The first edition of the new version of Livingstone Online (University of Maryland Libraries, 2016;) has now been published. Livingstone Online is a digital museum and library that enables users to encounter the written and visual legacy of famous Victorian explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873). The site challenges reigning iconic representations of Livingstone by restoring one of the British Empire's most important figures to the many global contexts in which he worked, traveled, and is remembered.

Highlights of the new site

A dynamic, redesigned interface that combines images, critical essays, and extensive documentation to bring Livingstone's work to life for modern audiences and to take users far behind the scenes of our digital humanities research;

Access, including download access, to over 7,500 manuscript and contextual images, 3000 metadata records, and 500 transcriptions. Our digital collection is one of the largest such collections on the internet dedicated to any historical British traveler to Africa;

Multiple search and browse options for encountering our digital collection, including a fully redeveloped Browse by Digital Catalogue page, a new Browse by Timeline page, and our Browse by Addressee and Browse by Repository pages;

Essays that for the first time set out the theory behind Livingstone Online, the principles by which we designed the site, and the guiding elements of our mission as a digital museum and library.

The new Livingstone Online is the most recent outcome of a 12+ year initiative that brings together an international, interdisciplinary team of specialists with forty contributing archives and repositories, including the National Library of Scotland, the David Livingstone Centre, the Royal Geographical Society, and SOAS, University of London.

LEAP (the Livingstone Online Enrichment and Access Project), the most recent development phase, has been made possible thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

To learn more about the site, please contact project director Adrian S. Wisnicki (awisnicki@yahoo.com), English Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.


Last modified 16 August 2016