kerman, one of Israel’s best illustrators spoke about the tension between Caroll and Tenniel, prof. Yakir Aharonovich (Weizman inst.) talked about physics, Dr. Dorit Hop talked about psychological aspects in reading “Alice”.
  • From April 4th to May 3rd, at the ‘Museu de l’Art de la Pell’ (Leather Museum) of Vic (a city near Barcelona) Exhibition: ‘Lewis Carroll and his work’. It was organized by The School of Languages of the University of Vic, The British Council of Barcelona and the private collectors: Imma Bo, Adria Lopez and Jordi Quintana.  There were 10 glass cabinets with books from all the countries and times, dolls, boxes, puzzles, records, videos, pins…, and other material. There were also some illustrations and litographs by Lola Anglada, Salvador Dalí, Enric Rovira, Jordi Morera, Peret, Benjamin Tous, Max, Penuela, etc.  The official opening took place on Tuesday, April 21st. Jordi Quintana, professor at the University of Barcelona, gave a lecture on ‘Lewis Carroll, Alice and other stories’.

    A list of Centenary events in Spain.


  • April 17 – July 4. Toronto, Canada. Exhibit at the Osborne collection: “We’re All Mad Here: This special exhibit, honouring the Lewis Carroll centenary, was held at the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books, Toronto Public Library, from April 17 to July 4, 1998. All the gems from the Osborne Collection’s substantial Carroll holdings were on display, from letters to an inscribed copy of Through the Looking-Glass, from card games to children’s periodicals, a royal Alice, miniature and pop-up Alices, and the original blocks used to print The Hunting of the Snark and Sylvie and Bruno. Also on display were the deluxe folio Canadian Alice, printed by hand by William Poole at the Poole Hall Press in 1988, with woodcut illustrations by George Walker. Its companion volume, the Canadian edition of Through the Looking-Glass, was previewed. In addition, parodies and imitations of Alice were featured, as well as a dazzling array of Alices as seen by a wide spectrum of artists, from Margaret Tarrant to Salvador Dali. Also on display: several rare and unusual items on loan from the Joseph Brabant Collection, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.
  • For celebrating the Lewis Carrol Centenary in Italy, Liber et Imago, cultural centre in Turin dealing with historical studies on children’s books, organized a small exhibition of Alice books in the Italian language from 1872 to 1960, at the Fogola Galleria Dantesca in Turin (16 – 30 December, 1998). In 1996 Fogola published a limited edition of “Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie”, with original lithographs by Antonio Possenti, that was displayed on the occasion. Some original drawings by Daniela Dal Cin for the play “Alice oltre lo Specchio” were also presented. On this occasion, Liber et Imago presented the book “Quando Alice incontrò Pinocchio” (curator Pompeo Vagliani), with different contributions: an analysis on the presence and influence of English authors and illustrators in Italian children’s books from 1870 to 1950 and a survey on Italian translations of Alice books from 1872 to 1960 (by Pompeo Vagliani, Liber et Imago president); a comparison of different translations of The Long Tale/Tail (by Luciana Pasino, children’s poetry specialist); an article on translating Jabberwocky and on the suggestions connected with the text (by Ruggero Bianchi, professor at Turin University and Alice translator); a first bibliography of Alice books in Italian language, from 1872 to 1960, with information on Teodorico Pietrocola Rossetti, first Italian translator and Carroll’s friend. The book was published by Trauben Editore Torino.
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