A workshop on the subject of Stanley and Livingstone was held on 16 September 2013, within the framework of the exhibition « Dr Livingstone, I presume ». The event was a joint initiative of the Royal Museum of Central Africa and the King Baudouin Foundation Heritage Fund.

The workshop was an opportunity to bring together specialists knowledgeable about expeditions during the Victorian age before an audience of historians and Africanists, for an in-depth discussion about some less generally well-known aspects of Stanley and Livingstone.

Professors Felix Driver, Francis Herbert, Justin Livingstone, James Mokhiber, James L. Newman and the exhibition curator Mathilde Leduc-Grimaldi discussed the following themes: Livingstone’s image in the Anglo-Saxon world prior to his meeting with Stanley; Livingstone’s enduring influence on Stanley; Stanley’s role in the Livingstone myth: the cartographic data gathered from their partial circumnavigation of Lake Tanganyika, and what their meeting and the famous question “Dr Livingstone I presume?” meant for the general public of yesterday and today.

The event was also the occasion to go back to some of the precious Stanley archives acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation’s Heritage Fund and currently entrusted to the Royal Museum of Central Africa. It was particularly interesting to put these archives in a particular context, relating them to archives or specific data emanating from 19th century publications or the Livingstone archives kept in Great Britain. All in all, a very special moment in which to examine in-depth a significant page in the history of expeditions in Africa.