The elder Samuel fought in the American Civil War, went with a friend sick with tuberculosis to California, and via San Francisco, ended up in the silver mines of Nevada.

Fanny and the five-year-old Isobel made the long journey via New York City, the isthmus of Panama, San Francisco, and finally by wagons and stage-coach to the mining camps of the Reese River, and the town of Austin in Lander County.

Samuel began philandering with saloon girls, and in 1866 he left to prospect for gold in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains.

Hervey was sick with scrofulous tuberculosis, died on 5 April 1876, and was buried in a temporary grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

In June 1888, Stevenson chartered a yacht and set sail with his new family from San Francisco across the Pacific Ocean, visiting important island groups.

In 1890 Lloyd Osbourne, his mother, and Stevenson sailed from Sydney, Australia, into the central Pacific on the steam ship the Janet Nicoll.

[2] Lloyd Osbourne and Stevenson used a plate camera to photograph Pacific Islanders and passengers and crew of the Janet Nicoll.