[AFRICA - CENTRAL & EASTERN] Original Carte-de-Visite Albumen Portrait Photo of a Famous African Explorer and Christian Missionary, David Livingston

[LIVINGSTONE, David] (1813-1873); [MAYALL, John Jabez Edwin Paisley] (1813-1901), Attributed to.

[c. 1857].

Original albumen photo ca. 8,5x5,5 cm (3 ¼ x 2 in), mounted on the period card ca. 9,5x6 cm (3 ¾ x 2 ¼ in). Period manuscript ink number on verso. Overall, a very good photo.

An attractive, well-preserved original carte-de-visite albumen photograph portrait of a pioneer Christian missionary and African explorer David Livingstone, taken by a notable London studio of John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall, most likely after his expedition across southern Africa in 1853-1856 (attributed and dated by the same photo from the National Portrait Gallery; https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw135956/David-Livingstone).

David Livingstone was a Scottish physician, missionary, and explorer whose career was closely associated with the exploration of south-central and eastern Africa. Born in Blantyre, Scotland, he worked in a cotton mill from the age of ten while pursuing education in his spare time. He studied medicine and theology in Glasgow and was ordained in 1840 before joining the London Missionary Society and travelling to southern Africa. Livingstone combined missionary work with geographical exploration, travelling extensively among African peoples and studying the region’s geography, natural history, and languages. In 1849 he reached Lake Ngami, and in 1853-1856 he crossed south-central Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, mapping much of the Zambezi River and becoming the first European known to see Mosi-oa-Tunya, which he named Victoria Falls. These achievements made him internationally famous and earned him the Royal Geographical Society’s Gold Medal.

Livingstone subsequently led expeditions along the Zambezi and into the regions of present-day Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. During his final expedition (1866-1873), he explored the areas around Lakes Nyasa, Tanganyika, Mweru, and Bangweulu and investigated the sources of the Nile and Congo River systems, although he did not solve the Nile’s geographical problem. He was also a prominent opponent of the East African slave trade and sought to promote Christianity and legitimate commerce as alternatives to it. In 1871 he was found at Ujiji by the journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Livingstone died at Chitambo, in present-day Zambia, in 1873; his African companions buried his heart locally and carried his body and papers to the coast, from where they were transported to Britain. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1874. Livingstone was noted for his perseverance, physical courage, humanitarian convictions, and determination, although his expeditions were frequently marked by illness, logistical difficulties, and controversy.