"King's boathouse", p. 39

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19360

Title

p. 39, King's boathouse

Description

Robert Louis Stevenson sits between King Kalakaua on his left and Lloyd Osbourne on his right in the King's boathouse in Honolulu, Hawaii. They are seated at a big round pedestal table and all have floral garlands round their necks. In the background stand two servants in white collared jackets. The walls of the boathouse are decorated with many pictures and mirrors. A large hammock is strung across part of the room.

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

Unknown

Date

1889

Size

16.6 x 20.7 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

David Kalakaua (1836-1891) was the last king of Hawaii from 1874-1891. He is sometimes referred to as The Merrie Monarch. Lloyd Osbourne was Robert Louis Stevenson's step-son.

This is one of a number of photographs taken on 26th January 1889 at the King's Boat House where Stevenson and Lloyd were adorned with wreaths, drank champagne, played whist and had their photographs taken. Stevenson writes with astonishment at how much champagne Kalakaua could drink.

The Hawaiian Islands were known as the Sandwich Islands until the late 19th century. Hawaii is a state of the United States of America, located in the central Pacific Ocean. It became part of the Union in 1959, making it the 50th state. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oahu.

When Stevenson visited Hawaii it was an independent kingdom. The 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii however stripped the Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority, disenfranchised most of the native population and transferred power to American, European and native Hawaiian elites. This was followed by the forced creation of the Republic of Hawaii in 1893, the abdication of Queen Liliuokalani and Hawaii's annexation by the United States of America in 1898.

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

Furnishings > Furniture > Tables

Furnishings > Ornamentation > Mirrors

Furnishings > Ornamentation > Paintings

People > Domestic > Servants

People > Entertainment and sports > Authors

People > Politics and government > Kings

Places > North America > Hawaii

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