Guide to the Stevenson House Collection, Monterey State Historic Park

Processed by Lori Lindberg, Certified Archivist.
California State Parks
Stevenson House State Historic Monument
Monterey State Historic Park
20 Custom House Plaza
Monterey, CA 93940

Note

History--California History--Central Coast History Geographical (By Place)--California--Central Coast

California State Parks

P.O. Box 942896

Sacramento, CA 94296

Guide to the Stevenson House Collection

Monterey State Historic Park

Monterey, CA

Collection processed and finding aid created by
Lori Lindberg, Certified Archivist

San Francisco, CA
Machine-readable finding aid created by
Lori Lindberg, Certified Archivist

San Francisco, CA
Stevenson House State Historic Monument

Monterey State Historic Park

20 Custom House Plaza

Monterey, CA 93940
Email:
mshp2@mbay.net

Descriptive Summary

Title: California. Department of Parks and Recreation. Stevenson House Collection, Monterey State Historic Park,
Date (inclusive): 1850 - 1996.
Collection number: 483.1
Collector: California State Parks
Extent: 17.62 cubic ft. (36 boxes)
Repository: California State Parks

Monterey State Historic Park
20 Custom House Plaza
Monterey, CA 93940
831-649-7118
Abstract: The Stevenson House Collection consists of primary and secondary source materials, artifacts, and memorabilia connected with the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and the Stevenson House/French Hotel in Monterey, California. In the Stevenson House, a former rooming house, Robert Louis Stevenson lived for four months, September to December 1879. During his time living in the rooming house he worked on The Amateur Emigrant and waited for his future wife Fanny's divorce to be finalized.
Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Monterey District Museum Curator at 831-649-7118.
Language: English.

Legal Status

Public

Administrative Information

Access

The collections are open for research by appointment only. Appointments may be made by calling 831-649-7110.

Publication Rights

Property rights reside with the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Monterey State Historic Park.

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation of these materials is: [Identification of item], [Record Group], Stevenson House Collection, Monterey State Historic Park, 483.1, California State Parks.

Acquisition Information

Most of the collection was accumulated over forty years, 1932-1972, via donation from a number of individuals including the Field and Osbourne estates (Stevenson's step-children from wife Fanny Osbourne) as well as Stevenson enthusiasts Flodden W. Heron of San Francisco and William Percival Jefferson, of Santa Barbara.

Processing History

Between 1991 and 1993, the Stevenson House Collection in Monterey State Historic Park had limited preservation and arrangement work done by an independent contractor. The work included organization and arrangement of the collection and rehousing of most of the materials in archival quality containers. The project was not completed due to lack of funding and work ceased in 1993. As a result, there was no finding aid created for the collection and no work done toward reconciling the present arrangement of items to the accession and object records within the State Parks system.
In 2002, the State Parks designated funding to finish the work already begun and hired another archivist. A Microsoft Access database was created listing the contents of each box in the collection, record group and series numbers assigned to each folder and/or item by the prior contractor, as well as CSP-assigned accession numbers identified with each item. An interim container list was printed. This container list was reconciled with the 1960 inventory kept with the collection in its storage space.
A preliminary inventory was completed and a processing plan devised. The primary level organization scheme from the prior contractor was retained, with each collection treated as a separate record group with series and subseries as appropriate. Certain record formats, such as monographs and artifacts, were removed from their record groups and housed as a distinct group of Separated Materials because of their unique storage requirements.
Some item containers were changed to more appropriate archival housing, and all photographs were sleeved in PAT-passed polypropylene sleeves. All metal fasteners such as staples and paper clips were removed and replaced where appropriate with inert plastiklips. Monographs were housed in custom made book boxes.

About the Collection and the Stevenson House State Historic Monument

The Stevenson House Collection consists of primary and secondary source materials, artifacts, and memorabilia connected with the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and the Stevenson House/French Hotel in Monterey, California. In the Stevenson House, a former rooming house, Robert Louis Stevenson lived for four months, September to December 1879. During his time living in the rooming house he worked on The Amateur Emigrant and waited for his future wife Fanny's divorce to be finalized.
It was in Monterey that Stevenson penned the "Old Pacific Capital." Some say that his setting for the tale Treasure Island came from his walks along the Monterey Peninsula. Today, the Stevenson House has been restored as a period home with several rooms devoted to 'Stevensoniana'.
This two-story adobe has sheltered families, government officials, artists, writers and fishermen, beginning in the Mexican era. First owned by Don Rafael Gonzalez, and reportedly built in the 1830s, the two-story adobe originally comprised the sala and one large room upstairs. A Swiss businessman, Girardin, purchased it and added on the Houston Street section. Over the years it served many business purposes, and for a time was known as The French Hotel. Stevenson lived in the building during this period.
In 1937 the historic adobe was purchased by the late Edith C. van Antwerp and Mrs. C. Tobin Clark to save it from destruction. They in turn presented it to the State of California as a memorial, and it is now a unit of Monterey State Historic Park.

