Category Archives: State Library Tasmania

Tom and May Nevin at the Union Chapel flower show 1892

This gallery contains 63 photos.

THE UNION CHAPEL
Samuel Clifford and partner Thomas Nevin produced this photograph as a stereograph of the Congregational Union Chapel in Bathurst Street Hobart not long after it was built by the Rev. J. W. Simmons in 1863. It was also known as “The Helping Hand Mission” . In 1892 the Congregational Union held a flower show at the Chapel to raise much needed funds for repairs to the building. Tom and May Nevin – the two eldest of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin’s six children – entered chrysanthemums and flower arrangements as a contribution. Continue reading

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Disambiguation: James Day 52 yrs old and transported to VDL 1836

This gallery contains 27 photos.

DISAMBIGUATION: Three James Day names
Right at the outset we stress that this James Day was not a relative of photographer Thomas Nevin’s wife Elizabeth Rachel Day, nor was he related to her father by the name of Captain James Day, master mariner, who was born on 6 June 1806 in Yorkshire and died in Hobart on 17 November 1882, nor to Captain James Day’s first cousin, Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment, guard captain of the Candahar 1842.

However, while researching the name “James Day”, the Old Bailey trial records and the transportation records of another “James Day” surfaced, a Londoner aged 52yrs old, who was transported for seven years to VDL on board the ship Sarah in 1836. Not many men of his advanced years were transported. These are his records and his story up to his death in 1863. Continue reading

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The Governor’s Levee 1855: Captain Goldsmith and son

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Wife of photographer Thomas Nevin, Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day, was named after her father’s sister Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day who married Captain Edward Goldsmith at Liverpool, UK, in 1829. Captain and Elizabeth Goldsmith had two sons: Richard Sidney, born 1830, NSW, who died aged 25yrs in Hobart, in 1854. Their second son was named after his father, Edward Goldsmith, born at Rotherhithe, UK on December 12,1836. He accompanied his parents on several voyages to Hobart from London before attending Trinity and Caius Colleges Cambridge in 1856-7. In 1855, when Edward Goldsmith jnr was 19 years old, he accompanied his father to the Governor’s Levee, a grand ball held at Government House, Hobart by the incumbent, Sir William Denison. His cousins, the Day sisters, still children, would have been deeply impressed by their older cousin’s account of this fine affair. Continue reading

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Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment

This gallery contains 40 photos.

Captain Henry James Day (1804-1882), first cousin of Thomas Nevin’s father-in-law, master mariner Captain James Day, was Guard Captain of the 3rd detachment of 99th Regiment of Foot on board the convict transport Candahar when it arrived in Hobart in 1842 with 60 troops under his command, and 249 male convicts. Also on board were a “lady and four children”, several soldiers’ families and government stores. The Candahar was a 4 gun barque of 642 tons built in Shields in 1840, class A1 which departed Spithead, England on the 2nd April 1842, docking in Van Dieman’s Land on the 21st July 1842. Captain Day’s arrival was noted in the Hobart Town Courier. The regiment was stationed at the Anglesea Barracks, Hobart. Continue reading

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Mary Sophia Axup chair of the WPL 1913

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Thomas Nevin’s sister-in-law Mary Sophia Axup nee Day, chaired a meeting in 1913 of the Tasmanian Workers’ Political League, the forerunner of the Australian Labor Party, seeking nominations for Labor candidates to stand for the seat of Bass in the forthcoming Federal election: Continue reading

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Captain Edward Goldsmith and the McGregor family

This gallery contains 29 photos.

The patent slip at the Queen’s Domain in Hobart was established by Elizabeth Rachel Nevin’s uncle, Captain Edward Goldsmith, in 1854 from machinery he brought out from London on his favorite trading barque The Rattler. He obtained a long lease on the foreshore of the Domain to lay the slip on the condition that the terms of the lease were fulfilled. When he withdrew from the lease in 1855 due to the death of his 25 yr old son Richard Goldsmith only months earlier, among other reasons to do with costs and prison labor, Captain Alexander McGregor bought Captain Goldsmith’s interest. Continue reading

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Testimonial to Captain Edward Goldsmith 1849

This gallery contains 29 photos.

