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• 1 media/dlc_343_03.JPG 2019-06-25T14:56:41+00:00 Livingstone's Lantern(s) 14 image_header 2019-08-16T00:28:53+00:00 Livingstone’s field-authored writings and published narratives provide a means to study the global circulation of British-made projection apparati. Like John Williams, Livingstone’s lantern shows were not officially sanctioned by the London Missionary Society. To procure a lantern, Livingstone relied on social networks that included his extended family, Scottish big-game hunters, friends from his medical studies at Anderson College, members of the Royal Geographic Society, and Africans from diverse ethnic groups. As an object, the lantern registered as a technological novelty, particularly in areas of Africa with little contact with European travelers and traders. The lantern’s status as a curiosity supported Livingstone’s evangelization efforts by drawing large crowds. The presence of a magic lantern in packing lists and inventories indicates that Livingstone took projection equipment with him on all three of his expeditions. However, its path to and through Africa is unclear due to its sporadic appearances in Livingstone’s writings. In fact, the textual archive suggests that he used multiple magic lanterns over the course of his travels. Livingstone also relied on print material, particularly illustrations of scenes from the Bible, to develop his interactive lantern lecture style and to support audio-visual modes of presentation in the absence of a lantern.
  
  One of Livingstone’s projectors has survived. The tin improved phantasmagoria lantern that now resides at the Livingstone Birthplace Museum in Blantyre, Scotland serves as an important material record of Livingstone’s life and travels. Each scratch and dent functions as a physical record from its journey from England, through Cape Colony to Africa’s interior. The bent lip of the brass objective indicates that it was dropped onto a hard surface; the dent in its side suggests that a box or another piece of equipment slammed into it while packed. The bit of metal that would have held a screw to elevate the lantern has popped off, leaving a small rectangle of tin exposed. Its original light source is gone, probably appropriated by the expedition for reading purposes, and it’s missing the topmost part of its chimney. Though battered, the lantern also bears witness to its value as a member of the expedition. It was used so frequently that the paint at the top of the chimney has bubbled away from heat damage, and its size makes it one of the largest pieces of equipment taken by Livingstone on his journeys. (When disassembled, it stands nearly one-and-a-half feet tall.) It is believed to be the one brought by Mungo Murray, making it the lantern that was used in Kabompo to project the image of Abraham.

  Inspirations

  The timing of Livingstone’s request for lantern material suggests that he may have been aware of John Williams’ lantern shows on Samoa. Livingstone would have had the opportunity to hear about evangelistic efforts in the South Pacific in person through LMS meetings in London and in print. These accounts framed his expectations about receptiveness of Africans to missionaries. In a letter to Joseph Freeman, he describes how

  They [the people north of Kuruman] know nothing of the gospel & consequentially form neither a good nor bad opinion of it. They know nothing more of missionaries than that they are a friendly race of whites who love all men. And in many respects we occupy the same position with respect to them as some of our missionaries have with the South Sea Islanders. There exists a strong impression in favour of Europeans, strongest among those not previously visited by missionaries, traders &c, but only in a minor degree in the tribes nearer.[1]

  While there’s no evidence that Livingstone read the published account of Williams’ lantern shows, Livingstone’s makes repeated requests for lantern material following the publication of William’s biography, and not before. If he did read the account of the lantern show in Williams’ biography, it would have provided all the more reason to purchase a lantern.[2] As a technological novelty, a projector would help shift public opinion in his favor by generating interest where there might otherwise be lukewarm feelings about contact with Europeans. This, in turn, would promote close ties with Africans who could provide food and manpower to support his further missionary work.
  