Biography

Robert Lewis (later: Louis) Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. His father Thomas belonged to a family of engineers who had built many of the deep-sea lighthouses around the rocky coast of Scotland. His mother, Margaret Isabella Balfour, came from a family of lawyers and church ministers. In 1857 the family moved to 17 Heriot Row, a solid respectable house in Edinburgh's New Town.
At the age of seventeen he enrolled at Edinburgh University to study engineering, with the aim - his father hoped - of following him in the family firm. However, he abandoned this course of studies and made the compromise of studying law. He 'passed advocate' in 1875 but did not practice since by now he knew he wanted to be a writer. In the university's summer vacations he went to France to be in the company of other young artists, both writers and painters. His first published work was an essay called "Roads", and his first published volumes were works of travel writing.
EARLY PUBLISHED WORKS:
His first published volume, An Inland Voyage (1878), is an account of the journey he made by canoe from Antwerp to northern France, in which prominence is given to the author and his thoughts. A companion work, Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), gives us more of his thoughts on life and human society and continues in consolidating the image of the debonair narrator also found in his essays and letters (classed among his best works).
MEETING WITH FANNY, JOURNEY TO CALIFORNIA, MARRIAGE:
His meeting with his future wife, Fanny, was to change the rest of his life. They met immediately after his 'inland voyage', in September 1876 at Grez, a riverside village south-east of Paris; he was twenty-five, and she was thirty-six, an independent American 'new woman', separated from her husband and with two children. Two years later she decided to obtain a divorce and Stevenson set out for California. His own experiences continue to be the subject of his next large-scale work The Amateur Emigrant (written 1879-80, published 1894), an account of this journey to California, which Noble (1985: 14) considers his finest work. In this work of perceptive reportage and open-minded and humane observation the voice is less buoyant and does not avoid observation of hardship and suffering. The light-hearted paradoxes and confidential address to the reader of the essays written a few years before (1876-77) and then published as Virginibus Puerisque (1881) continue in the creation of his original debonair authorial persona.
Concluding this first period of writing based closely on his own direct experiences is The Silverado Squatters (1883), an account of his three week honeymoon at an abandoned silver mine in California.
SHORT STORIES:
Stevenson's first published fictional narrative was "A Lodging for the Night" (1877), a short story originally published in a magazine, like other early narrative works, such as "The Sire De Maletroit's Door" (1877), "Providence and the Guitar" (1878), and "The Pavilion on the Links" (1880, considered by Conan Doyle in 1890 as 'the high-water mark of [Stevenson's] genius' and 'the first short story in the world,' qu. Menikoff 1990: 342). These four tales were collected in a volume entitled New Arabian Nights in 1882, preceded by the seven linked stories originally called "Latter-Day Arabian Nights" when published in a magazine in 1878. This collection is seen as the starting point for the history of the English short story by Barry Menikoff (1987: 126). The Arabian stories were described by critics of the time as 'fantastic stories of adventure,' 'grotesque romances' 'in which the analytic mind loses itself' (Maixner 1981: 117, 120), and are seen by Chesterton (1927: 169) as 'unequalled' and 'the most unique of his works'. They have an affinity with The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in their setting in the labyrinthine modern city, and the subject matter of crimes and guilty secrets involving respectable members of society. Stevenson continued to write short stories all his life, and notable titles include: "Thrawn Janet" (1881), "The Merry Men" (1882), "The Treasure of Franchard" (1883), "Markheim" (1885), which, being a narrative of the Double, has certain affinities with Jekyll and Hyde, "Olalla" (1885), which like Jekyll and Hyde originated in a dream and also deals with the possibility of degeneration. The above short narratives were all collected in The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables in 1887.
"Olalla" was written in a period of just over two years (1885-7) when Stevenson and Fanny were living in the cottage Skerryvore in Bournemouth. Despite problems of health and finances, this was a period of meetings with Henry James, W.E. Henley and other literary figures, and when he wrote the long short-story (published as a single volume), his 'breakthrough book', The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). Another collection Island Nights' Entertainments , tales with a South Sea setting, was published in 1893, including "The Bottle Imp" (1891), "The Beach of Falesa" (1892, a long short story of the same length as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), and "The Isle of Voices" (1893).
TREASURE ISLAND AND "CHILDREN'S LITERATURE":
Another fortuitous turning-point in Stevenson's life had occurred when on holiday in Scotland in the summer of 1881. The cold rainy weather forced the family to amuse themselves indoors, and one day Stevenson and his twelve-year-old stepson, Lloyd (Fanny's son by her first marriage), drew, colored and annotated the map of an imaginary "Treasure Island". The map stimulated Stevenson's imagination and, 'On a chill September morning, by the cheek of a brisk fire' he began to write a story based on it as an entertainment for the rest of the family. Treasure Island (published in book form in 1883) marks the beginning of his popularity and his career as a profitable writer; it was his first volume-length fictional narrative, and the first of his writings 'for children' (or rather, the first of writings manipulating the genres associated with children). Later works that fit into this category are A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), The Black Arrow (1883), Kidnapped (1886) and its continuation Catriona (1893). The four narrative works mentioned in this paragraph, though they all have youthful protagonists and were all first published in magazines for young people, are also clearly intended for adult readers. The last three, based on careful documentary research, are fictions exploring history and culture; and the last two are interesting studies of Scottish culture.
NOVELS AND ROMANCES:
Prince Otto (1885), his second full-length narrative, is defined by Andrew Lang as 'a philosophical-humouristical-psychological fantasy' (qu. Maixner 1981: 181). The action is provocatively set in the imaginary state of Grunewald, an unusual choice for Stevenson, and it was to historical Scotland (which had already provided the setting for Kidnapped and Catriona) that he turned for his next full-length 'adult' story, The Master of Ballantrae (1889). This is a Doubles narrative in which the brothers James and Henry have similarities with Jekyll and Hyde, not only in their initials, but also because of the mixed personality of the 'good' character, the constant return of the persecuting Double, and the simultaneous death of the two antagonists. Both Calvino and Brecht consider it to be the best of his works, and it is highly praised by writers as diverse as Henry James, Walter Benjamin and Andre Gide. The novel that he was working on when he died, Weir of Hermiston (published incomplete and posthumously in 1896), is also set in Scotland in the not-too-distant past and is often praised as Stevenson's masterpiece. The centre of the story is the difficult relationship of an authoritarian father and a son who has to assert his own identity (a theme present in many of Stevenson's works - and clearly a way he used of exploring and coming to terms with his difficult relationship with his own father).
IN THE SOUTH SEAS :
This very Scottish romance was written when Stevenson was far away on the other side of the world. His decision to sail around the Pacific in 1888, living on various islands for short periods, then setting off again (all the time collecting material for an anthropological and historical work on the South Seas which was never fully completed), was another turning point in his life. In 1889 he and his extended family arrived at the port of Apia in the Samoan islands and they decided to build a house and settle. This choice brought him health, distance from the distractions of literary circles, and went towards the creation of his mature literary persona: the traveller, the exile, very aware of the harsh sides of life but also celebrating the joy in his own skill as a weaver of words and teller of tales. It also acted as a new stimulus to his imagination. He wrote about the Pacific islands in several of his later works: Island Nights' Entertainments already referred to; In the South Seas (published 1896), essays that would have gone towards the large work on the area that he planned; and two other narratives with a South Sea setting: The Wrecker (1892), and The Ebb-Tide (1894). The former is a mystery adventure set in various places over the globe but centred in the South Seas (indeed at Midway Island, Latitude 0' deg;) with some dark tones, especially in the fruitless search for treasure and the massacre of a ship's crew (for quite understandable reasons!). The Ebb-Tide (like "The Beach of Falesa") gives a realistic picture of the degenerate European traders and riffraff who inhabited the ports of the Pacific islands. These South Sea narratives mark a definite move towards a more harsh and grim realism (Stevenson himself (qu. Maixner 1981: 452) acknowledges affinities of The Ebb-Tide with the work of Zola).
DEATH:
The authorial persona had changed from the debonair flaneur of the early works, but retained a joy in his craft and a consciousness in the shaping of his own life. He died in December 1894 and even shaped the manner of his burial: as he had wished, he was buried at the top of Mount Vaea above his home on Samoa. Appropriately it was his own short poem, "Requiem" (from an 1887 collection), that was written on his tomb: 'Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie...'
RECEPTION:
Stevenson establishes a personal relationship with the reader, and creates a sense of wonder through his brilliant style and his adoption and manipulation of a variety of genres. Writing when the period of the three-volume novel (dominant from about 1840 to 1880) was coming to an end, he seems to have written everything except a traditional Victorian novel: plays, poems, essays, literary criticism, literary theory, biography, travelogue, reportage, romances, boys' adventure stories, fantasies, fables, and short stories. Like the other writers who were asserting the serious artistic nature of the novel at this time he writes in a careful, almost poetic style - yet he provocatively combines this with an interest in popular genres. His popularity with critics continued to the First World War. He then had the misfortune to be followed by the Modernists who needed to cut themselves off from any constraining tradition; Stevenson was felt to be one of the most constraining of immediately-preceding authors for his sheer ability, and one of the most insidious for his play with popular genres and for his preference for 'romance' over the serious novel. Condemned by Virginia and especially Leonard Woolf (1927; not unconnected, perhaps, with the fact that one of Stevenson's great supporters had been Virginia's father), ignored by F.R.Leavis, he was gradually excluded from the "canon" of regularly taught and written-about works of literature. The nadir comes in 1973 when Frank Kermode and John Hollander published their Oxford Anthology of English Literature. With over two thousand pages at their disposal in which to exemplify and comment on the notable poetry and prose produced in the British Isles from '1800 to the Present', not one page is devoted to Stevenson - in the whole closely-printed two thousand pages, Stevenson is not even mentioned once! Critical interest has been increasing slowly since then, in some countries more than others (cf. Ambrosini 1991), though there have been few single-volume studies when compared with the large numbers of books published every year on his contemporaries James and Conrad. Stevenson, some might say, has been fortunate to escape such attention. Reading this Mozartian and mercurial writer remains for many as for Borges (1979), despite critical neglect, quite simply 'a form of happiness'.
Copyright 1997 Richard Dury. Used by permission from the author.

