Lot Essay
By March 1871, when Stanley set out with his caravan from Zanzibar into the interior in search of Livingstone, little had been heard of the Scots missionary and explorer since he had departed in 1866 to explore the Central African Lakes and trace the source of the Nile. There had been rumours of his death, which came and went, interrupted by letters that reached the British Consulate at Zanzibar and reports which emerged from Murchison's RGS inspired search expedition in early 1868. Livingstone, the national hero and recipient of the RGS Founder's Medal in 1855 for his great trans-African journey, was by now barely newsworthy, his reputation tarnished by the disastrous 1858-63 Zambezi expedition. The discovery of Livingstone by Stanley, at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika in late October or early November 1871, first reported by Stanley to the world in his sponsor J. Gordon Bennett's New York Herald on 2 July 1872, changed all this. However fabricated his famous words Dr Livingstone I presume? may have been, and, ironically, parodied in the press soonafter, Stanley's spin on their first meeting immortalised both the doctor and Stanley in the public imagination. Livingstone would be canonised after his death in Africa under a year after news of his discovery had reached the outside world. Stanley found fame, although as an 'American' who had pre-empted the Royal Geographical Society's efforts to find and support Livingstone, he found a chill reception within the English establishment. The award of the RGS Gold Medal was not immediately forthcoming, the Society claiming Stanley had arrived in the wrong season (the summer) to be entertained, and sniping that geographical facts were favoured over sensational stories. An audience with the Queen who gifted him a gold and lapiz lazuli snuff box (and described him as 'a determined ugly little man -- with an American twang'), prompted the RGS to relent, and he learnt in October that he would receive the Gold Medal. With the runaway success of his book How I Found Livingstone (published November 1872), Rawlinson and Markham held a dinner for Stanley in Willis's Supper Rooms in St James's Square where apologies were offered up. Stanley's account of his discovery of Livingstone created a powerful mythology that would effect the future colonisation of Africa, inspiring another generation of missionaries. The legacy for Stanley was to be Livingstone's heir, Stanley himself inspired by his time in Africa with the doctor to embark on his own 999-day trans-African journey in 1874-77, one of the most brutal, epic and extraordinary journeys of exploration ever undertaken.
The RGS Gold Medals originated in 1831 as an annual gift of 50 guineas from King William IV. In 1839, the Society decided that this sum should be converted into two gold medals of equal value, to be designated the Founder's Medal and the Patron's Medal. They continue to be awarded each year with the approval of Her Majesty the Queen, for the encouragement and promotion of geography, science and discovery.
William Wyon (1795-1851) was the eldest son of Peter Wyon, to whom he was apprenticed in 1809. He became Chief-engraver in 1828 and was considered one of the finest of all die engravers, his son Leonard C. Wyon consoidering the present medal to rank amongst his father's best work.
The RGS Gold Medals originated in 1831 as an annual gift of 50 guineas from King William IV. In 1839, the Society decided that this sum should be converted into two gold medals of equal value, to be designated the Founder's Medal and the Patron's Medal. They continue to be awarded each year with the approval of Her Majesty the Queen, for the encouragement and promotion of geography, science and discovery.
William Wyon (1795-1851) was the eldest son of Peter Wyon, to whom he was apprenticed in 1809. He became Chief-engraver in 1828 and was considered one of the finest of all die engravers, his son Leonard C. Wyon consoidering the present medal to rank amongst his father's best work.