David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa - Hardcover

9781855141773: David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1855141779 ISBN 13: 9781855141773

Publisher: National Portrait Gallery, 1996

Focusing on the complex figure of David Livingstone, this book explores the significant cultural and ideological issues related to the European encounter with Africa in the 19th century. It includes images of African artefacts and natural history specimens, and Livingstone's field notebooks.

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From Booklist:

Dr. Livingstone, who were you? A Scottish cotton mill worker at 10, Livingstone was, before he reached 30, a medical doctor and Congregational minister, a missionary in southern Africa. But wandering the continent was his passion; it made him a hero in Great Britain from the 1850s until his death and a figure of mythic proportions ever since, thanks to bowdlerized journals and admiring biographies. In 1996, Livingstone and his contemporaries were once more on British minds thanks to an exhibit--first at London's National Portrait Gallery and then Edinburgh's Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Here photographs of nearly 200 exhibited items (portraits and other paintings, early photos, and artifacts) are matched by six essays, including Angus Calder on "Livingstone, Self-Help and Scotland" ; anthropologist Jeanne Cannizzo on the ideological assumptions revealed by the artifacts that Livingstone collected; and John MacKenzie on his place in the history of imperialism and nationalism in Africa. Pricey, but probably worth it where illustrated histories on similar subjects circulate. Mary Carroll

From Library Journal:

Livingstone has survived in the popular imagination as the most famous of those Europeans who explored 19th-century Africa. The text of this catalog to a British exhibition of Livingstone's memorabilia and collections provides not only a concise biography but endeavors to give context to his historical role in light of the antislavery movement, missionary activity, exploration, adventurism, and the Victorian romance of the "exotic." The volume is richly illustrated with objects ranging from formal portraits of Livingstone and his contemporaries to examples of his personal effects to African materials he collected. While more revered in Britain than in the United States, Livingstone is a significant figure in modern African-European history, and this catalog provides a useful overview of his role. Recommended for most academic libraries; strongly recommended for Africana collections.?Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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