Scope and Content

The records of the Stevenson House Collection encompass the breadth of the Scottish writer's oeuvre, from manuscript letters and first edition books to original serial publications and works of art, and are supplemented by materials from other members of his family, including wife Fanny, mother Margaret, and step children Isobel Osbourne Strong Field and Lloyd Osbourne. The bulk of the collection is dated between 1880 and 1920. Most of the collection was accumulated over forty years, 1932-1972, via donation from a number of individuals including the Field and Osbourne estates as well as Stevenson enthusiasts Flodden W. Heron and William Percival Jefferson, both of San Francisco. Significant items in the collection range from three pages of manuscript music in Stevenson's hand (transcriptions of popular pieces adapted for flageolet, a recorder-type instrument played by Stevenson), a number of autograph letters, and a manuscript page from Weir of Hermiston, to six scrapbooks of press clippings and reviews about Stevenson, meticulously kept and annotated by Stevenson's mother, Margaret. Additional items of note are six glass plate photograph negatives from Williams of Honolulu, documenting Stevenson's lengthy 1888 visit with King Kalakaua and Princess Lilioukalani of Hawaii, three volumes of Fanny Stevenson's Vailima diaries, as well as three volumes of journals and a significant collection of correspondence and photographs of Charles Warren Stoddard, Stevenson's acquaintance and godfather to Austin Strong (Isobel's son), a resident of Monterey. The collections are supplemented by a small group of materials documenting the establishment of the Stevenson House State Historic Monument and the efforts toward preservation of the historic adobe.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in a library's online public access catalog:
Library of Congress Subject Headings

Personal Names:

Colvin, Sidney, Sir, 1845-1927.
Field, Isobel, 1858-1953.
Heron, Flodden W.
Osbourne, Lloyd, 1868-1947.
Sanchez, Nellie Van de Grift, 1856-1935.
Simoneau, Jules, 1821-1908.
Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift, 1840-1914.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894.
Stoddard, Charles Warren, 1843-1909.
Strong, Austin, 1881-1952.

Subjects:

Authors, Scottish--19th century--Biography.
California--History.
Historic buildings--California--Monterey.
Monterey (Calif.)--History.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894--Biography.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894--Criticism and interpretation.

Bibliography

Additional information about Robert Louis Stevenson may be found in the following publications:
Online:
The Robert Louis Stevenson Web Site, maintained by Richard Dury of the University of Bergamo, Italy: http://wwwesterni.unibg.it/siti_esterni/rls/rls.htm
Print:
Balfour Graham. The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. London: Methuen and Co., 1901.
Bell, Ian. Robert Louis Stevenson: Dreams of Exile. Edinburgh/NY: Mainstream/Henry Holt and Co., 1992.
Calder, Jenni. RLS: A Life Study. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1980.
Calder, Jenni. The Robert Louis Stevenson Companion. London: Paul Harris Publishing, 1980.
Colvin, Sidney. Robert Louis Stevenson: His Work And Personality. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1924.
Daiches, David. Robert Louis Stevenson. Norfolk, CT/Glasgow: New Directions Books/William Maclellan, 1947.
Furnas, J.C. Voyage to Windward: the Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. New York/London: William Sloane/Faber and Faber, 1951.
Neider, Charles (ed.). Fanny and Robert Stevenson: Our Samoan Adventure. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1956.
Osborne, Lloyd. An Intimate Portrait of R.L.S. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924.
Swinnerton, Frank A. Robert Louis Stevenson: A critical study. London/New York: Secker/George H. Doran, 1914.

