ABSTRACT
When Robert Louis Stevenson was an infant, the Juvenile Missionary Magazine of the United Presbyterian Church announced a magic lantern exhibit featuring a series of 'Dissolving Views of Scenes in the South Seas' to be held every evening at 8 o'clock in the Elysian Rooms. The purpose was to illustrate the missionary operations through brightly lit images that took the young audience into the interior of a New Caledonian Chiefs House, where the children might view 'heathen Customs'. By the time Stevenson was committed to his life in the South Seas and residing at his home Vailima in Samoa, the London Missionary Society was an extraordinarily strong presence. Through them and through less intimate relationships with Wesleyan missionaries and Marist priests, he learned, even more particularly, about the ins and outs of missionary life, its institutions, and its impact upon the islanders.
