Monthly Archives: February 2010

The Nevin farm burglariously entered 1881

Posted on February 18, 2010 by TP Publishers

This gallery contains 7 photos.

During the night of the 16th instant the dwelling of John Nevin, Kangaroo Valley, was burglariously entered, and the following articles stolen there-from: – 2 white shirts, one much worn; 2 Scotch twill shirts, one has a patch of different material across the shoulder, the other broken at the elbow; 1 old flannel shirt, stained in front; 1 white pillow-slip; 2 jars of raspberry jam; 2 lbs. soap; 2 lbs. bacon; the property of and shirts identifiable by John Nevin. Continue reading →

Vernacular or art? Nevin at the threshold in 1874

Posted on February 18, 2010 by TP Publishers

This gallery contains 17 photos.

Vernacular photographies are anything that is not used as “art” … Thomas J. Nevin began his photographic career in the mid 1860s within the urban free-settler society of a British penal colony: Hobart Tasmania. His apprenticeships were served with the … Continue reading →

| Tagged Geoff Batchen, vernacular photographies | Leave a comment

Tricks of the prison limner and sitter 1866

Posted on February 11, 2010 by TP Publishers

This gallery contains 10 photos.

The credit which has been denied to photography on the score of art capacity must be conceded to its literal fidelity in rendering facts. That it is not imaginative, that it cannot modify or omit details from its presentments, becomes, in many cases, its cardinal virtue. If it nothing extenuate, it sets down naught in malice, and when it enters the witness-box, its evidence leaves little room for doubt. Hence it has taken an important place as an auxiliary to the administration of justice, both in civil and criminal cases. In multiplying indisputable fac-similes of important documents, in indicating pictorially the relative positions of disputed territory, its use is obvious. But it is in its aid to the discovery of identity in persons charged with crime that its legal use is most important … Continue reading →

| Tagged Bedford, convict portraits by T. J. Nevin, Millbank, mugshots 1870s | Leave a comment

Constable W.J. Nevin at inquest 1882

Posted on February 10, 2010 by TP Publishers

This gallery contains 25 photos.

Jack Nevin was his elder brother’s assistant at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street during Thomas’ commissions as police photographer in prisons and police courts. He helped maintain one of their photographic studios in New Town, assisting in the production of stereographs and studio portraits on cartes-de-visite intermittently from the 1860s. He was employed at the Hobart Gaol under the supervision of the keeper Ringrose Atkins from 1874, and became a Constable on salary at the male prison at Cascades and H.M. Prison, Hobart in 1875, serving until his untimely death at age 39 in 1891. Continue reading →

| Tagged constables Tasmania 1880s, Hobart Gaol, inquests Tasmania 1882, Jack Nevin | Leave a comment

Thomas Nevin 1886: assistant bailiff to Inspector Dorsett

Posted on February 2, 2010 by TP Publishers

This gallery contains 11 photos.

In early December 1880, Thomas Nevin was dismissed from the position of “Keeper” at the Hobart Town Hall for inebriation while on duty. The Mayor’s Committee expressed deep regret at the dismissal (reported in The Mercury December-January 1880-1881), and mindful of his growing family, the Council decided to retain his photographic services. He was re-assigned to civil service with warrant and photographic duties as assistant bailiff with The Municipal Police Office, located at the Hobart Town Hall. Working principally in the City Police Court and Hobart Supreme Court as assistant to Sub-Inspector John Dorset(t), Nevin continued to provide identification photographs of prisoners up until 1889, a service he had provided for the Prisons Department and MPO since 1872. Continue reading →

| Tagged bailiffs, Tasmanian police, Thomas J. Nevin | Leave a comment