Drawn by new technologies

Dickens’s face has not only been captured by well-known technologies such as photography, it has also been recreated by otherworldly beings. This ink drawing was completed by the automaton ZOE. Developed by Mr Maskelyne in 1877, she would draw portraits of popular figures requested by the public with her operators and mechanics hidden from view. This conjuring of Dickens shows his fond place in the hearts of the public after his death.

Drawing of Dickens by Mr Maskelyne's Automaton ZOE. Ink on paper, c.1877.
E200.81 © Charles Dickens Museum