  Livingstone asked for lantern material through several channels, but there are only implied references to these requests in letters. The first occurs in a letter to Robert Moffat, Livingstone’s father-in-law and fellow LMS missionary. In it, Livingstone describes meeting William Cotton Oswell and Mungo Murray, two big-game hunters had passed through Mabotsa in June 1845. Oswell, Murray, and Livingstone became fast friends, so much so that the explorers returned to Kuruman in May of 1849 to explore the region around Lake Ngami. Livingstone’s letter describes the logistical challenges of obtaining equipment from England and Scotland:

  [Oswall and Murray] were extremely kind to us. The former promises to send seeds from India, & the latter offered to do anything in his power in Scotland. If I had had the money I should have entrusted him with an order for a magic lantern.[3]

  The letter suggests that Livingstone did not make a formal request to Murray because he could not pay for a lantern outright. However, Livingstone must have mentioned his desire for a lantern at some point during Murray’s stay in Mabotsa, for Murray brought a projector with him from England when he returned to South Africa four years later.[4] The most significant barrier to obtaining a magic lantern and medical equipment was not financial but logistical. Following Oswell and Murray’s visit, there was at least one unsuccessful attempt to send a lantern by post. In a subsequent letter written by Livingstone to Moffat from Kolobeng, Livingstone laments that

  Most of the boxes which come to us from England are opened & usually lightened of their contents. You will perhaps remember one in which Sechele's cloak was. It contained on leaving Glasgow besides the articles which came here a parcel of surgical instruments which I ordered & of course paid for - one of these was a valuable cupping apparatus in which the air was exhausted by a small air pump previous to being applied to the part to be operated upon. At the price which medical men receive these instruments it was £2.12. - scalpels &c at the same terms amounted to about £2. They were purchased for me by a medical gentleman. Their real value was of course much more than the above sums. We think too there were some dresses for Mary in it and a magic lantern. The box which you kindly packed for us and dispatched for Glasgow has we hear been gutted by the Custom House thieves, & only a few very plain Karosses left in it.[5]

  The presence of the surgical instruments in both letters suggests that Murray may have had a hand in obtaining some of the supplies, even though he was not “a medical gentleman.”
  
  With regards to the lantern, Moffat may have also played a role in procuring one for Livingstone. In fact, Moffat was accustomed to using printed visual aids for educational purposes in his own sermons and educational meetings. His memoirs describe a particularly eventful evening among the Coranna. Preaching from the back of his wagon, Moffat used moonlight to illuminate a series of scenes from the Bible:

  The bright silvery moon, holding her way through a cloudless starry sky, and shining on many a sable face, made the scene peculiarly solemn and impressive, while the deepest attention was paid to the subject, which was the importance of religion illustrated by Scripture Characters. After the service, they lingered about the wagon, making many inquiries, and repeating over and over again what they had heard.[6]

  When read as a record of an educational event, natural light enables Moffat to accompany his spoken lesson with visual material. The visual and sonic dimensions of his teaching style shapes the narrative strategies that he used to describe his audience. Narratologically, natural light draws attention to his audience by gently drifting over the faces of the Africans. By calling attention to their physical appearance, Moffat creates a textual space for African voices that engage with the content of the lesson through questions and verbal repetition. Though Moffat most likely used print material for this event, he would have the opportunity to witness the lantern’s efficacy as an educational tool in a different African context. The missionary station Lekatlong received a lantern from England in late 1850, and Moffat volunteered to operate it while visiting Holloway Helmore who was stationed there.[7] According to an account published in the LMS’s Juvenile Missionary Magazine, Moffat’s demonstration included a glass tank slide filled with drinking water. When projected, bacteria and particles of dust appeared to “dart about,” frightening most of the audience.[8] Though far more sensational than his presentation of Scriptural material, the exhibition of the lantern in Lekatlong is in keeping with Moffat’s preference for multimodal means of communication.

  Picture Nights

  Moffat’s use of illustrations as a means to promote conversation deeply influenced Livingstone’s teaching style. Before receiving a lantern from Murray, Livingstone hosted a series of “picture nights” in Kuruman. The interactive nature of these events echo the sermons delivered by Moffat from the wagon. While Livingstone uses the term “picture night” to refer to a kind of audio-visual presentation, it is unclear if Livingstone illustrated the discussion with print materials or with projected images. I will argue that “picture nights” helped Livingstone develop and practice the narrative strategies that he would adopt in his lantern shows, even though he probably used print material for these events.
  
