"Paaaeua, Wife and Adopted Son, Joseph", P.3

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19362

Title

p.3, Paaaeua, wife and adopted son, Joseph, son of the shipper called Christian/ Paauea, present appointed chief of Atuona

Description

Paaaeua, appointed chief of Atuona, stands in a garden with his wife and adopted son, Joseph. Paaaeua, appointed chief of Atuona, stands in a garden with his wife and adopted son, Joseph. He is wearing a dark jacket and light trousers and his wife a long white dress. Behind them is a fence and various outbuildings.

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

11.4 x 10.2 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

Paaaeua was the appointed chief of Atuona, Hiva-oa Island of the Marquesas Islands. He "adopted" Lloyd Osbourne, Fanny and Margaret Stevenson during their visit to the island in August 1888.

The Marquesas Islands are situated in French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. They are volcanic and are named after the Marquis of Cañete, who financially supported the Spanish Explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who disovered the islands in 1595.

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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People > Adults > Men

People > Adults > Women

People > Children > Boys

People > Politics and government > Chiefs

Places > Oceania > Marquesas Islands

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"Paaaeua, wife and adopted son, Joseph", p.3