The Romance and Reality of Darkest Africa: H.M. Stanley and the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition

Exhibit by Posner Center intern, Kate Holterhoff
Summer/ Fall 2010

This exhibit showcased an illustrated edition of Henry M. Stanley’s In Darkest Africa: or, The Quest, Rescue and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria (1890) and reflected on the conflicted history of Western imperialism in Africa. The exhibit looked at Stanley’s role within the fin de siècle Scramble for Africa (1880-1920). Was it a story of heroism and adventure as told in the European media, or the evidence of horrible brutality in imperial Africa?










_{Images: University of South Carolina Libraries' Rare Books & Special Collections, Smithsonian Institute}