Photograph of David Livingstone's letter of application to the London Missionary Society. The letter is dated Blantyre, 5th September, 1837. This is Livingstone’s earliest known letter, written after two years study in Glasgow. It contains his offer of service to the society with a statement of his religious experience. This belongs to a series of Church of Scotland Foreign Missions Committee lantern slides relating to David Livingstone (1813-1873), the Scottish missionary who was best known as an explorer of Africa and anti-slavery campaigner. Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland and after working in the local cotton mill from the age of 10 he went on to study medicine and theology in Glasgow in 1836. Having decided to become a missionary he was posted to southern Africa in 1841. In 1845 he married Mary Moffat. During his life Livingstone carried out exploration of southern, eastern and central Africa, he discovered and named the Victoria Falls and it was his meeting with H. M. Stanley during a search for the source of the Nile that gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". David Livingstone died in Africa on 1 May 1873 and his body was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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