With the David Livingstone Centre due to be renovated shortly, I thought I would record how the David Livingstone birthing room looks at this time, ahead of the makeover. So in Summer 2015, i took this photo. Located on the upper floor of Shuttle Row, Low Blantyre, here in the bed recess on the right, the great Missionary Explorer was born on March 19th 1813.
The Livingstone family lived here during all David’s boyhood and youth until the family moved to Peacock Cross in Hamilton in 1841, a decision most likely taken to be closer to their church. Great care was taken to ensure the room looked like it would have done in Livingstone’s time. His mother was supposedly very proud of the tidiness of her “kitchen”, a range no less in that same multi functional crowded room. Many of the articles are true to the period, but not all were directly Livingstone’s own family possessions. The majority of them in this room, came from Blantyre homes at the end of the 1920s, just before the Museum opened.
The family bible bears the inscription , “May the 28h, 1837. Neil Livingstone’s Holly (sic) bible, Blantyre works”. It has not, however been
The family bible bears the inscription , “May the 28th, 1837. Neil Livingstone’s Holly (sic) bible, Blantyre works”. It has not, however been possible to prove that this bible belonged to Dr. Livingstone’s father, more probably it belonged to a cousin, although it is a rare edition. The room has changed considerably over the years since 1929, receiving quite a few makeovers in terms of items displayed and decor.
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Wendy Wilson My relatives donated wooden cooking utensils supposedly made by Livingstones father to Hamilton museum.