LONDON.- As part of the world-wide celebrations marking Alice in Wonderland’s 150th birthday next year, The British Library announced that the iconic manuscript and one of the best-loved treasures in the Library, ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’, will go on major display in the US.

The manuscript, written and illustrated by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll), was bought by an American dealer at auction in 1928, but then presented back to the UK in 1948 in recognition of the part Britain played in the Second World War, making this trip back to the US particularly significant.

The manuscript will star in exhibitions at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York and The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia which will be accompanied by a series of events and celebrations.

On the manuscript’s return the Library will mark the anniversary with the library's own free exhibition exploring how Alice has been adapted and appropriated by successive generations, and the enduring influence of the original visions.

Since the first publication of the story in 1865, we have seen Alice inspire the likes of Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Mervyn Peake and even Apple Inc, in the form of the company’s only ever video game, Through the Looking Glass, which was made in 1984.

The British Library will also be bringing Alice firmly into the 21st century, via collaboration with the UK’s cultural centre for gaming, GameCity in Nottingham.

In December 2014 they’re launching ‘Alice’s Adventures Off the Map’, a competition which challenges higher education students to create new videogames inspired by those iconic original Alice manuscripts and the British Library’s map, sound and book collections. The results will be unveiled in Autumn 2015, to coincide with the opening of the Library’s Alice exhibition.