David Livingstone (19 March 1813 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livingstone, from the prominent 18th-century Moffat missionary family. His fame as an explorer and his obsession with learning the sources of the Nile was founded on the belief that if he could solve that age-old mystery, his fame would give him the influence to end the East African ArabSwahili slave trade. Livingstone's subsequent exploration of the central African watershed was the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of Africa. His missionary travels, "disappearance", and eventual death in Africaand subsequent glorification as a posthumous national hero in 1874led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "Scramble for Africa". This portrait by Thomas Annan was taken in 1864.Photograph credit: Thomas Annan; restored by Adam CuerdenRecently featured: Sword-billed hummingbirdMolly MaguiresPhaistos DiscArchiveMore featured pictures