John Tenniel created 42 illustrations for the first published edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. His black-and-white drawings were engraved on wood for the 1865 edition and became the visual standard for Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and Wonderland's other inhabitants.
Tenniel was already a celebrated political cartoonist for the British magazine Punch when Lewis Carroll asked him to illustrate the book. Carroll supplied ideas and discussed the scenes, but Tenniel reinterpreted them in his own precise, expressive style. The illustrations helped turn the book from a private story into a landmark of illustrated children's literature.
The number is often confused with Carroll's own manuscript illustrations. Carroll drew 37 pictures for Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the handwritten version he gave to Alice Liddell in 1864. Tenniel's 42 illustrations belong to the expanded printed book, which added episodes such as the Mad Hatter's tea party. The original first print run was later withdrawn at Carroll's request because Tenniel objected to the poor printing quality.