Skip to content
Home
Favourites
0
Advanced search
Shopping cart
0
Register
Log in
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries
Images of Edinburgh
Browse map
Area A - Z
Browse by date
Exhibitions
Current exhibition
All exhibitions
Collections
About the collections
Browse by theme
Subject A - Z
Subject matches "Samoa" or its children
Back to search results
Feast at the opening of the road of the Loving Hearts
Unknown, 1889, Photograph
Item
of 25
Feast at the opening of the road of the Loving Hearts
Feast at the opening of the road of the Loving Hearts
Add to favourites
Share
Item record
About this image
Related
Location
Category
Museums & Galleries Item
Item no
19740
Title
p. 47b, Feast (at Vailima) for the opening of the road of the Loving Hearts (7 October 1894)
Description
People line either side of the veranda at Vailima on Samoa. On the house side as well as native Samoans sit Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson; Lloyd Osbourne; Austin Strong and Margaret Stevenson. Some Samoan women on the right have kava bowls in front of them.
Artist / maker
Unknown
Date
1889
Size
14.5 x 20 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Writers' Museum
Stevenson had become increasingly involved in Samoan politics, and in the civil war of July 1893 he supported Mataafa who was defeated and exiled. Stevenson secured the release of the other chiefs and, as a token of their gratitude, they built a road leading to Vailima. The feast was given on 7th October 1894 in celebration of the completion.
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.
Margaret Stevenson (nee Balfour) was Robert Louis Stevenson's mother. Fanny (nee Vandegrift) was his wife, who is pictured here with Lloyd; her son from her first marriage to Sam Osbourne and Austin her grandson.
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.
Exhibitions with this item
Robert Louis Stevenson: Pacific Travels
Other views of this item
Related images
Related subjects
People
>
Entertainment and sports
>
Authors
Places
>
Oceania
>
Samoa
Sport and leisure
>
Activities
>
Eating and drinking
More like this
Rights and purchasing
Option
Price
Digital File
Electronic file 72 dpi JPEG
£6.10
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
Digital File
Electronic File 300 dpi TIFF
£31.00
(inc. VAT 20%)
Add
You can view and use digital images for personal and educational use. For more information, read our
policy on image use
.
If you wish to use our images for commercial use, please
contact us
.