  Livingstone describes one such evening in a letter to Moffat. This particular “picture night” showcases his interactive presentation of visual and textual material:

  We had been on our previous picture night on the magicians of Pharaoh through throwing down their rods as it is rather a familiar meeting. We were assailed by the question, “How could they do that?” I related a story you may remember as having happened at the time of the reformation at St. Andrews, or perhaps Melrose Abbey, of a pretended cure of a blind man & asked, How could they do that? It was of course a poser. The explanation of that & a few other tricks of jugglery awakened breathless attention. On the succeeding Sabbath our attention was directed to the gospel characteristics of which Paul spoke so positively, If we or an angel &c, and then in the evening of baruti of tsieco.[9]

  In an edited volume of Livingstone’s correspondence, Isaac Schapera annotates this moment by citing references to lantern shows in Missionary Travels, but he does not go so far as to say that “picture night” included a projector. From a linguistic perspective, Livingstone’s own terms are ambiguous. Like John Williams, Livingstone used the vocabulary of print to refer to projected images, characterizing them as “pictures” and “plates.”[10] In the context of the lantern show, the lack of distinction between print and projected media speaks to the predominant mode of lantern slide manufacture—copperplate printing—which borrowed production techniques from print. After Murray’s delivery of a lantern, the term “picture night” drops from Livingstone’s accounts. In its place, the term “picture” is always qualified by the presence of the lantern.[11] For this reason, the lantern’s absence from descriptions of “picture nights” seems conspicuous, indicating that he used other means to show visual material. From a logistical standpoint, “picture nights” were held at times when lighting conditions would have been ideal for a lantern show, for there would have been far too much ambient light during the daytime. Lanterns were available in South Africa at this time. An 1845 advertisement in the Graham’s Town Journal indicates that magic lanterns were being imported from England.[12] However, given Livingstone’s concerns about the cost of surgical equipment and shipping, it would have been far easier and cheaper to obtain print materials locally in South Africa than a lantern and slides.
  
  While it is unlikely that Livingstone used a projector for his “picture nights,” his presentation of material from the Old and New Testament anticipates the narrative strategies that he would adopt in his lantern shows, particularly his emphasis on covenant theology. Here, the story of Pharaoh's magicians transforming their staffs into snakes prompts a different kind of historical weaving. Instead of situating Moses as a type of Christ, Livingstone collapses temporal distance through the figure of the huxster, tying together scenes from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Protestant accounts of the Reformation in Scotland.[13] In a subsequent letter to Moffat, Livingstone mentions that they also discussed the “wonders of creation,” indicating that he included lectures on natural history as well as scriptural material.[14] The topics discussed in the context of a picture night parallel content of commercially-produced lecture sets and slides, particularly those manufactured by Carpenter and Westley, though there was not a copperplate-printed version of Moses before the magicians of Pharaoh.[15] Livingstone’s description of the picture night and subsequent sermons speaks to the fact that he could comfortably engage in theological discussions in seTswana. His inclusion of the seTswana term for false prophets (“baruti of tsieco”) registers as a moment of code-switching, for the conversation was conducted in the local language. This practice of presenting material in seTswana would carry over to his lantern shows.

  The Lantern Sans Magic

  Missionary Travels indicates that Livingstone received a lantern from Mr. Murray, “who kindly brought it from England.” Murray returned to South Africa in May 1849 to join Livingstone and Oswell on an expedition to Lake Ngami. The absence of mention of the lantern until 1853 suggests that Livingstone left the lantern in Kolobeng while exploring the region northwest of the mission station. The first explicit reference to a lantern show occurs in Livingstone’s diary, and it describes a lantern show in Linyanti, 450 miles north. By this time, Livingstone had already begun planning the western leg of his trans-African travels. The lantern that Murray gave him was such a valuable item to his expedition that it appears at the top of his packing list in both his field notes and diary. On his way to Luanda, Livingstone gave lantern shows in at least ten villages, but his diaries and journals suggest that he was giving addresses with the lantern so often that he did not record all of them. His diary describes how the lantern was “everywhere extremely popular,” so much so that he often gave multiple lantern shows in the same location.[16] As a means to gather a crowd, the lantern was extremely effective. At his public addresses in Sesheke, he estimates between five and six hundred people in attendance.
  
