David Livingstone

Introduction & Top Questions
Early life
Initial explorations
Opening the interior
The Zambezi expedition
Quest for the Nile
Influence

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Map of southern and central Africa showing the routes of David Livingstone's major expeditions between 1841 and 1873, with color-coded lines representing his early journeys, the crossing of the continent, the Zambezi expedition, and his quest for the Nile. Key locations, lakes, and dates of significant events are labeled along the routes.

The Life & Explorations of Dr. Livingstone

Wood engraving depicting Henry Morton Stanley greeting David Livingstone with a hat tip at Ujiji, Lake Tanganyika, surrounded by local people and an American flag, with thatched huts in the background.

At a Glance

David Livingstone, oil painting by F. Havill after photographs; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

David Livingstone summary

Quizzes

Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11. Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface. Reflected in Aldrin's faceplate is the Lunar Module and astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took the picture.

Exploration and Discovery

Mayflower. Plymouth. Photograph of the Mayflower II a full-scale reproduction of the Mayflower. The Mayflower II built in Devon, England, crossed the Atlantic in 1957 maintained by Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA.

World Explorers Quiz

Related Questions

How did David Livingstone become the first European to cross the African continent?
How did David Livingstone describe his journey across Africa in Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa?
How did David Livingstone’s African servants preserve and carry his body after his death?
How did David Livingstone’s discoveries change Western knowledge and attitudes about Africa?
How did David Livingstone’s missionary work contribute to later Christian missions in central Africa?
How did the Boers affect David Livingstone’s home and African friends at Kolobeng?
How did the First Opium War change David Livingstone’s plans for missionary work?
How did the Zambezi expedition contribute to scientific knowledge of central Africa?
What did David Livingstone hope to accomplish by opening a route into central Africa?
What happened to David Livingstone’s son Robert during the American Civil War?
What happened to the British Central Africa Protectorate after it became Nyasaland?
What name did the Lozi people use for Victoria Falls before it was given its English name?
What was the purpose of David Livingstone’s Zambezi expedition?
When and where did David Livingstone die?
When and where did Mary Livingstone die?
When and where was David Livingstone born?
When did David Livingstone first arrive in Cape Town?
When did David Livingstone first see Victoria Falls?
When did David Livingstone marry Mary Moffat?
When did David Livingstone reach Luanda on the Atlantic coast?
When was David Livingstone ordained as a missionary?
Which lakes did David Livingstone become the first European to reach during his final expedition?
Which organization supported David Livingstone’s early missionary work?
Which subjects did David Livingstone study while he worked part-time in a mill?
Why are Victoria Falls also called Mosi-oa-Tunya?
Why could the Zambezi expedition not use the Zambezi River as a route for ships?
Why did David Livingstone avoid the route through Boer territory during his 1853 journey?
Why did David Livingstone become a national hero in Britain after returning in 1856?
Why did David Livingstone begin working in a cotton mill at age 10?
Why did David Livingstone believe commerce could help weaken the slave trade?
Why did David Livingstone name Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria?
Why did David Livingstone originally plan to become a medical missionary in China?
Why did David Livingstone refuse to return to England with Henry Morton Stanley?
Why did David Livingstone return to Africa in 1866?
Why did David Livingstone travel north from Kuruman into the Kalahari?
Why did Mary Livingstone and her children return to Britain in 1852?
Why did some of David Livingstone’s followers falsely report that he had been killed by the Ngoni?
Why did the British government recall the Zambezi expedition in 1863?
Why did the Royal Geographical Society honor David Livingstone after the first European sighting of Lake Ngami?
Why is Henry Morton Stanley’s greeting to David Livingstone famous?
Why was David Livingstone appointed British consul at Quelimane?
Why was David Livingstone’s heart buried in Africa?
Why was the town of Livingstone in Zambia named after David Livingstone?
What was David Livingstone’s childhood like?
Why is David Livingstone famous?
Who was George Mallory?
What was significant about George Mallory’s 1924 Everest expedition?
How did Alexander Fleming discover penicillin?
What was Alfred Russel Wallace’s early life like?
How was Alfred Russel Wallace influential?
What was Alfred Russel Wallace’s legacy?
Why is Robert Louis Stevenson important?
What was Robert Louis Stevenson’s occupation?

History Global Exploration

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External Websites

Boston University - School of Theology - History of Missiology - Biography of David Livingstone
The MY HERO Project - David Livingstone
Princeton University - Firestone Library Renovations - David Livingstone, 1813-1873
National Library of Scotland - David Livingstone
South African History Online - David Livingstone
Electric Scotland - Biography of David Livingston
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Inside Doctor Livingstone: a Scottish icon's encounter with tropical disease
Undiscovered Scotland - Biography of David Livingstone
Historic UK - Dr Livingstone I presume?
BBC News - Dr David Livingstone: A 200-year legacy
Princeton University Library - David Livingstone, 1813-1873

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

David Livingstone - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
David Livingstone - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

David Livingstone

Scottish physician, missionary, and explorer

Written by

George Albert Shepperson

William Robertson Professor Emeritus of Commonwealth and American History, University of Edinburgh. Author of David Livingstone and the Rovuma.

George Albert Shepperson

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 23, 2026 •History

David Livingstone (born March 19, 1813, Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland—died May 1, 1873, Chitambo [now in Zambia]) was a Scottish physician, missionary, and explorer who exercised a formative influence on Western attitudes toward Africa. Livingstone grew up in a distinctively Scottish family environment of personal piety, poverty, hard work, zeal for education, and a sense of mission. His father’s family was from the island of Ulva, off the west coast of Scotland. His mother, a Lowlander,...

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