Category Archives: Nevin Family Collections

Cousins Edward and Elizabeth baptised at St Mary’s Rotherhithe

First Cousins and both chidren of master mariners, Edward Goldsmith (1836-1883) and Elizabeth Rachel Day (1847-1914 ) were born in London and baptised at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, known as the Mayflower Church, one decade apart. Elizabeth Rachel Day arrived in Hobart Tasmania as an infant, where her sister Mary Sophia was born in 1853, and married professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin at Kangaroo Valley, Hobart on 12 July 1871. Edward Goldsmith made several voyages to Tasmania with his father Captain Edward Goldsmith, attended the Governor’s Levee there in 1855, went to Trinity College Cambridge in 1857, married, became a surgeon, managed his father’s estates in Kent and died young at Rochester, UK, just 43 yrs old Continue reading

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One of the last portraits by Alfred Bock in Hobart 1865

This gallery contains 12 photos.

This photograph of a teenage girl with bare shoulders and ringlets may be one of the very last taken by Alfred Bock in Hobart Tasmania before his departure in 1865. The design of the studio stamp on the verso was altered only minimally by his younger partner Thomas J. Nevin who bought the lease of the studio, shop, the glass house and darkroom, the stock of negatives, camera equipment, backdrops and furniture etc at auction on August 2, 1865. Thomas Nevin continued to use the stamp’s design for his commercial studio portraiture for another decade, although he used at least six other designs for various formats and clients, including the Royal Arms insignia for commissions with the Colonial government. Continue reading

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A new site for descendants and in-laws of Thomas J. Nevin

This gallery contains 8 photos.

In preparation (2013-2014): a separate site for the 20th Century descendants and in-laws of Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923), including the Shelverton, Axup, Genge, Moran, Morris, Cornish, Warren, Baldwin, Davis, Williams families (and more). Continue reading

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The Master Mariner in-laws: Captains Goldsmith, Day and Axup

This gallery contains 31 photos.

Photographer Thomas J. Nevin’s father-in-law was Captain James Day (1804-1882), father of his wife Elizabeth Rachel Day and her younger sister Mary Sophia Day (m. Axup). Thomas Nevin’s wife Elizabeth Rachel Day was named after Captain James Day’s sister, Elizabeth Day, who had married master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith in 1829 at St George, Liverpool, England. Continue reading

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At the Henry Jones & Co. IXL Factory

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Generations of the Nevin family worked at the Henry Jones & co. IXL factory during the lean years of the 1890s, 1920s and 1940s. Continue reading

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Betty’s scissor cut silhouette by S. John Ross 1948

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Scissor cut silhouette of Betty, grand daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin, daughter of Albert and Emily Nevin, portrait by S. John Ross probably ca. 1948 at the Royal Easter Show, Hobart Tasmania. Copyright © KLW NFC 2012 Arr. S. … Continue reading

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John Nevin snr and the Genge family

This gallery contains 22 photos.

WESLEYAN CHAPEL KANGAROO VALLEY John Nevin (1808-1887), Wesleyan, poet, teacher, journalist and Royal Scots veteran of the Canadian Rebellions 1837-38, arrived in Tasmania with his wife Mary and four children in 1852, and settled on land adjacent to the Franklin … Continue reading

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Posing with a stereoscopic viewer

This gallery contains 12 photos.

Clients of early photographers were not the only ones to pose with the photographer’s own stereoscope(s). Two extant cartes-de-visite self-portraits by Thomas J. Nevin from The Nevin Family Collections captured his treasured stereoscopes, one with him holding a small viewer, … Continue reading

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Thomas Nevin’s stereo of sister Mary Ann at New Town rivulet

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Mary Ann Nevin (1844-1878), sister of Thomas J. Nevin, dipping a glass at New Town rivulet, Kangaroo Valley Hobart Tasmania, ca. 1870
Salt paper stereograph taken by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1870.Photo  © KLW NFC Imprint & The Nevin Family Collections 2012 Continue reading

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A highly coloured portrait

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Unidentified woman, seated with sewing A highly colored carte-de-visite ca. 1872 Taken by T.Nevin late A.Bock, 140 Elizabeth St., Hobart Town Held at the Archives Office of Tasmania TAHO Ref: PH31/439 Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2012 ARR This carte-de-visite … Continue reading

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T. NEVIN Photo: the blindstamp on stereographs

This gallery contains 9 photos.

This stereograph on salt paper, which was produced by Thomas J. Nevin in the late 1860s of Tasmanian ferns, bears his blind stamp on the viewer’s left side, viz. “T. NEVIN PHOTO”. It belongs to a series of ferns taken around the foothills of Mt Wellington now held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. This example is held in a private collection of Nevin descendants. Continue reading

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The Odd Fellows’ Hall photograph 1871

This gallery contains 6 photos.

THE ODD FELLOWS’ HALL – A very fine photograph of the Odd Fellows’ Hall (corner of Davey and Harrington-streets) has been taken for the Society by Mr. Nevin, of Elizabeth-street. The view is taken from Davey-street, opposite the corner of the Freemasons’ Hotel, and thus shows the entrance to the rooms, with the whole front and side of the buildings. A well-known member of the institution, and a less known youth, have come within the range of the camera, and their presence greatly assists in conveying an idea of the dimensions of the hall. The picture is undoubtedly creditable to the artist. Continue reading

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The Photographer’s Wife

This gallery contains 11 photos.

“Look for a long time at what pleases you and longer still at what pains you.”
Colette

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John Nevin in the Royal Scots at the Canadian Rebellion 1837-38

This gallery contains 13 photos.

MOTTO of the ROYAL SCOTS
“Nemo me impune Lacessit”. “No-one touches me with impunity” (or “Dinna mess wi’ me!”)

While research into the life and times of photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) in Tasmania has uncovered many fascinating aspects of Australian colonial history, the life and times of his father John Nevin (1808-1887) opens up many more vistas on key world events. Here are details of his service with the Royal Scots 1st Regiment in Canada. Continue reading

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Husbands and Wives NPG Exhibition 2010

This gallery contains 9 photos.

An exhibition of early colonial portraits titled HUSBANDS and WIVES has recently opened at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Australia. Apart from the usual collection of cartes-de-visite, there are several daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of individuals, couples and family groups on display, including the coloured ambrotype by Thomas Glaister, ca. 1858 (below, from the NPG online). Continue reading

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ANZACS: Gunner Athol Tennyson Nevin and his WW2 medals

This gallery contains 9 photos.

In 1936 Athol was living in Hobart with his mother Gertrude Nevin nee Tennyson Bates and working as a pastry cook. The Electoral Rolls listed him then with the middle name of “CLARENCE”, i.e. Athol Clarence Nevin, but by 1940 when he enlisted in the Australian Army, he had married Winifred Aird and adopted his mother’s father’s middle name TENNYSON as his middle name. He was discharged from the Army in October 1945, having seen extensive warfare with the 2/8 Field Regiment in Egypt and Syria, in the Middle East, and on Borneo, in the Pacific. The 2/8 FR was one of the 9th Division’s three field regiments and it fought as part of the “famous division” at El Alamein and Brunei Bay. Continue reading

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The Nevin farm burglariously entered 1881

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

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Tricks of the prison limner and sitter 1866

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

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Constable W.J. Nevin at inquest 1882

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

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Thomas Nevin 1886: assistant bailiff to Inspector Dorsett

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

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