  Like other missionaries, Livingstone often used the phrase “exhibit the magic lantern” to refer to his lantern shows. This characterization collapses distinctions between the audio-visual presentation of material and the display of the lantern as a technological novelty. Though Livingstone benefited greatly from the rhetorical effect of the lantern as a mechanical curiosity, Livingstone was also keenly aware that this device could be perceived as having magical properties, particularly among groups that had little contact with Europeans. Livingstone assured the readers of Missionary Travels that

  An explanation was always added after each time of showing its powers, so that no one should imagine there was aught supernatural in it.[17]

  Unlike the phantasmagores who hid apparati from view, Livingstone actively promoted acculturation to technology. There are two obvious reasons why Livingstone would want to dispel the aura of the “supernatural.” First, failure to demystify projection equipment could undermine the missionary’s credibility. As the Kololo and the Lunda became increasingly familiar with European technology, they would soon learn that the lantern was only an “instrument.” In light of this discovery, Christianity would be perceived as no more than a cheap optical illusion. Indeed, Livingstone pokes fun at his own family and countrymen for focusing on the physical means of conversion as opposed to the message itself. He reminds his readers in Missionary Travels that

  Our ancestors were Roman Catholics; they were made Protestants by the laird coming round with a yellow staff, which would seem to have attracted more attention than his teaching for the new religion went long afterward, perhaps it does so still, by the name of ‘the religion of the yellow stick.’

  This colloquium for Protestantism gestures to the ways that religion and the mechanical means of its introduction to an area can be collapsed. Livingstone’s assurances that there was nothing magical about the lantern register as an effort to avoid a “religion of the magic lantern.” Secondly, Livingstone felt that taking advantage of someone’s naiveté, British or African, was immoral. This was not only a point of national pride, but of family honor, for the ancient motto adopted by the Livingstones was to “be honest.”[18]
  
  Tim Jeal argues that Livingstone was ultimately unsuccessful in this endeavor, for the lantern show at Kabompo reveals that projected images could be genuinely frightening for Livingstone’s audiences. However, in order to make this point, Jeal’s portrays the Lunda as gullible and easily manipulated. Such an interpretation does not take into account the mechanical affordances of an improved phantasmagoria lantern. As I will demonstrate in my reconstruction of Livingstone’s lantern shows, the complete darkness of the performance space made it difficult for the audience to distinguish the boundary between the space that they inhabited and the space represented on screen. The trope of the terrified audience and the critical observer that appears in Livingstone’s writings parallel European first encounters with projection equipment. These narratives of screen experiences serve an important function in that they portend the adoption of new media as a symbol of cultural maturation. The appearance of these stereotypes in Missionary Travels helped British audiences inscribe the Kololo and the Lunda within a narrative of technological development. If the British learned to distinguish between real and representation, so too could Africans acclimate to new, European modes of observation. As Tony Bennett has argued, exhibitions, particularly of art or cultural heritage objects, were designed to create self-governing subjects through aesthetic training. By extension, the lantern served as an accomplice in imperialization by training audiences to read projected images as technological processes.
  
  From a European perspective, demonstrations of African agency register as confirmation of the efficacy of this educational project. Livingstone responded to numerous requests from Africans to exhibit the lantern. His diary indicates that, when his health permitted, he was eager to oblige:

  We have shewn them only at the urgent request of different towns, and often many have come great distances to see but have returned disappointed in consequence of my illness. It is a good means of imparting instruction.[19]

  Elsewhere, Livingstone suggests that these requests were not driven by mere curiosity, but for a desire to know more about Christianity. Livingstone records some instances where there were requests for both the pictures and their accompanying narration. Explaining the pictures afforded Livingstone the best opportunity to introduce the main tenets of Christianity. In print, Livingstone emphasized the educational nature of the lantern show by always accompanying a reference to his projector with an assurance that it was an effective instructional aid.

