Pure and manganese doped zinc oxide nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized over the composition range, Zn1-xMnxO (0<x<0.5), by a solution growth process. The effect of Mn doping on the structure, morphology and optical properties were investigated by several techniques. X-Ray diffraction studies confirmed the formation of a single-phase polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO within the range, 0 < x < 0.3. No Mn related secondary phases were detected, within this range, which could be attributed to the fact that the dopant atoms had been well incorporated into the ZnO crystal lattice. For Zn1-xMnxO (x = 0.5), several low intensity peaks belonging to remnants of Manganese acetate were observed in the diffractogram, establishing a solubility limit for the synthesis technique used. The variation of d-spacing with Mn percent doping showed a very good agreement with Vergard’s law within the range (0<x<0.25). EDAX analysis of the nanoparticles was consistent with the formation of Mn doped ZnO. The optical band gap of the ZnO nanoparticles decreased linearly with increasing Mn percent doping, suggesting the possibility of tuning the band gap of ZnO by doping with Mn.