Rare Lewis Carroll Volume and Turkish Manuscripts in New Exhibition About Pets
Lewis Carroll’s personal copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Bodleian Libraries' forthcoming exhibition Pets & their People will explore why humans keep animals close, and what our evolving relationships with pets reveal about ourselves.
Running March 11 through September 27 at the Weston Library in Oxford, some items will be on display for the first time, including a rare first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one of only 22 withdrawn first editions to survive. The book, recently acquired by the Bodleian Libraries alongside Christ Church, Oxford, was Lewis Carroll’s personal copy and contains original illustrations by John Tenniel.
Carroll’s classic story is part of the fictional tradition of imbuing animals with human characteristics, reflecting the well-documented human tendency to blur the line between ‘us and them’. Similarly, the 16th Century Turkish manuscript Acaib ül-mahlūkat (Wonders of Creation) features a depiction of a dog-headed human, further revealing our persistent muddling of the distinction between the human and animal worlds.
This extends to the contemporary world, as demonstrated in a previously unseen series by celebrated photographer Daniel Meadows depicting a Lancashire pet cemetery, showing the ways in which pet identity and moral significance are often conflated with our own.
Other items on display include:
- a portrait of Sir Walter Scott’s dog, Maida
- a 14th century Latin psalter showing one of the earliest depictions of an assistance animal
- a papyrus scroll from Ancient Egypt serving as an early version of a tax disc and congestion charge document for a camel
- an early tram ticket for a dog, issued in Blackpool, showing how pets can be treated as civic members of society
- the original manuscript of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows
- a private letter dated between the 3rd and 4th century requesting a puppy for a woman experiencing loneliness
- photographs and sketches by novelists Raymond Chandler and Patricia Highsmith who cherished their cats