  Fragments

  References to his lantern appear most frequently in the writings that describe Livingstone’s journey to Africa’s west coast. Following his return to Linyanti in August 1855, magic lanterns drop out of Livingstone’s journals and published narratives. This absence is particularly conspicuous during the next leg of his trans-African expedition. Between Linyanti and Queliane, Livingstone had numerous opportunities to display items of British manufacture, including his watch and a lens.[20] The lantern’s absence would be explained in the published account of his second expedition, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries. He had left the lantern in Linyanti in Sekeletu’s care. When he returned to Linyanti in late August 1860, he found that the lantern, his medicine chest, tools, and books as he had left them.[21]
  
  Livingstone may have left the lantern at Linyanti because he had others. James R. Ryan cites the Thomas Baines’ notebook as evidence that Livingstone had "at least two" lanterns with him on his Zambezi Expedition. Supplies for the expedition were purchased with funds from the Royal Geographical Society. Though there are no references to lantern shows in Livingstone’s writings, second-hand accounts suggest that Livingstone was not the only lanternist. Thomas Baines, the expedition’s artist, wrote two literary sketches of South Africa. The first, Exploration in South-West Africa, being an account of a journey in the years 1861 and 1862 from Walvisch Bay, on the Western Coast, to Lake Ngami and the Victoria Falls (1864) makes no mention of the lantern. His second narrative, The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa (1877) was published posthumously. It includes this biographical note from cartographer Henry Hill regarding the Zambezi Expedition:

  In his nocturnal outspans his great pleasure was to amuse his followers by tricks, sleight-of-hand, and conjuring. The magic lantern and microscope were not forgotten—and he also composed for them comic songs of the Christy Minstrel school they all could join in; so that in connection with the cures he often effected of sometimes imaginary complaints, his followers seemed often to look on him as a being more than human, especially as they knew no matter how critical a situation he was in he never seemed to know fear— the great secret of respect amongst African savages.[22]

  Thomas Baines’ lantern shows— or at least Henry Hill’s representation of them— indicate that they were primarily designed for entertainment. Whereas Livingstone’s public addresses focused on scriptural material, Baines was busy remediating stereotypes through blackface. Though Hill describes Baines' audience as African, Baines' attempts at humor may have also been designed relieve the high tensions developing between the European members of the expedition. Livingstone accused Baines of theft and subsequently dismissed him, charges which Baines denied wholeheartedly.
  
  Livingstone’s final reference to the lantern occurs in a letter to his college friend, James “Paraffin” Young, who had been an enthusiastic financial supporter of Livingstone’s expeditions. The letter was written while en route to Zanzibar for what would be Livingstone’s final expedition. Since the letter is in a private collection, its contents are only accessible through a published excerpt that appears in a posthumous biography of Livingstone by William Garden Blakie. In it, Livingstone describes opening a box of lantern slides only to discover that they were not the kind that he requested.

  The whole 2000 miles has been an everlasting see-saw, shuggy-shoo, and enough to tire the patience of even a chemist, who is the most patient of all animals. I am pretty well gifted in that respect myself, though I say it that shouldn’t say it, but that Sandy B----! The world will never get on till we have a few of those instrument-makers hung. I was particular in asking him to get me Scripture slides colored, and put in with the magic lantern, and he has not put in one! The very object for which I wanted it is thus frustrated, and I did not open it till we were at sea. O Sandy! Pity Burk and Hare have no successors in Auld Reekie![23]

  Although the identity of “Sandy B” is unknown, the letter reveals that he was spinthrift. Livingstone’s lament that the slides were “black and white” indicates that his friend purchased unpainted copperplate-printed slides as a cost-saving measure, for they were far less expensive than painted ones.[24]

  Following this letter, explicit references to the lantern end. As Stephen Tompkins notes, Livingstone had to revert to using print materials as a foundation for discussions. His notebook and journal describe how he used illustrations from Smith’s Bible Dictionary to discuss prayer with Chitapangwa, a chief whose village was north of the Chambezi river near Lake Malawi. He would repeat this discussion with Chitapangwa’s brother, Moamba, a week and a half later.[25] These “picture nights” echo the interactive nature of Livingstone’s early lantern shows and audio-visual presentations.

  Afterlife

  Though magic lanterns accompanied Livingstone on all three of his expeditions, only one has survived. It was left by the Zambezi expedition in a depot of supplies on the Shire river where it remained for forty years.[26] According the the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum catalog records, it was found by Rev. David Alexander Macdonald, a Church of Scotland missionary who worked in the Transvaal from 1898 to 1926, and it is believed to be the one given to Livingstone by Mungo Murray.[27] The lantern’s exhibition history reflects overarching patterns in museum curation and display.
  
