A new exhibition examining the later years of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and his Pacific legacy is to open in Edinburgh this week.
This free exhibition, which will open ahead of Robert Louis Stevenson Day on November 13, reconsiders a writer who arrived in the Pacific as a colonial figure, but became locally beloved as ‘Tusitala’, teller of tales.
Opening on Friday, ‘Tusitala: Pacific Perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson’ 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.
The exhibition is the fruit of a collaboration between the National Library of Scotland and University of Edinburgh’s Remediating Stevenson project.
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Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the 'Remediating Stevenson' research project explores the relevance of Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific fiction to contemporary communities in Scotland, Sāmoa and Hawai'i. Project activities and outputs include arts education workshops; newly commissioned graphic adaptations and poetry; a documentary film; and exhibitions at the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and the National Library of Scotland.
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.
The display will also feature new creative works, inspired by Stevenson and his Pacific stories, produced by Sāmoan, Hawaiian and British artists, poets, and filmmakers on the Remediating Stevenson project.
Dr Colin McIlroy, Manuscripts Curator at the National Library of Scotland, said: “Robert Louis Stevenson spent the last six years of his life in the Pacific. 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 is one of the most famous writers Scotland has ever produced and is best known for literary classics such as ‘Treasure Island’ (1883), ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (1886), ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ (1885) and ‘Kidnapped’ (1886).
Hugely successful in his lifetime, Stevenson shocked the British literary establishment when he and his family settled in Sāmoa following his Pacific voyages of 1888–1890. During his time in Sāmoa he published several narratives and poems set in the Pacific, as well as Catriona (1893) and Weir of Hermiston (1896), novels set in Scotland. In 1894 he died aged 44 at his home at Vailima, on the Sāmoan island of Upolu.
The display is part of the University of Edinburgh’s Remediating Stevenson project, supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council. The University will host a symposium in celebration of Robert Louis Stevenson Day on 13 November, reflecting on Stevenson’s Pacific writing, travels, and cross-cultural friendships. A further sold-out event, focused on Stevenson in Sāmoa, will be hosted by the National Library of Scotland in that evening in Edinburgh.
‘Tusitala: Pacific Perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson’ opens on Friday 8 November at National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. Entry is free.
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