Box Boxes 1-2

Record Group I.  Stevenson House Administrative Records, 1937-1994

Physical Description: 2 document cases

Scope and Content Note

This record group consists of a collection of audio material and paper records relating to the operation and establishment of the Stevenson House, as well as collections acquisition and management.
Box 1, Folder 1

Series i:    Correspondence, 1937

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence from Mrs. Tobin related to establishment of the Stevenson House.
Box 1, Folder 2

Series ii:    House deed restriction documentation, 1941

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence and written agreements related to establishment of the Stevenson House.
Box 1, Folder 3

Series iii:    House garden plans, 1948

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Native and historic plant lists and garden schematics related to establishment of the Stevenson House.
Folder 4

Series iv:   Indexes, 1959

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

1959 index of Stevenson's mother's scrapbooks, compiled by Anne Issler.
Folder 5-10

Series v.  Inventories and registers, 1959-1963

Physical Description: 6 folders

Scope and Content Note

Inventories of the Stevenson House collections as well as collections of Stevenson materials from other repositories, including the Beinecke Library and Baker Cottage on Saranac Lake.
Folder 11

Series vi.   Miscellaneous items, ca. 1960

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Includes shelf labels, receipts, and notes on scraps of paper.
Folder 12

Series vii.  News clippings, 1937-1968

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Miscellaneous Stevenson and Stevenson House-related news clippings.
Folder 13

Series viii.  Museum object provenance documentation, 1963

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Documentation of provenance of particular items from the Stevenson House collections.
Folder 14

Series ix.  Object reproductions, 1968

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Registered copies #9 and #10 of the manuscript music for flageolet from the Heron Collection, issued by the Department of Parks.
Folder 15

Series x.  Photographs, no dates

Physical Description: 1 folder

Scope and Content Note

Assorted photographs of Stevenson House and the gardens.
Box 35

Series xi.   Scrapbooks, 1945-1968

Physical Description: 1 item (See Box 35)

Scope and Content Note

A scrapbook of clippings and ephemera from Stevenson House, including announcements and invitations. Housed separately.
Box 2

Series i.  Audiovisual Materials, 1949-1994

Physical Description: 13 items

Scope and Content Note

Audiorecordings in various formats, including recording wire, of BBC programs, oral histories, and other topics related to Stevenson.
Box Box 3

Record Group II.  Barkle Museum Collection, 1884-1940

Physical Description: 1 document case (9 folders)

Scope and Content Note

The Barkle Museum Collection was donated to the Stevenson House by Mrs. T. J. Barkle in memory of her late husband. Mr. Barkle kept a small museum at his home to display treasures from his varied collection of memorabilia. The Stevenson items donated were part of that collection.
Box 3, Folder 1-3

Series i.   Correspondence, 1884-1940

Physical Description: 3 folders (3 items)

Scope and Content Note

Includes three manuscript letters, two about Stevenson and one to Barkle himself.
Folder 4

Series ii.  Framed items, no date

Physical Description: 1 folder (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

One framed postcard of Stevenson House.
Folder 5-6

Series iii.  Pamphlets/ booklets, 1922

Physical Description: 1 folder (2 items)

Scope and Content Note

Two pamphlets, one about the Wendover, England environs and the second Josephine M. Branch's story of the friendship between Stevenson and Jules Simoneau: The Story of a Friendship.
Folder 7-9

Series iv.  Photographs, ca. 1880s

Physical Description: 3 folders (6 items)

Scope and Content Note

Two albums and four loose photographs of Stevenson, family and friends, the Casco, and South Seas views, including Samoa.
Box Boxes 4-13

Record Group III.  Field/Strong Collection, 1857-1948

Physical Description: 10 document cases

Scope and Content Note

This collection was a gift to the Stevenson House from Isobel Field, Stevenson's stepdaughter, and her son Austin Strong. The largest collection in the series of collections, this group of materials contains a number of significant items including Fanny Stevenson's Samoa diaries, Margaret Stevenson's scrapbooks, and a number of original photographs. The majority of these items have no dates.
Box 4, Folder 1

Series i.  RLS primary works, 1880

Physical Description: 1 folder (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

Tear sheets from Fraser's Magazine, London, Nov., 1880. First printing of Stevenson's essay, "The Old Pacific Capital," and poem, "The Scotsman's Return."
Folder 2-4

Series ii.   RLS secondary works, 1898-1922

Physical Description: 3 folders (5 items)

Scope and Content Note

Second and special editions of Stevenson works, including "The Stevenson Baby Book," Austin Strong's copy from the San Francisco publisher John Howell, inscribed 5/27/1938. #33 of a limited edition of 500 printed by John Henry Nash in 1922.
Folder 5-14

Series iii.   RLS family-papers, 1857-1946

Physical Description: 2 document cases (15 folders)

Scope and Content Note

Primarily manuscript materials, including diaries, from wife Fanny and stepdaugher Isobel.
Folder 5-14 , Box 5, Folder 1-4

Subseries 1.   Manuscript materials, 1857-1937

Physical Description: (14 folders)

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript items, including two volumes of Fanny Stevenson's Samoa diaries and the manuscript for Isobel Field's autobiography, This Life I've Loved.
Folder 5

Subseries 2.  Other materials, 1946

Physical Description: 1 folder (4 items)

Scope and Content Note

Reader's Digest, May, 1946, international editions from Brazil, Sweden, Finland, and Arabia. Contains article on Fanny Stevenson written by Austin Strong.
Box 6-12

Series iv.   Other RLS-related materials 1871-1948

Physical Description: 1 document case and 6 larger flat boxes

Scope and Content Note

A large and significant collection of material encompassing a variety of formats including ephemera, magazine and journal articles, pamphlets and booklets, a large group of photographs and the scrapbooks meticulously kept by Stevenson's mother Margaret that feature a multitude of articles and book reviews about her son.
Box 6

Subseries 1.  Artwork and framed items, no dates

Physical Description: (7 items)

Scope and Content Note

Drawings, engravings, and framed photographs of such subjects as Stevenson, his friend Jules Simoneau, the St. Gaudens bas-relief memorial to Stevenson, and Annie Louise Ide.
Box 7

Subseries 2.   Correspondence, 1937-1949

Physical Description: (1 folder)

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence from Austin Strong and Isobel Field regarding collection donation to Stevenson House.
Box 7

Subseries 3.   Ephemera, ca. 1930s

Physical Description: (2 items)

Scope and Content Note

A photo postcard of Grez sur Loing, France, and philatelic cover from Samoa featuring three commemorative stamps issued to honor Stevenson.
Box 7

Subseries 4.    Magazine / journal articles, 1922-1948

Physical Description: (2 items)

Scope and Content Note

Articles on the South Seas and Palm Springs featuring Stevenson connections.
Box 7

