Visualizing the Stanley-Livingstone Meeting: The Birth and Lives of an Iconic Scene in Print Media and Beyond since 1872

Abstract

The meeting between David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley in the autumn of 1871 in the village of Ujiji, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania, was an incident in history that has enjoyed spectacular and long-standing popularity. Livingstone, a Scot who had already undertaken explorations of Africa for two decades, but whose whereabouts had been unknown for some years, was sought for and “found” by Stanley, an enterprising young Welsh-American journalist in the service of The New York Herald. Numerous generations have learned to know the words uttered by Stanley and to recognise the manner in which the two explorers greeted each other by raising their hats. The scene, which seemed to crystallize the heroism—and solitude—of European explorers in Africa, was not only familiar to the British and Americans, but also became the cultural property of the wider Western public. The long-lasting popularity of the event has attracted the attention of scholars, who have sought to investigate the physical setting and concrete aspects of the meeting. The exact date of the meeting, for example, has been the subject of debate and, consequently, scholars situate it either in late October or early November 1871.1 The authenticity of the famous words of Stanley—“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”—has also been questioned. Tim Jeal argues that the greeting was almost certainly never uttered in the actual meeting but invented by Stanley on his way back to Europe in order to present himself in a gentlemanly and dignified manner.2 According to Jeal, the greeting soon began to be cited in too many newspapers, advertisements, music-hall comedies, and other contexts to be denied.3 Scholars have also sought to explain why the encounter became such an important moment in the history of African exploration. It has been described as being essential in establishing the fame of both Stanley and Livingstone.4 Clare Pettitt has suggested that we would probably not remember Visualizing the StanleyLivingstone Meeting  The Birth and Lives of an Iconic Scene in Print Media and Beyond since 1872