Day 13 National Portrait Gallery

I really enjoyed our visit to the National Portrait Gallery today. You can tell a lot about a person from looking at their pictures. Of course it also helps if you have a brief synopsis accompanying it. I feel that this was a great assignment for us to complete as a class. Not only was it free of charge and therefore we had no excuse not to visit the gallery, but also because it had something for everyone. There were portraits of noteworthy poets, authors, historians, political figures, and royalty, among others. The parts of the museum I found to be most enjoyable were the displays they had on certain people, such as John Hanning Speke, Richard Burton, and David Livingston. I found it most interesting how these three people’s stories intertwined. While the first two explorers were trying to discover the source of the Nile River the final explorer attempted to disprove one’s theory. This topic was the greatest geographical mystery of the time. Speke felt he discovered the Nile’s source as Lake Victoria, yet on that same exploration, Burton was convinced that the source was another lake by the name of Tahganyika. These two men published competing accounts of their journey including how each came across their discovery. After this kafuffle, the two were scheduled to debate their findings publicly. However, Speke accidentally shot himself with his shotgun. Burton did not think this was an accident. What happened to Burton afterwards? David Livingston attempted to prove Speke’s theory to be correct, and Burton’s to be incorrect. He traveled with Henry Morton Stanley who was the one to complete the journey itself. Livingston died in the swamps of Africa, trying to settle the matter. I found it helpful that the National Portrait Gallery decided to put these three important men together in a display in order to tie their significance together. The first short write-up of the whole situation, or kafuffle, touched on all three, but it wasn’t until you read each individual piece that you were able to read their back-stories and understand how they all fit together. My only question is one that I do not think can be answered in this blog, but I will ask it anyway: What happened to Richard Burton after Speke died and the debate ended? Did he go on to do anything else noteworthy? I was unable to find any other information about him on the small cards next to the portraits. It would have been interesting to see what had happened to him in the end.