Subseries 5.    Manuscript materials, 1871

Physical Description: (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

Autograph manuscript: 4 page poem, "Answer to a letter on Modern Creeds from a Brother Minister, by the Rev. I. Peter Oldpath M.A." Manse of Kilcumber, 23 Jul, 1871 (probably was the property of Stevenson's mother, daughter of the Rev. Lewis Balfour, Collinton Manse).
Box 7

Subseries 6.   Monographs / pamphlets, 1913-1919

Physical Description: (2 items)

Scope and Content Note

Two pamphlets about Stevenson's life featuring photos.
Box 8

Subseries 7.   Photographs, 1888-1940

Physical Description: (38 items)

Scope and Content Note

Extensive collection of photographs, most notably an album of photos from Fanny Stevenson's funeral, numerous photos of Stevenson and life and locations on Samoa, including Vailima, and one of the last photos ever taken of Stevenson.
Box 9-12

Subseries 8.  Scrapbooks, ca. 1877-1900

Physical Description: (5 items)

Scope and Content Note

Margaret Isabella Stevenson's scrapbooks, totalling five in the collection. The scrapbooks collectively contain over 1200 news clippings, mostly book reviews, about Stevenson's work. In addition, the scrapbooks contain several poems and letters, one of the Padre dos Reales handbills, genealogical material, and other items. Completely indexed by Anne Issler in 1960 (see Box 2).
Box 13

Series v.   Oversize materials, ca. 1880s-1950s

Physical Description: 12 items

Scope and Content Note

Larger framed photographs of Stevenson in Hawaii with King Kalakaua, portraits of Stevenson, Fanny Stevenson, and Isobel Field as a child, as well as phonograph recordings of Isobel Field relating anecdotal experiences of life with Stevenson.
Box (See note.)

Series vi.   Separated materials ca. 1850s-1913

Physical Description: 2 items

Note

Note: Both items in Separated Materials are housed with the existing library of monographs in the Stevenson House.

Scope and Content Note

An issue of The Bookman, Extra Number, 1913, devoted to Stevenson, and his father Robert Stevenson's personal cookbook.
Box Boxes 14-22

Record Group IV.  Heron Collection, 1814-1947

Physical Description: 9 document cases

Scope and Content Note

The Heron Collection, the second-largest collection of materials in the Stevenson House Collection, consists of manuscript materials, first edition printings, and other Stevenson-related materials collected by Flodden W. Heron, a noted Stevenson enthusiast. Mr. Heron was active in the establishment of a number of memorials to Stevenson throughout California, including the Stevenson House, and was president of the Book Club of California, which published a number of Stevenson works in special limited edition printings.
Box 14

Subgroup 1.  Robert Louis Stevenson - Primary Materials, 1879-1923

Physical Description: 8 items

Scope and Content Note

This series includes manuscript items in Stevenson's hand, various dates, and first edition publications.
Folder 1-4

Series i.   Manuscript materials, 1886-1893

Physical Description: (3 items)

Scope and Content Note

Two autograph letters from Stevenson, one to his parents and one to S.S. McClure, Captain of the yacht Casco, three sheets of manuscript music in Stevenson's hand, along with an addressed Stevenson autograph envelope to Mrs. Sitwell.
Folder 5-9

Series ii.    First edition publications, 1879-1923

Physical Description: (5 items)

Scope and Content Note

First publications of Stevenson in magazine or pamphlet form, including "The Silverado Squatters" and Father Damien among others.
Library See note.

 Subseries a.  Monographs no dates available.

Physical Description: See inventory at Stevenson House.

Note

Note: All of the items described here are housed with the existing library of monographs in the Stevenson House and inventoried separately.

Scope and Content Note

Heron donated his large collection of first edition books to the Stevenson House when donating this collection of materials. They are housed together with the rest of the books in the collection in the library at the Stevenson House.
Folder 5-9

Subseries b.  Journals/pamphlets, 1879-1923

Physical Description: (5 items)

Scope and Content Note

In additon to the titles listed above, this group includes an issue of Edinburgh, Picturesque Notes, in a paper folder with six etchings.
Box 14

Subgroup 2.   RLS secondary works, 1896-1942

Physical Description: 7 items

Scope and Content Note

Stevenson works that are not first edition publications, including second and later editions and fine art press limited editions.
 

Series i.   Second and later editions, 1896-1942

Physical Description: (8 items)

Scope and Content Note

Second and later editions published as monographs, fine art press editions published by particular organizations or individuals, and facsimile editions.
 

Subseries a.  Monographs and journals, 1896

Physical Description: (2 items)

Scope and Content Note

An 1896 issue of The Studio, featuring two Stevenson articles, as well as an interesting old paperback edition of Treasure Island.
 

Subseries b.  Fine art press limited editions, 1938-1942

Physical Description: (3 items)

Scope and Content Note

Smaller art press editions of Stevenson, including a letter to Mrs. Virgil Williams and his short story, "The Sea Fogs," printed for the Bohemian Club by the Grabhorn Press, San Francisco, in 1942.
 

Subseries c.   Facsimiles, no date

Physical Description: (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

Facsimile of The Sunbeam Magazine, cover of January, 1866. Edited and produced by Stevenson as a schoolboy. Included are explanatory typewritten notes.
 

Series ii.  Derivative works, no date

Physical Description: (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

A song cycle by Charles McCurrie based on A Child's Garden of Verses.
Box 15

Subgroup 3.   RLS family- works, 1896-1913

Physical Description: 4 items

Scope and Content Note

Publications by members of Stevenson's family.
Folder 1-4

Series i.  Publications/journals 1896-1913

Physical Description: (4 items)

Scope and Content Note

A facsimile of Lloyd Osbourne's childhood paper, The Surprise, along with two articles on life at Vailima by Isobel Field and an article by Nellie Sanchez, Stevenson's sister-in-law.
Box 16

Subgroup 4.  Other Stevenson-related materials, 1895-1950

Physical Description: 7 document cases

Scope and Content Note

The largest portion of the Heron collection, this group of materials consists of manuscript materials from persons associated with Stevenson, a nice selection of photographs, and, most notably, Heron's Weir of Hermiston collection: a group of materials, including the first edition publication, associated with Stevenson's final unfinished book considered by many to be his masterpiece.
Folder 1

