The David Livingstone Birthplace Museum is a biographical museum dedicated to the life and work of
the explorer and missionary David Livingstone. It is sited in the grounds of the David Livingstone Birthplace,
which contains historic grounds as well as the museum. The museum itself is housed in Shuttle Row, the building
where David Livingstone lived and where he was born on 19 March 1813.The former textile mill buildings once housed
24 families including Livingstone's.
The Collection at the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum contains a diverse range of material exploring the
life, work and legacy of David Livingstone (including his family and associates) and the history of Blantyre Mills
and Village. The centre depicts Livingstone's life from his early childhood working in the mill, to his travels
throughout Southern Africa.
Livingstone had a mythic status that operated on a number of levels; Protestant missionary martyr, working-class
"rags-to-riches" story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate
of British commercial and colonial expansion.
His fame as an explorer and his obsession with learning the sources of the Nile River was founded on his desire
to solve that age-old mystery. His subsequent exploration of the central African watershed was the culmination of
the colonial penetration of Africa. His missionary travels, "disappearance", and eventual death in Africa gave
rise to subsequent glorification as a posthumous national hero.
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