Alice Liddell aged 18

In June 2001 a collection of books, photographs and papers relating to Liddell's fictional namesake and belonging to her family went on sale at Sotheby's auction house in London.

A US collector bought up many of the lots, promising to display them "where they belong" at Christ Church College, Oxford, where Carroll was a don.

As foreign buyers have since expressed an interest in the prints, the government has imposed the temporary export ban in the hope that an estimated �600,000 can be raised to keep the images in Britain.

A consortium involving the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT), the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Oxford and the V&A is currently trying to raise the money.

The ban has been welcomed by the NMPFT.

"The NMPFT, acting as government advisor for photographic heritage, is delighted the government has endorsed the cultural importance of an eminent British writer and photographer," said curator of photographs, Russell Roberts.

Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born in 1832.

Inspired

Although a brilliant mathematician, lecturer, photographer and scholar, he is best known for his literary work.

Inspired by a river expedition with the three Liddell sisters in 1862, Carroll wrote the fantasy Alice in Wonderland.

Complete with rabbits rushing down holes, a mad hatter and hookah-smoking caterpillar, the fantasy tale has delighted children and adults alike for generations.

The Alice stories are some of the most widely and most frequently translated works, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

They have been translated into more than 70 languages, including Swahili and Yiddish.