Series i.  Correspondence, 1948-1950

Physical Description: (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript address by Mrs. Virgil Williams at the dedication of the Stevenson monument, Portsmouth Square, San Francisco.
Folder 2

Series ii.  Manuscript materials, 1897

Physical Description: (1 item)

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript address by Mrs. Virgil Williams at the dedication of the Stevenson monument, Portsmouth Square, San Francisco.
Folder 3-7

Series iii.   Magazine / journal articles, 1895-1950

Physical Description: (4 items)

Scope and Content Note

An assortment of articles relating to Stevenson.
Box 17

Series iii.   Monographs / pamphlets, 1875-1940

Physical Description: (13 items)

Scope and Content Note

A nice selection of pamphlets and small books by persons associated with Stevenson, some with Stevenson as the subject. Items of note include copies of the Anderson Galleries auction catalogues from the 1914 and 1915 sales of Stevenson's estate, as well as an interesting analysis of Stevenson's handwriting conducted by Gertrude Hills, personal secretary and librarian to Edward Beinecke, the noted collector of Stevenson material (along with much more) and founder of the Beinecke Library at Yale University. The volume was a gift to Heron from Beinecke and inscribed to Heron by him in 1940.
Box 18

Series iv.   Ephemera and collectibles, 1932-1949

Physical Description: (14 items)

Scope and Content Note

An assortment of postcards, clippings, programs and keepsakes from the dedication of the Stevenson Memorial in San Francisco, Stevenson House, and other locales and events associated with Stevenson.
Box 19

Series v.   Art work and framed items, no dates

Physical Description: (10 items)

Scope and Content Note

Framed and unframed sketches, reproductions, and clippings of Stevenson, the Casco, places and buildings associated with Stevenson, as well as a nice portrait of Heron.
Box 20

Series vi.   Scrapbooks, ca. 1920-1932

Physical Description: (3 items)

Scope and Content Note

Three scrapbooks maintained by Heron containing an assortment of clippings, ephemera, and other items associated with Stevenson. Includes articles about the wreck of the Casco, and a group of articles and keepsakes illuminating the dedication of the bronze plaque placed by the Literary Anniversary Club on the Stevenson House, Monterey, November 13, 1932 and the special exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library of the same year.
Box 21

Series vii.   Photograph materials, 1888-1944

Physical Description: (13 items)

Scope and Content Note

Photographs of buildings in California where Stevenson lived, Stevenson and his family, various Scotland locales associated with Stevenson and ceremonies and banquets associated with Stevenson monuments in California.
Box 22

Series viii.   Weir of Hermiston collection, 1814-1940

Physical Description: (6 items)

Scope and Content Note

This impressive collection of material contains a number of items connected with Stevenson and his inspiration for the book Weir of Hermiston, including Stevenson's personal copy of George Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World, containing the story of Major Weir, a first edition copy of Stevenson's novel, and two autograph pages of Stevenson's manuscript.
Box Boxes 23-24

Record Group V.   Hitchcock-Walker Collection, 1707-1937

Physical Description: 2 document cases

Scope and Content Note

The Hitchcock-Walker Collection is another collection of materials donated to the Stevenson House by Mrs. Ripley Hitchcock, widow of Mr. Hitchcock, a Stevenson enthusiast, in memory of her sister, Mrs. W.G. Walker. The collection contains a number of items from the Anderson Gallery sale of Stevenson's estate in 1915, materials sold by Isobel Field after the death of her mother, Fanny. Although a number of the items are not Stevenson primary or secondary materials, they were owned by him. Items of note are some very early 18th-century pamphlets, some Stevenson ephemera, and 9 prints of the Williams of Honolulu set of 12, a complement to the six glass plate negatives contained in the Osbourne Collection.
Folder 1-2

Series i.   Artwork / graphics, 1886

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Woodcut portrait of Stevenson by T. Johnson. Signed and dated proof on plate paper, 1886 (Item #266 in Anderson Gallery catalog).
Folder 3

Series ii.  Ephemera, ca. 1940

Physical Description: 10 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted items, including a Christmas card with reproduction of a Stevenson poem dedicated to Charles Baxter, sent as greeting from Gertrude Hills, private secretary and librarian to Edward Beinecke (poem is part of Beinecke collection at Yale), theatre programs, clippings and postcards reflecting various Stevenson-related topics including his J.S. Sargent portrait, Saranac Lake cottage, and St. Giles memorial.
Folder 4

Series iii.   Framed items, 1915

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

A framed lithograph illustration of Samoan high chiefs from an article in Mid-Pacific Magazine, November 1915
Folder 5

Series iv.   Memorabilia, 1880-1940

Physical Description: 8 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted items of memorabilia including a letter to Stevenson from the Union Club of Sydney inviting him to membership (1890), and a receipt for his contribution to the Advocates Widow's Fund (1880); a pamphlet publishing an address before the Stevenson Fellowship of San Francisco by Edwin Wiley; a pamphlet keepsake produced by Meirie and Eugenie Dutton about Stevenson's gift of his birthday to Louise Ide including reproductions of the deed of gift, his letter to Ide, and clippings about Ide; and pages from a Vailima supply order book.
Folder 6

Series v.  News clippings, 1914-1915

Physical Description: 6 items

Scope and Content Note

Miscellaneous news clippings about the Anderson Gallery auction of 1914-1915.
Folder 7-10

Series vi.   Pamphlets / tear sheets, 1707-1923

Physical Description: 16 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted articles, both Stevenson- and non-Stevenson-related, of interesting and varied significance.
Folder 7-8

Subseries a.  RLS-related, 1886-1923

Physical Description: (7 items)

Scope and Content Note

Articles by or about Stevenson from various magazines, including Lloyd Osbourne's "Intimate Portrait of RLS" and Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez' "In California with RLS."
Folder 9-10

Subseries b.  Non-RLS-related, 1707-1793

Physical Description: (9 items)

Scope and Content Note

An interesting selection of 18th century pamphlets and some late 19th century articles on the South Seas.
Folder 11

Series vii.   Photographs, 1888-1892

Physical Description: 10 items

Scope and Content Note

10 photos, 9 of Williams' set of 12 (all approximately 8" x 10") and 1 by Notman, Sydney, 6" x 9" in folder.
Box 24

Series viii.  Scrapbooks, no dates (ca. 1950)

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Clippings mostly on modern Hawaii.
Box Box 25