-Upon receiving the cup, Capt. Goldsmith remarked that he would retain the token until death ; and, with reference to some observations made by Mr. Carter, intimated it was not improbable he should next year, by settling in Van Diemen’s Land with Mrs. Goldsmith, become a fellow-colonist.

-The goblet, which was manufactured by Mr. C. Jones, of Liverpool-street, bears the following inscription:-”Presented to Captain Goldsmith, of the ship Rattler, as a slight testimonial for having introduced many rare and valuable plants into Van Diemen’s Land. January, 1849.” The body has a surrounding circlet of vine leaves in relief. The inscription occupies the place of quarterings in a shield supported the emu and kangaroo in bas relief, surmounting a riband scroll with the Tasmanian motto-” Sic fortis Hobartia crevit.” The foot has a richly chased border of fruit and flowers. In the manufacture of this cup, for the first time in this colony, the inside has undergone the process of gilding. 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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Childhood photos of son George and daughter Minnie Nevin

This gallery contains 6 photos.

The photographer of the original photos was not recorded by the TAHO in 1974, and no studio stamp is evident of the recto of each copy. As the original family album from which they were copied has yet to come to light, a photographer attribution is not yet possible. The copies deposited at TAHO by the Drew family included two childhood photographs of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin’s daughter Minnie Nevin, and one of son George Nevin. 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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Chiniquy rioters injuring the Town Hall 1879

This gallery contains 17 photos.

The eight rioters “were charged with riotously injuring a building”, “riotously injuring the Town Hall” and specifically – “the breaking open of the ante-room of the Town Hall” . The charges would have incurred a severe penal code punishment of seven years’ imprisonment and a trial at the Supreme Court. However, Attorney-General Giblin sought to substitute the charge with the lesser one of disturbing the peace, and at this sitting, reported in The Mercury on 11th July 1879, the charges were withdrawn entirely because of Giblin’s concern with excessive costs involved in such a trial.

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Nevin setting the police at defiance 1881

This gallery contains 2 photos.

Thomas Nevin had extensive experience working with police by 1881, both as the designated photographer of prisoners for the Municipal Police Office and Prisons Dept,and as a Special Constable. He no doubt assumed he had some authority and rank over constables on the beat. When approached by Constable Beard, he not only challenged the constable, he told Beard to “move on.” Continue reading

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Prison photographers: Nevin, Nettleton, and Crawford

This gallery contains 7 photos.

“‘I have the honor to inform you that in obedience to your instructions I visited the stockade on the 21st and the gaol on the 22nd inst. and likewise consulted the Sheriff and Superintendent of Convicts as to the best method of carrying out the wishes of the Government in regard to taking photographs of the prisoners in these establishments. I found in the stockade 147 and in the gaol 110 prisoners – of these say 120 in the stockade and 70 in the gaol, in all 190, would be such characters as the Sheriff or Commissioner of Police might desire to have photographs of for police purposes…” Continue reading

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Authorship of Tasmanian Premiers

This gallery contains 4 photos.

A significant issue of attribution arises around questions of authorship when two cartes of Tasmanian Premier Sir Richard Dry are compared: one at the State Library of Tasmania is attributed to J.W. Beattie, although his authorship of the original image … Continue reading

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The red and green tinted sprig and Wm Maguire

This gallery contains 6 photos.

The carte-de-visite full-length studio portrait of William Maguire was on display within the extensive exhibition of Islands to Ice: The Great Southern Ocean and Antarctica held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (2007). The sprig daubed red and green is visible on his left-hand lapel. Continue reading

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State Library of Tasmania’s ”Unknown”

This gallery contains 1 photo.

This stereograph is listed at the State Library of Tasmania as unattributed – “Creator: Unknown” with the title “House in Newtown”. It is dated to 1870, when Thomas J. Nevin was active in stereography, and fits the description of another Nevin stereograph in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery database. Continue reading

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