John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the original edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The book was published by Macmillan in 1865, with Tenniel’s black-and-white images defining how generations of readers imagined Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the other characters. Lewis Carroll closely supervised the illustrations and paid Tenniel himself.
The number is sometimes confused with Carroll’s earlier handwritten manuscript, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which he illustrated himself. That manuscript contained a different set of drawings. The 42 figure refers specifically to Tenniel’s illustrations for the published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The first print run was withdrawn after Tenniel objected to the poor quality of the printing. A revised edition appeared in 1866, preserving the illustrations that became central to the book’s visual identity. Tenniel later illustrated the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1871.