Record Group VI.  Howell Collection, 1884-1944

Physical Description: 1 document case

Scope and Content Note

The Howell Collection was donated to the Stevenson House by John Howell, a noted San Francisco rare book dealer and publisher.
Folder 1

Series i.  Artwork / graphics, no date

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Reproduction of a pen and ink drawing of Stevenson House by F.H. Randall, showing south end stairway added to rear of house about 1920.
Folder 2

Series ii.   Ephemera, no dates

Physical Description: 3 items

Scope and Content Note

Photo postcards of Stevenson and two Samoan locations.
Folder 3

Series iii.  News clippings, 1934-1944

Physical Description: 6 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted Stevenson-related news clippings.
Folder 4-6

Series iv.   Pamphlets / tear sheets, no dates

Physical Description: 3 items

Scope and Content Note

Facsimile of Lloyd Osbourne's account of Stevenson's death, "Letter to Mr. Stevenson's Friends," and tear sheets of John Steinbeck's article "How Edith McGillicuddy Met R.L. Stevenson," Harper's Magazine.
Folder 7

Series v.   Photographs, no dates

Physical Description: 2 items

Scope and Content Note

An assortment of photos including a photo of Mt. Vaea and the road leading to Stevenson's tomb, Samoa, inscribed to Howell from Isobel Field in her Samoan name, Teuila.
Folder 8

Series vi.   Reproductions- manuscript, 1886-1898

Physical Description: 4 items

Scope and Content Note

Reproductions of three Stevenson letters and two manuscript pages from Jekyll and Hyde given to a Stevenson admirer by Fanny Stevenson in 1898.
Folder 9

Series vii.   Reproductions- print, no dates

Physical Description: 2 items

Scope and Content Note

Stevenson's "Requiem" and 3 pages of The Surprise, Lloyd Osbourne's little paper.
Folder 10

Series viii.  Typed transcriptions- correspondence, 1884-1898

Physical Description: 4 items

Scope and Content Note

Typed transcriptions of the Monterey letters listed above, a typed transcription of a letter to Stevenson from George Meredith, 1884, and a photocopy of a letter to Stevenson from Richard Mansfield, 1888.
Folder 11

Series ix.  Typed transcriptions- other, 1949

Physical Description: 6 items

Scope and Content Note

Various typed transcriptions of chronological timelines of Stevenson's life, various Stevenson poems, pages from a Sothebys 1949 sale of Stevenson material, and other items.
Box Boxes 26-27

Record Group VII.   Jefferson Collection, 1888-1932

Physical Description: 2 document cases

Scope and Content Note

The Jefferson Collection, a collection donated to the Stevenson House by another Stevenson enthusiast William Percival Jefferson, consists of assorted Stevenson-related materials. Items of note are the large collection of tear sheets of first-published articles by Stevenson in a number of magazines, and memorabilia from the Stevenson Society of America, responsible for the acquisition and maintenance of the cottage on Saranac Lake in New York, one of Stevenson's homes in the United States and now a memorial.
Box 26, Folder 1-2

Series i.    Correspondence, 1926-1932

Physical Description: 2 files

Scope and Content Note

One letter file, flat, containing correspondence between Jefferson, Will H. Low and Livingston Chapman, primarily concerning the Stevenson Society of America and Will Low's artwork used for the bookplate in Jefferson's books donated to the Stevenson House and one file of general correspondence relating to the donation of the Jefferson Collection to the Stevenson House.
Folder 3

Series ii.  Ephemera, no date

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Advertisement for hotel in Grez.
Folder 4

Series iii.  News clippings, 1914-1928

Physical Description: 22 items

Scope and Content Note

Various clippings concerning the Stevenson Society of America, and other Stevenson-related articles, book reviews and obituaries.
Folder 5

Series iv.   Pamphlets, 1923

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Stevenson's Baby Book, facsimile edition published by John Howell, 1923.
Folder 6-7

Series iv.   Photographs, 1888-1930

Physical Description: 14 items

Scope and Content Note

Copies of various photos of Stevenson, Stevenson's family, and friends, including copies of many of the Williams photos and also of the cottage at Saranac Lake, New York.
Folder 8-14

Series v.  Publications, 1881-1930

Physical Description: 38 items

Scope and Content Note

A large collection of tear sheets of first-published articles by Stevenson in a number of magazines, and memorabilia from the Stevenson Society of America.
Box 27

Series vi.  Miscellaneous material, no date

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Empty Stevensoniana box/case, leather spine, marbled boards. Formerly used to house most of the clippings and publications, as well as photographs.
Box Box 28

Record Group VIII.  Osbourne Collection, 1881-1915

Physical Description: 1 document case

Scope and Content Note

The Osbourne Collection was donated to the Stevenson House by the widow of Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson. The collection, though smaller than the one donated by Osbourne's sister Isobel, contains a number of significant items, including a set of glass plate negatives from Williams of Honolulu, documenting Stevenson's trip to Hawaii and his visit with King Kalakaua on his way to Samoa.
Folder 1-2

Series i.   Art work / graphics, no dates

Physical Description: 37 items in two folders

Scope and Content Note

19 page proofs of publishers' illustrations. Includes 3 pictures of the crew on board the Casco, Stevenson included; 3 taken on islands during the cruise; 3 of Vailima; 7 from Stevenson's early life, and Mary Fairchild Low's 1912 portrait of Fanny Stevenson. In addition, 18 Davos Press woodcuts, all images known except for two. Each on fine Japanese paper, numbered 1-18 in pencil by Stevenson or Lloyd Osbourne.
Folder 3

Series ii.   Correspondence, 1912

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

S. Gautereaux to Fanny Stevenson, 1912. Gautereaux seeks permission to dramatize some of Stevenson's stories.
Folder 4-5

Series iii.   Memorabilia, 1873-1915

Physical Description: 2 items

Scope and Content Note

Facsimiles of two manuscript letters of Stevenson: April 1873, regarding his life, and 3 desiderata. Also, remarks and prayers for funeral of Fanny Stevenson, presumed to be in Lloyd Osbourne's hand.
Folder 6

Series iv.  Pamphlets, 1923

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Stevenson's Baby Book, facsimile edition published by John Howell, 1923. Lloyd Osbourne's presentation copy from John Howell.
Folder 7-10

Series v.  Photographs, 1881-1890s

Physical Description: 17 items

Scope and Content Note

Numerous Stevenson family photographs, many inscribed by Stevenson, Fanny, or Lloyd.
Folder See Box 35

