Here’s a timely reminder with Robert Louis Stevenson Day looming on 13th November, that one of our lives from the Victorian era in Whose Town? is none other than the very same ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Kidnapped’ author. Our Robert is captured aged around twenty in his student days at Edinburgh University.  Robert Louis Stevenson lived at the time in the New Town area of Edinburgh with his family. Although as a young man, Robert Louis frequented the less salubrious Old Town areas and was fascinated by the contrast between the Old Town and the New Towns. In Whose Town? you’ll find images of both sides of the city he would have known at the time. There is also census material recording the Stevenson household giving an indication of the family’s comfortable lifestyle.

Robert Louis originally studied engineering and his family hoped he would follow in his forefathers’ footsteps and contribute to their lighthouse building legacy. Engineering may have been in Robert Louis’ blood, but it wasn’t in his heart. As a compromise, he swapped engineering to study the law, and graduated as an advocate. However, he wasn’t to practise, but to pursue his love of writing. Robert Louis started on his travels shortly after leaving university. In his Life in a Box, you won’t find a map of the city, but a rather special map of a particular island from his future imaginings, now etched in our cultural heritage… Discover it for yourself in Whose Town?