Collaborative Approach to Updating Object Records at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum

Abstract

This paper examines a collaborative approach to the assessment and updating of object records held at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum (DLB). The Museum is the primary repository of objects and documents relating to the life of David Livingstone (1813–1873). Livingstone is renowned for his travels throughout the African continent and subsequently, a third of the collection originates from Africa. The language used for both the classification and description of objects contained outdated, racist and colonial references to peoples, communities, and territories. Similarly, the omittance of acquisition information reflected dominant museum collecting practices of the ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. In order to dismantle these Western-centric cataloging conventions, DLB collaborated with local African diaspora community groups, international museums, and heritage organizations from Malawi and Botswana. A series of case studies illustrate knowledge production through oral history and object biography to create records that include multiple voices.