Collection: David Livingstone Centre

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Wikipedia)

  Southern African Objects

  David Livingstone’s writings and illustrations provide a detailed account into the cultural identities of the communities, people and environments he made contact with during his expeditions throughout Southern Africa. The diaries and writings of those who knew, worked with or came into contact with David Livingstone provide further insights into the collection; a key example being the inventory created by Jacob Wainwright soon after David Livingstone died, written into Livingstone’s last field diary.

  Blantyre Cotton Works

  The collecting of material related to Blantyre Cotton Works was led by a desire to preserve the buildings and the heritage of the site as central to the understanding of David Livingstone’s early life, including his family, home and work. This process began in 1927 with the acquisition of 19th century Blantyre Works Library and progressed with the steady acquisition of objects provenanced to the Blantyre Cotton Works including items such as bobbins used in mill, a handkerchief spun, woven and dyed at the Blantyre Works, the Works Bell, the Blantyre Works boardroom table, and a range archival material. In addition, there are some objects representative or associated with Blantyre Cotton Works including a model of Blantyre Works by Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson and a spinning jenny.

  Pilkington-Jackson

  Charles D’Orville Pilkington Jackson was commissioned to sculpt the several bronze tableaux depicting the life of Livingstone and a World Fountain in the Memorial grounds prior to the opening in 1929. After opening in 1929, an additional sculpture by Pilkington-Jackson was carved from oak and named “The last Journey” prior to being placed on display from 1930.

  Haswell-Miller

  In a similar vein to the Pilkington-Jackson tableaux, the early founders of DLT had a desire to develop artistic representations of David Livingstone’s life through the creation of imaginative story-focused displays. The initial appointment of Archibald Elliot Haswell Miller resulted in the creation of works designed to fit with the thematic scheme of each gallery. This included a series of 8 wall panels executed in tempera telling the story of David Livingstone’s early life installed prior to opening in 1929 before being supplemented by a further four murals and recorded as such in 1932. Each of the murals were financed through concerted efforts by DLT, successfully seeking support from a range of Christian, youth and educational establishments across Scotland. Since 1932, this collection has steadily grown to include a total of 19 works by Haswell Miller consisting of paintings executed on canvas and board representative of themes and stories related to David Livingstone.

  Blantyre Works Library

  The Blantyre Works Library is a significant collection of 18th century – early 20th century books which was made available to the workers of the Blantyre Works Mill. These books would have been available to David Livingstone and his family when they lived in Shuttle Row in the 1800s.

  This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “David Livingstone Birthplace Museum”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  Source: Wikipedia

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC-BY-SA