Series vi.  Separated materials, 1888

Physical Description: 6 items

Scope and Content Note

Six 8" x 10" glass plate negatives by Williams of Honolulu. Famous photographs of RLS and family during their visit to the kingdom of Hawaii in 1888-1889. Includes: 1) RLS in his bunk at Waikiki playing the flageolet, 2) Lloyd Osbourne in Hawaiian dress, 3) RLS family concert scene, 4) family poker game, 5) RLS, Lloyd and Henry V. Poor, 6) RLS and family around a veranda table.
Box Box 29

Record Group IX.   Owings Collection, 1850-1960

Physical Description: 1 document case

Scope and Content Note

The Owings Collection consists of materials found by the subsequent owners of Isobel Field's home in Santa Barbara, discovered during renovations in a concealed space in one of the walls of the home.
Folder 1-15

Series i.  Manuscript materials, 1850-1925

Physical Description: 20 items

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence to Stevenson and his wife Fanny, as well as to Lloyd Osbourne and others.
Folder 1-9

Subseries 1.   Correspondence, 1886-1925

Physical Description: (10 items)

Scope and Content Note

Primarily correspondence to Stevenson and Fanny.
Folder 10-15

Subseries 2.  Other manuscript materials 1850-ca. 1890

Physical Description: (12 items)

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript items relating to others in the Stevenson family, including a legal manuscript copy of the final estate of Robert Stevenson, Esq., 1850, and Isobel Field's Haiti diaries.
Folder 16

Series ii.   Ephemera, 1860-19xx

Physical Description: 4 items

Scope and Content Note

Notice to subscribers from Charles Baxter and Sidney Colvin regarding additional volumes to the series of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Edinburgh Edition; Thomas Stevenson's copy of annual endowment appeal essay from the Church of Scotland, 12/23/1860; pamphlet of Scotch proverbs; Dance card from ball in Hawaii, 11/19/1888.
Folder 17

Series iii.   Indexes, 1960

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Anne Issler's index to Owings collection, 2/16/1960.
Folder 18-19

Series iv.  Photographs, ca. 1890

Physical Description: 22 items

Scope and Content Note

Two photographs, unidentified subjects, by Arnold Genthe, and a series of 20 photographs of Apia, Samoa and environs, and the native peoples.
Folder See Box 35

Series v.   Separated materials, no date

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

An 8" x 10" glass plate negative of an unidentified male artist with palette.
Box Boxes 30-35

Record Group X.   Miscellaneous Accessions, 1857-1961

Physical Description: 6 document cases

Scope and Content Note

These miscellaneous accessions are additional materials donated to the Stevenson House over the years and not documented as discrete collections. Items of note include the Charles Warren Stoddard papers, significant for their documentation of this Monterey writer and the handling of his estate after his death.
Box 30, Folder 1-5

Series i.   Art work / graphics, no dates

Physical Description: 5 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted etchings and lithographic reproductions of portraits of Stevenson, Stevenson memorials, and other family members.
Folder 6

Series ii.  Derivative works, 1857

Physical Description: 1 item

Scope and Content Note

Duplicate of the autograph manuscript listed in Box 5, folder 6.
Folder 7-17

Series iii.  Ephemera / keepsakes, 1891-1949

Physical Description: 28+ items

Scope and Content Note

Various postcards of Stevenson House and other locales associated with Stevenson, brochures using the "F.H" (Flodden Heron) woodcut of Stevenson, documenting publication of works about Stevenson and dedication ceremonies for memorials, banquet programs.
Folder 18-21

Series iv.  Framed items, no dates

Physical Description: 4 items

Scope and Content Note

Photo reproductions of photos and paintings of Stevenson.
Box 31-32

Series v.   Journals, 1887-1915

Physical Description: 9 items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted issues of periodicals, featuring work by and about Stevenson.
Box 31

The Bookman, Oct-Dec 1914 and Jan-Mar 1915

Physical Description: 6 items

Scope and Content Note

Six issues of The Bookman, featuring serialized work by Stevenson.
Box 32, Folder 1-3

Miscellaneous journals, 1887-1913

Physical Description: 3 items

Scope and Content Note

Contains articles about Stevenson and his life in Monterey.
Folder 4-8

Series vi.  Manuscript materials, 1883-1953

Physical Description: 7 items

Scope and Content Note

A collection of assorted manuscript items including an autograph letter of Stevenson addressed to "My Dear Captain," presumably about the Casco, no date.
Folder 9-13

Series vii.  Pamphlets / booklets, 1912-1954

Physical Description: 11 items

Scope and Content Note

An assortment of pamphlets about Stevenson and other topics, including Hawaii.
Box 33, Folder 1-19

Series viii.    Photographs, no dates

Physical Description: 77+ items

Scope and Content Note

A large group of photographs primarily of the Stevenson House over the years and the gardens, also various other Monterey views. Includes copies of a number of photographs thoughout the collection.
Folder 20-33

Series ix.  Tear sheets / news clippings, 1891-1951

Physical Description: 17+ items

Scope and Content Note

Assorted news clippings by and about Stevenson and Stevenson House, including an 1891 article titled "In the South Seas" written by Stevenson for the April 5th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle and Stevenson's obituary from the Illustrated London News, December 22, 1894.
Box 34, Folder 1-8

Series x.   Stoddard, Charles Warren (1843-1909) - papers, 1894-1910

Physical Description: 40+ items in 8 folders

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence, ephemera, two manuscripts, news clippings, photographs, and three volumes of journals from Stoddard, primarily from his years in Monterey, where he died in 1909.
Box 35

Series xi.  Oversize materials, 1893-1996

Physical Description: 20+ items

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of all oversize materials larger than 8.5" x 14" that need to be stored flat. They are arranged according to size and weight in the box. Assorted items from the collections, including a collection of ephemera from Baker Cottage, Saranac Lake, New York, and a lithograph of a watercolor of Stevenson House by Rowena Meeks Abdy, titled and signed by the artist.
Box Box 36

Record Group XI.  Separated Materials, 1888

Physical Description: 1 manuscript box

Scope and Content Note

These separated materials consist of the glass plate negatives from the Osbourne Collection, along with three additional glass plate negatives removed from the Field/Strong Collection, one removed from the Owings Collection, and another removed from Miscellaneous Accessions for safekeeping and appropriate storage.