HUGH M. KINGHORN, M.D., Vice-President

The Stevenson Society was originally the Stevenson Memorial Committee and fulfilled its original purpose on Oct. 30, 1915, when, at the cottage at Saranac Lake occupied in 1887-1888 by Robert Louis Stevenson, it unveiled a bronze bas-relief memorial tablet designed by Gutzon Borglum. On that occasion, the committee was resolved into a permanent organization, now known as The Stevenson Society, membership in which is open to all who are interested in the author and his works and who desire to spread his brave philosophy of living.

The purposes of The Stevenson Society are:

1. The collection and preservation of relics of Robert Louis Stevenson.

2. The collection and preservation of original manuscripts and first editions of his works.

3. The collection and preservation of books relating to Stevenson.

4. The ultimate acquiring of a permanent home for proper housing of the collection.

The society has already achieved its principal objects. It has acquired the rooms occupied by Stevenson in the Stevenson Cottage at Saranac Lake and these have been furnished with relics, pictures, books, etc., donated by admirers the world over. This memorial exhibition is open at all times to the public.

From the report of the president

“The re-organization of the original Stevenson Memorial Committee into The Stevenson Society, on Oct. 30, 1915, and the purposes of this Society, are fully outlined in the preceding pages.

“During 1916 the interest in the Society grew rapidly, stimulated by the publicity given the Saranac Lake Memorial project by newspapers and magazines throughout the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Admirers of RLS, many of whom had been intimately associated with him in his life-time, and the surviving members of his family, cordially approved the idea of perpetuating the personal memory of Stevenson in America by this memorial at Saranac Lake, where he spent that remarkably productive winter of 1887-1888. Among those friends and relatives who at once came to the support of the young Society were Lloyd Osbourne, Mr. Stevenson’s stepson; Mrs. Salisbury Field, his stepdaughter, who, as Mrs. Isobel Strong, was amanuensis to RLS. at Vailima; Mrs. Elizabeth J. Balfour, of Olean, New York, the widow of Stevenson’s first cousin and playmate of his Scottish boyhood; Lord Guthrie, of Edinburgh, Scotland, the intimate friend of the author in the days of the Speculative Society; Mr. Will H. Low, the American artist, who was closely associated with R.L.S. in the happy days of Fontainebleau, and Mr. Charles Scribner, Stevenson’s friend and American publisher.

“These friends and relatives not only heartily approved and supported the organization and its aims, but contributed most generously to the Memorial Museum at the old Baker Cottage (now known as the Stevenson Cottage) at Saranac Lake. The rooms which RLS occupied as his study and bedroom were leased by the Society in October 1916, whereupon the Society felt free to accept the many relics which were at once given or loaned. The catalogue will show the remarkable growth of the Society’s collection of relics since that time.

“Perhaps the most interesting event in the history of the Society so far was the visit during the early days of February 1917, of Mrs. Salisbury Field, and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Osbourne. Mrs. Field desired to see the cottage where her illustrious stepfather spent that Winter during which he added much to his fame by what he produced. Mr. Osbourne had been with RLS as a member of his family at the Baker Cottage in 1887. It was here, in fact, that Mr. Osbourne first tried his wings as a novelist in “ The Wrong Box,” in collaboration with Mr. Stevenson. During the visit Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne and Mrs. Field were entertained at a public reception and their presence in Saranac Lake did much to further interest in the Society.

“In conclusion, the thanks of the Society are tendered to Mr. Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor, who not only contributed his genius to the creation of the Memorial but has offered to present a bronze or a silver miniature of it to contributors.”

Charles Middlebrook Palmer, “C.M.,” and his wife, the former Mary E. Sill, came to Saranac Lake in 1908 to be near one of their two sons who had moved here for health reasons. They liked the Adirondacks enough to stay here with the exception of every winter spent in Florida. When it came to building their alpine dream home, Palmer conceded to his wife’s taste for exotica which materialized in the form of a Mediterranean style home on Park Ave., where he died, age 93, in December 1949. In more recent village memory, the house has bene known as the residence of Frank Casier.

C.M. Palmer was one of the newspaper tycoons of his day. He started out as a local correspondent in West Salem, Wisconsin, working for the La Crosse Chronicle. For three years he was its business manager, city editor, book-keeper and advertising manager at a salary that never exceeded $20 a week. Before he died, Palmer would hold important positions in over 50 newspapers and became very wealthy.

In 1889, Charles Palmer became the business manager for William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner. A few years later the two were talking one day in Paris, France, about the cost of sending news in the U.S. from the east coast to the west coast by telegraph at two and one-half cents per word. Palmer came up with the idea that it would be a lot cheaper to have a string of newspapers across the country that could all share the same release. This was the birth of the legendary Hearst chain, making Palmer the founder of the Associated Press. His long life was guided by his personal newspaper philosophy: “Papers are defeated from the inside rather than competition. They grow old. It is essential to pay attention to the rising generation. Newspapers will die of old age unless the young are given a chance.”

Charles Palmer had tons of money and he didn’t hesitate to let the less fortunate benefit from it. He also used his money to buy neat things and this first president of the Stevenson Society was quite the collector of Stevensonia, likewise his son, Dean Palmer. Both currently have artifacts on loan in the Saranac Lake collection, e.g. the “Malietoa Bond” and one of the tribal ceremonial mats used at Stevenson’s funeral; both items originate in Samoa. No one expects these former members to show up any time soon to take them back.

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