Celebrating the bicentenary
of the birth of Dr David Livingstone

The Nyangwe Diary: Shining New Light on Livingstone

An exciting exhibition which illustrates how cutting edge technology revealed a previously inaccessible Livingstone diary.

By 1871 Livingstone had been out of touch with home for years and had run out of writing paper and ink, so he improvised the materials for his diary by writing over an old copy of The Standard newspaper with ink made from the seeds of a berry. The resulting text was almost completely illegible and it is only thanks to recent developments in spectral imaging technology that it can finally be revealed. The diary covers an important period of Livingstone’s life, and includes a horrifying eye-witness account of the massacre of some 400–500 villagers by Arab slave traders.

Image: Before and after images of Livingstone's 1871 Field Diary. Previously inaccessible it is now restored thanks to cutting-edge spectral imaging technology.

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