Gentleman, Scholar, Muscular Christian Role Model: The Many Faces of Dr. David Livingstone

There is no doubt that Dr. David Livingstone was a highly influential figure in Victorian society. Upon returning to London in 1856, he found he was an instant celebrity as his writings about Africa, and particularly his book Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa had been an overwhelming success and captured the imaginations of the public (Wisnicki 225). This rise to fame transformed Livingstone into a cultural hero, and as such, his name and personality was appropriated time and again to champion a host of different causes, from missionary work to the expansion of empire. He was a prime candidate for poster boy of Britain’s interests in Africa and “[a]s a result, the Livingstone represented in the popular and scholarly biographies published while Britain remained a colonial power in Africa fit the archetype of colonial hero and explorer” (Petrusic 22)