New Exhibition Focuses on Robert Louis Stevenson's Final Years in the Pacific
Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny with two Marquesas islanders in Butaritari, Gilbert Islands, c. July 1889.
The National Library of Scotland, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Remediating Stevenson project, has unveiled a new exhibition examining the later years of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and his Pacific legacy.
This free exhibition reconsiders a writer who arrived in the Pacific as a colonial figure, but became locally beloved as ‘Tusitala’, teller of tales.
Tusitala: Pacific Perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson running through May 10, 2025, reflects on Stevenson’s Pacific legacy, considering the ways in which the Pacific and its peoples had a profound impact on Stevenson and his writing. Displaying original letters from the Library’s collections, alongside photographs taken at the time, the exhibition considers how Stevenson lived in and navigated Sāmoan culture as both welcomed guest and colonial presence.
“Robert Louis Stevenson spent the last six years of his life in the Pacific," said Dr Colin McIlroy, Manuscripts Curator. "This exhibition reflects on Stevenson’s reputation among the people of Sāmoa, Hawai'i, and the other Pacific islands. Displaying original Stevenson letters and images alongside new works inspired by his life and writing, we hear the voices of the Pacific echoing through these new adaptations and tributes to one of Scotland’s literary greats.”
The Remediating Stevenson project leader, Professor Michelle Keown from the University of Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted that the National Library of Scotland is hosting this exhibition, which explores an under-represented element of R.L. Stevenson’s life and legacy. The exhibition, like the ‘Remediating Stevenson’ project, explores the cross-cultural friendships and dialogues Stevenson established with Pacific Islanders in his final years, and includes a suite of new works by Pacific creative practitioners inspired by Stevenson’s fiction.”
Edinburgh-born Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) set sail from San Francisco in June 1888 and spent the next two years voyaging across the Pacific Ocean with his family, before eventually settling in Vailima, on the Sāmoan island of Upolu, where he lived until his death aged 44.
