"Princess Moe", p.23

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19320

Title

p.23, Princess Moe

Description

A faint image of Princess Moe standing wearing a long dress against a lush tropical forest background.

The image is from the photograph album entitled 'The Cruise of the Casco' of Robert Louis Stevenson's travels around Hawaii and French Polynesia in 1888.

Artist / maker

Osbourne, Lloyd

Date

1888

Size

11 x 13.2 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

This image was taken in November-December 1888.

Princess Moe was the widow of King Tamatoa of Raiatea, the second largest of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. She prepared food for Stevenson when she heard he was unwell upon his arrival in Tahiti and Stevenson's mother credits her with saving her son's life. Princess Moe also organised for the Stevenson party to move into the house of Ori, the sub chief of the village and deacon of the Protestant Church in Tautira after it became apparent that they were to have an extended stay on the Island. Stevenson wrote a verse to her entitled "To an Island Princess" after meeting her at Tautira on Tahiti.

Tahiti is one of the Windward Islands of French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. The capital is Papeete which is situated on the northwest coast.

Born in Edinburgh on 13th November 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and travel writer. Although he was plagued by ill health all his life, he was extraordinarily well-travelled, visiting Europe, America and the South Seas. He married American born Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne in 1880 and is best-known for works like Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (both 1886).

Robert Louis Stevenson spent the latter years of his life both travelling and resident in the Pacific. The family chartered the 'Casco' in San Francisco and spent several weeks travelling in French Polynesia, including an extended stay in Tahiti where Stevenson recovered from a bout of illness. After this the Stevenson group continued to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they landed in January 1889. In the summer of 1889 Stevenson embarked on a six month voyage through the Gilbert Islands to Samoa aboard the 'Equator'. It was here that Stevenson bought an estate he named Vailima. After another voyage, aboard the trading steamer the 'Janet Nicoll', Stevenson returned to Vailima. He died here on the 3rd December 1894 of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 44, leaving what many consider his best work, Weir of Hermiston (1896) unfinished.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Garments > Dresses

People > Politics and government > Queens

Places > Oceania > Tahiti

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