DAVID LIVINGSTONE’S FATHER IN LAW & MISSIONARY INSPIRATION: Signed Portrait of Robert Moffat

Photograph (19x15.5cm) mounted on card which has been trimmed to the edge of the albumen photograph except at the lower edge where the card mount has been signed: ‘Yours very truly Robert Moffat.’ To the verso, trade stamp of ‘Maull and Co. Photographers and Miniature Printers.’ Above that, an interesting pencilled provenance note: ‘This is the other Maull portrait from Mrs G Rawson Leeds Album a gift for Ronald Wilson son of T ‘Tabbie’ E B Wilson son of W Wycliffe Wilson of Sheffield. 1970’ - signs of adhesive to edges of verso where the photograph was mounted in Mrs Rawson’s album. This image not located in any of the major collections.

Born in East Lothian in 1795, Robert Moffat was one of the most influential missionaries in Africa in the 19th century, inventing the modern ‘mission station’ but his greatest legacy is in inspiring David Livingstone to undertake missionary work himself - his daughter Mary later married the younger man.