Maps also allow us to keep track of paths travelled. This private exercise can sometimes generate historical documents of great value, for example if it involves explorers whose expeditions physically opened up roads, while at the same time opening wide new paths to knowledge and often, more or less voluntarily, to economic and political exploitation. The Morbiato bequest introduced two such pieces of immense value into the museum’s cartographic collection, comprising two nineteenth-century maps relating to the travels of David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley. It is noteworthy that the routes taken by the two explorers are highlighted on maps that those very same paths helped to define.
The explorations of the Scottish doctor and missionary David Livingstone (1813–1873) made a substantial contribution to Western knowledge of Central Africa. The map donated by Morbiato, which represents the region between the Lualaba River to the west, the Indian Ocean to the east, Lake Victoria to the north and Lake Shirwa to the south, is the first American edition published in 1875 in New York, together with Livingstone’s diaries. It was produced using the lithographic method, taking as its basis the drawings, reliefs and observations that Livingstone himself had produced during his final trip to Africa, which centred on the territories of the present-day states of Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zambia. When Livingstone left in 1866 for a two-year mission, the prolonged absence of news from him led to fears about his wellbeing, and thus the New York Herald sent an expedition to track him down. This was led by Henry Morton Stanley, who in 1871 found him in Ugigi on Lake Tanganyika. Stanley stayed with Livingstone for a year, accompanying him in the exploration of the northern part of the Tanganyika region. Although debilitated by malaria, Livingstone did not want to return with Stanley and died in Zambia in 1873.
Livingstone’s route is indicated in red on the map, which also contains brief observations, dates and measurements taken from his diaries. The routes taken by other explorers and some of his previous journeys are outlined in black.
Browse the gallery and discover the details of the map:
