Robert Louis Stevenson's tomb

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19745

Title

p. 50, Robert Louis Stevenson's tomb

Description

The new tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson on Vaea Mountain, Samoa has flowers displayed on it and a Samoan inscription on the side. Ten Samoan men and boys stand around the tomb. Most are wearing floral garlands and an assortment of head wear including turbans, hats and tam o shanters. Trees surround the site.

Artist / maker

Tattersall, Alfred John

Date

1889

Size

18.7 x 22.9 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

Vaea mountain overlooked Vailima and Stevenson had expressed a wish to be buried at the top. He died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage on the evening of 3rd December 1894. During the night, a path was cut up the side of Vaea mountain and the funeral took place the next day.

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 > Monuments > Tombs

People > Adults > Men

People > Children > Boys

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

Places > Oceania > Samoa

Religion > Religious facilities > Graveyards

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