  The lantern was initially characterized as a “relic,” celebrating Livingstone’s achievements as a missionary and explorer. Rev. Macdonald brought the lantern back to Scotland where it came under the Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee’s care. In 1913, the lantern was loaned to an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh (now the National Museum of Scotland) that celebrated the centenary of Livingstone’s birth.[28] The exhibition generated momentum for the formation of a museum devoted to David Livingstone in Blantyre. For this purpose, a committee formed to raise £12,000 to restore Shuttle Row, the building in which Livingstone was born.[29] The Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee agreed to loan the lantern and a compass to the museum for their displays. When the museum opened to the public in late 1929, the magic lantern was exhibited in the “Relic Rooms,” divided by categories that capture Livingstone’s shifting roles from missionary (1844-1857), to British consul (1858-1864), to explorer (1865-1873). The lantern was displayed in a small case alongside his consular uniform, perhaps in recognition of the fact that the lantern was found in a supply depot left by the Zambezi expedition.[30]
  
  The most recent exhibitions of the lantern place Livingstone within Victorian print and material culture. In 1996, the lantern was part of “David Livingstone and the Victorian Encounter with Africa” at the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. The exhibition included proofs of Missionary Travels from the John Murray Collection, now held by the National Library of Scotland. In the accompanying book, the lantern was portrayed as one of the technological novelties that Livingstone used to influence the Africans whom he encountered.[31] When the lantern returned to the Birthplace Museum, it was placed on top of one of Livingstone’s traveling trunks next to a diorama of Livingstone and Sechele, king of the Kwêna who converted to Christianity. This placement emphasizes the lantern’s role as an extension of Livingstone’s missionary efforts. The next iteration of the lantern’s display will include the earliest adaptation of Livingstone’s life for the big screen. Thanks to a grant from the National Lottery, the museum is currently undergoing renovations. When it reopens, the lantern will be exhibited alongside a recently-purchased slide that depicts the lantern show in Kabompo.[32] The display will be part of a larger gallery that emphasizes Livingstone’s African context, particularly the Africans who supported his early expeditions and African trade routes.
  
  The lantern slides that Livingstone used have not been as fortunate, for their whereabouts are unknown. T. Jack Thompson has described a large collection of lantern slides at the Livingstonia mission, but these were manufactured and brought to Africa at the turn of the twentieth-century.[33] If Livingstone’s slides have survived, they are most likely in storage at David Livingstone Museum in Zambia.

