Interior of the Great Hall

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19727

Title

p. 41a, Interior of the Great Hall

Description

Robert Louis Stevenson sits at a dining table in the middle of the Great Hall at Vailima, Samoa. The hall is panelled with wood and large windows flood the room with light. A wooden staircase can be seen at the right-hand side and Belle Strong is standing on it. Fanny Stevenson is sitting against the wall to the far left. Lamps hang from the ceiling.

Artist / maker

Andrew, Thomas

Date

1889

Size

14.5 x 19.9 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

Fanny Stevenson (nee Vandegrift) was Robert Louis Stevenson's wife. She is pictured here with Belle; her daughter from her first marriage to Sam Osbourne.

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

Architecture > Architectural features > Stairways

Furnishings > Furniture > Chairs

Furnishings > Furniture > Tables

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

Places > Oceania > Samoa

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