The Nursery Alice

"I wrote to Macmillan to suggest a new idea: a 'Nursery Edition' of Alice with pictures printed in."
– Lewis Carroll's diary, 15th February 1881

The Nursery Alice, originally published by Macmillan & Co. in 1890, was the very first colour edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was intended, wrote Carroll, "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five. To be read? Nay, not so! Say rather to be thumbed, to be cooed over, to be dogs'-eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed . . ."

With th...