  ---

  [1] “Letter to Joseph J. Freeman,” December 22 nd , 1841. School of Oriental and African Studies Library. CWM/LMS/Livingstone Wooden Box, item 17, accessible via Livingstone Online, Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, dirs, 2019, Web, p. 3.
  [2] In later journal entries, Livingstone compared the receptiveness of his African audience to his sermons and lantern shows to accounts of South Pacific missionary work: “In reading accounts of South Sea missions it is hard to believe the quickness of the vegetation of the good seed, but I know several of the men, and am sure they are unimpeachable veracity.” Part of Livingstone’s surprise may be situated in the fact that missionaries in the South Pacific and Africa were using audio-visual means to present Christianity. See Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, Isaac Scapera, ed., Chatto & Windus, 1963, p. 315.
  [3] "Letter to Robert Moffat 1, 22 September 1845," CWM/LMS/Africa/Odds - Livingstone, Box 4-08, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, England. Accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 3.
  [4] Missionary Travels; Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; Thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean, John Murray, 1857, accessible via Google Books, Web, p. 299.
  [5] Livingstone, David. "Letter to Robert Moffat 1, 18 January 1849," CWM/LMS/Africa/Odds - Livingstone, Box 4-21, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, England, accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 1.
  [6] Missionary labours and scenes in Southern Africa, John Snow, 1842, accessed via Hathi Trust, pp. 598-599.
  [7] Lekatlong is near Colesberg, South Africa. See James Wyld, South Africa: Compiled for the Revd. R. Moffat’s Work, John Snow, London, 1842, accessed via the African Heritage Center. Web.
  [8] “Effects of a magic lantern,” Juvenile Missionary Magazine, vol. 7, no. 1, 1851, accessed via Archive.org. p. 12.
  [9] "Letter to Robert Moffat 1, 29 September 1847," CWM/LMS/Africa/Odds - Livingstone, Box 4-16, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, England, accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 10.
  [10] John Williams, Letter to Samuel Williams, 7 February 1839, CWM/LMS/Personal Papers/ South Seas Personal/Box 2, Council for World Mission Archive, School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London, England. 30 June 2016. See also Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, pp. 9, 16.
  [11] Later “picture nights” support this claim. On his third expedition, Livingstone “shewed the pictures” to a chief named Moambo. Though this passage is ambiguous, an earlier entry describes how he used images from Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Field Diary VII, 26 December 1866-1 March 1867, David Livingstone Centre, 1128, accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 106.
  [12] The advertisement places the lantern among “an extensive assortment of toys” that also included maps, transparent slates, and a miniature printing press, representing the lantern as a vehicle for edu-tainment. “Advertisement,” Graham’s Town Journal, July 1, 1848, accessed through Readex, p. 1.
  [13] The story of the blind man in view here is likely an episode described in William Row’s Historie of the Kirk of Scotland (1646). According to Row, the Catholic clergy of the Shrine of Loreto (just outside of Edinburgh) staged this miracle in order to the Protestant laird of Cleish.
  [14] For examples of natural history slides and a discussion of the narrative proscribed by the manufacturer, click here.
  [15] Companion to the Improved Phantasmagoria Lantern, Carpenter & Westley, 1851, pp. 14-15, 47. Catalogs produced by Scottish companies have survived, but they date from the early twentieth century.
  [16] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, p. 315.
  [17] Missionary Travels, p. 299.
  [18] Missionary Travels, p. 2.
  [19] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, p. 18.
  [20] On his way from Linyanti and Queliane, Livingstone had numerous opportunities to display items of British manufacture. Missionary Travels, pp. 582, 583, 585.
  [21] David Livingstone and Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa 1858-64, John Murray, 1865, accessible via Google Books, p. 296.
  [22] “Memoir,” The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa, Edward Stanford, 1877, accessible via Google Books, p. xviii.
  [23] Quoted in William Garden Blakie’s The Personal Life of David Livingstone, chiefly from his unpublished journals and correspondence in the possession of his family, John Murray, 1880, accessible via Google Books, pp. 366-367.
  [24] Companion to the Improved Phantasmagoria Lantern, pp. 14-15, 47.
  [25] Field Diary VII, 26 December 1866-1 March 1867, David Livingstone Centre, 1128, accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 106. And Unyanyembe Journal, 28 January 1866-5 March 1872, David Livingstone Centre, 1115, accessible via Livingstone Online, p. 262, 269.
  [26] Another lantern was left in Quelimane in the care of “Mr. Francis.” See page 95 of “Field Diary I, 4 August 1865-31 March 1866."
  [27] Catalog for the David Livingstone Center, now the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, Blantyre, Scotland, 18 May 2016.
  [28] A Guide to the Livingstone Centenary Exhibition, Opened March 18, 1913, Edinburgh, Morrison & Gibb Limited, 1913, copy at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, Blantyre, Scotland, 18 May 2016.
  [29] James I. Macnair, The Story of the Scottish National Memorial to David Livingstone, Second edition, Hamilton, The Hamilton Advisor Limited, 1968, copy at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, Blantyre, Scotland, 18 May 2016.
  [30] Livingstone Memorial: Guide to the Scottish National Memorial to David Livingstone at His Birthplace, sixth edition, Hamilton Advertiser, n.d. (post-1929), p. 17. Copy at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, Blantyre, Scotland, 18 May 2016.
  [31] David Livingstone and the Victorian Visual Encounter with Africa, Joanna Skipwith and John M. Mackezie, eds., National Portrait Gallery, 1996. pp. 89-90.
  [32] The lantern slide represents the earliest adaptation of Livingstone’s life for the big screen. Based on the sparse marginalia on the slide, it is unknown how this slide fit in with a longer sequence. For more information about the slide, see the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum’s Crowdfunder campaign.
  [33] Light on Darkness, pp. 214-225.