Dr. David Livingstone, portrait photograph.
Edinburgh: Maull & Polyblank, 1858. A striking large cabinet card portrait of the renowned African explorer, Dr. David Livingstone (1813 - 1873), obsessed with finding the source of the Nile and one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th century in the Victorian era. This is a collodion type photograph depicting Dr. Livingston seated, his left arm resting on a rolled map, and looking directly and forcefully into the camera.
Henry Maull (1829–1914) was a British photographer who specialized in portraits of noted individuals; he formed a partnership with George Henry Polyblank around 1856, in London.
The growing demand for photographs of celebrities in the 1850s encouraged Maull and Polyblank to undertake a series of highly popular monthly images of famous people known as "Photographic Portraits of Living Celebrities".
This series was published from 1856 to 1859, featuring forty individual portraits with accompanying biographies by Herbert Fry; later parts were written by Edward Walford. They were issued to subscribers over a period of 41 months and eventually all were published in 1859 in a single volume, 'Photographic Portraits of Living Celebrities'.
Dr. David Livingstone's portrait was number 25 in the series, first published in May, 1858.
This Livingstone portrait appeared in the volume 'Photographic Portraits of Living Celebrities'; we locate the volume's last appearance at auction in 1996.
These photographs in the Living Celebrities series were also included in many exhibitions in Britain, including those of the Photographic Society of Scotland (1856), the Photographic Society of London (later the Royal Photographic Society), and at an international exhibition held in London in 1862.
7 3/4 x 5 3/4 in.", curved top corners. Laid on stiff paper, without a printed decorative border, a calligraphic name below the image, "Dr. Livingston" (sic). Very good condition. Item #23258
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