Pack Horses Just Arrived from Town

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19710

Title

p. 32, Pack horses just arrived from town

Description

Two horses stand with large packs strapped to their backs at Vailima on Samoa. Lloyd Osbourne stands holding the reins of the one on the left whilst Pavea holds the other. In the middle Robert Louis Stevenson stands with his hand on his hip next to Joe Strong and Lalacle.

Artist / maker

Davis, John

Date

1889

Size

19 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

This is one of a series of photographs taken on 11th May 1892.

Lloyd Osbourne was Robert Louis Stevenson's step-son and Joe Strong his step son-in-law.

The Samoan Islands are located in the South Pacific and lie halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The capital Apia, is situated on Upolu one of the largest of the 10 islands.

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). From the late 1880s, Stevenson stayed in the South Pacific with his family on his own estate in Vailima in Samoa. 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

Animals > Mammals > Horses

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

Places > Oceania > Samoa

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