The portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson found in Scotland. -- Photos by Diane Slawych

An abandoned bunkhouse on an old California mine site is not exactly the kind of place a husband takes his new wife on their honeymoon. But at the time Robert Louis Stevenson, who was yet to become an established author, was nearly penniless and the shack was the best he could offer his bride, Fanny Osbourne.

At least he made the best of a bad situation, by turning the experience into a book, The Silverado Squatters, which was published in 1883. Years later, an advertising executive named Norman Strouse purchased a fine press edition of the book and was so enthralled with the story, he not only visited the site of the bunkhouse, but soon became an ardent Stevenson collector.

By the time he had retired and moved to St. Helena, Strouse had amassed original letters, manuscripts, first and variant editions, paintings, sculptures, photos and memorabilia. Many of the items were acquired directly from heirs and friends of the Stevensons.

It was one of the finest collections in private hands and became the basis for a new museum which Strouse helped establish. The Silverado Museum, devoted to the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson, opened to the public in 1969, and today is housed next to the St. Helena Public Library, surrounded by vineyards of the Napa Valley.

The museum's original collection of 800 items has grown to more than 8,000. It includes such gems as the rocking chair in which Stevenson was lulled to sleep as a child, and a wooden box he made when learning carpentry.

As the memorabilia illustrates, Stevenson's days as a squatter didn't last. He travelled in Europe and the U.S., became friends with the last king of Hawaii, and toured extensively through the South Pacific with his family, before settling in Samoa, where he died in 1894.

A table in the red-carpeted museum displays the books he'd written over the years, including four classics which have never been out of print: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and A Child's Garden of Verses. Other books here include a few biographies and one called The Lighthouse Stevensons: the Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Bella Bathurst.

Among the prized collections are the lead soldiers that he played with as a child in Scotland and his original marriage licence from the State of California. He met Fanny, a divorcee with two children, and 10 years his senior, at an art colony in Grez sur-Loing, France. A few of her paintings are on display, including one she had given to a California lawyer in 1879 in lieu of the $100 fee for her divorce.

The museum also has several items from the couple's home in Samoa, where they lived for six years. They include Stevenson's wooden writing desk, his grandfather's Girondole mirror, and Fanny's Chinese coat, which she wore frequently for entertaining. There's even a pair of gloves here that once belonged to Henry James, which Fanny admitted she "dishonestly appropriated," during his visit.

One of the many portraits of the author on display is an oil painting which Strouse found in an antique shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. The painting, he was told, was never displayed because some of Stevenson's family disliked the artist's rendition. Of course, none of this matters much to researchers from around the world who visit the museum to consult its valuable manuscripts and letters.

More than 100 years after his death, interest in Robert Louis Stevenson does not appear to have waned.

"I think (it's because) he lived an interesting life," explains the museum's Ann Kindred. "He was a prolific writer and he was in tune to the ordinary person. I also feel he was a bridge between the Victorian and the modern age," she reflects.

The Silverado Museum in St. Helena, Calif. has on display more than 8,000 items from the life of famed author Stevenson.