June 2007 – Tasmanian photographer | Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

Group at the Lady Franklin Museum, Kangaroo Valley, Tasmania

At Lady Franklin’s Museum, Kangaroo Valley

June 28, 2007

The Pedder Collection (TMAG)
Lawyers, barristers, magistrates, politicians, police superintendents, detectives, their families and their prisoners were photographed by Thomas J. Nevin from the late 1860s to the 1880s. The Pedder family of magistrates and police officers, the family of solicitor John Woodcock Graves the younger, the McVilly family of teachers and police officers, and the family of Attorney-General the Hon. W. R. Giblin, all made use of Thomas J. Nevin’s commission with the colonial government’s Lands and Survey Department, the Municipal Police Office and Mayor’s Court, and the Hobart City Corporation to provide them with stereographic views and carte-de-visite portraits. The stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868-1870 of the Lady Franklin Museum, Kangaroo Valley bearing the inscription “A. Pedder” on verso, is one of least four held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collections. Solicitor Alfred Pedder (1881-1977) may have kept these stereographs by Thomas Nevin from the estate of his father, Police Superintendent Frederick Pedder (1841-1923) who was a colleague of Nevin’s at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart. Alfred Pedder’s daughter Sylvia in turn may have donated them to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in the 1970s … More At Lady Franklin’s Museum, Kangaroo Valley

Rocking Stone Parties on kunanyi/Mount Wellington

June 25, 2007

“The Captain of the party pushed forward to the hut at a place called the Springs to have breakfast prepared for us. The water flows down the mountain to the city. It is conveyed by a channel cut in the earth (about three feet wide). The old man & woman who reside at the hut supply visitors with implements and cook what provender they may take with them for which 1/- per head is generally presented to them. We arrived there at 1/2 past eight & were glad to sit down to an excellent breakfast of cold lamb and coffee. We also enjoyed a draught of the cold crystal water from the murmuring spring….” … More Rocking Stone Parties on kunanyi/Mount Wellington

Thomas Nevin’s funeral notice 1923

June 16, 2007

Thomas James Nevin’s funeral notice appeared in the Hobart Mercury 12th March 1923. This record also omits the middle initial “J” in his name which was included on his government contractor stamp enclosed by the Royal Arms colonial warrant. He was buried at the Cornelian Bay cemetery, now called the Southern Regional Cemetery Trust, with “photographer” listed as his occupation. … More Thomas Nevin’s funeral notice 1923

Marcel Safier Collection

June 16, 2007

This full-length studio carte-de-visite portrait of an unidentified woman in a hat, holding her umbrella and bag in gloved hands, was taken by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1871 at his studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania. The cdv gives a clear view of his studio decor at that time: the lozenge-patterned carpet; the shiny leather-covered slipper chair; the table with griffin-shaped legs; and the painted wall hanging featuring a patio terrace, balustrade, and meandering river disappearing into the distance. Thomas Nevin did not include the middle initial “J” in his stamp on the verso of these earlier 1870s cartes. “T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist” was printed on his government contractor stamp bearing the Royal Arms colonial warrant insignia from late 1872 to 1876 to signify that he was a government contractor while still operating as a commercial photographer from his Elizabeth Street studio. … More Marcel Safier Collection

Alfred Bock’s stock-in-trade

June 15, 2007

Alfred Bock (b.1835 -d. 1920) inherited his father Thomas Bock’s daguerreotype establishment at 22 Campbell Street Hobart Town in April 1855 and announced his own photographic business. Advertisements: Alfred Bock at Campbell Street Source: Colonial Times, 5th April 1855 By July 1855 he had moved to Elliston’s premises at 78 Liverpool Street, formerly occupied by … More Alfred Bock’s stock-in-trade

G.T. Stilwell’s letter to Mrs Shelverton 1977

June 14, 2007

Preparations began in early 1977 for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s exhibition of Thomas J. Nevin’s convict photographs taken for police and prison records in the 1870s which were (re)discovered among their John Watt Beattie holdings acquired by the QVMAG shortly before Beattie’s death in 1930. The late Geoffrey Stilwell, curator of Special Collections at the State Library of Tasmania, collected biographical data on professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) from a diverse range of sources, including information from Mrs Jean Shelverton, a grand-daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin. Mrs Shelverton’s mother Mary Ann (Nevin) Drew who was known as Minnie to living descendants, was the second daughter and fifth child (to survive), born to photographer Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin on November 9th, 1884, in Hobart, Tasmania. … More G.T. Stilwell’s letter to Mrs Shelverton 1977

Hand-colured cdv of two men by T. J. Nevin 1860s

Clifford & Nevin’s cartes:tints versus daubs

June 10, 2007

Neither man pictured is photographer Thomas Nevin or his brother Constable John (aka Jack) Nevin, nor their father John Nevin snr. None of these cdv’s was ever held in the family collections of Thomas Nevin’s descendants, and none was coloured in this way by Nevin or any of his family. The cdv of the two men was recently exhibited at the QVMAG and published in the catalogue The Painted Portrait Photograph in Tasmania (John McPhee 2007). … More Clifford & Nevin’s cartes:tints versus daubs

Thomas Nevin’s studio decor and tints ca. 1871

June 10, 2007

This full length portrait in carte-de-visite format is of an unidentified woman. As the same carpet appears in the Nevin-Day wedding photograph dated July 1871, this photo can be dated ca. 1869-72. The verso bears Thomas Nevin’s everyday business stamp which was an elaboration of the stamp used by his mentor, and previous owner of … More Thomas Nevin’s studio decor and tints ca. 1871

Mary Anne Nevin, sister of Thomas Nevin

June 9, 2007

Mary Ann Nevin, born near Belfast Ireland in 1844, arrived in Hobart in 1852 with her mother Mary Nevin nee Dickson, her brother Thomas Nevin (b.1842), her sister Rebecca Nevin (b. 1847), and younger brother William John (Jack) Nevin (b.1852). All four children were under twelve years old. Mary Ann was placed on the sick list of the Fairlie, on the voyage out, on 23 April 1852, together with her mother, and in the company of some of the 290 convicts and Parkhurst prison boys on board. She was listed as “child of guard”. … More Mary Anne Nevin, sister of Thomas Nevin

John Nevin’s marriages to Mary Ann Dickson and Martha Genge

June 9, 2007

Disambiguation: Mary Ann Nevin
Thomas Nevin’s sister Mary Ann Nevin had married master mariner John Carr at the Wesleyan Chapel close to the Nevin family home at Kangaroo Valley Tasmania on 3rd May, 1877, but she died one year later at Sandridge, Victoria only 22 days after giving birth to her only child, a daughter also named Mary Ann. The only surviving child of this marriage was named after three Nevin family members; her deceased mother Mary Ann Carr nee Nevin; her mother’s mother, i.e. grandmother Mary Ann Nevin nee Dickson; and her first cousin Mary Ann Drew nee Nevin, also known as Minnie, last daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin. … More John Nevin’s marriages to Mary Ann Dickson and Martha Genge

Robert Hughes “The Fatal Shore” with mugshots by T. J. Nevin

June 9, 2007

Robert Hughes’ book The Fatal Shore (1987) includes several prisoner identification photographs taken by Thomas J. Nevin for the Hobart Municipal Police Office, Town Hall, and Hobart Gaol photo books which Hughes’ publishers sourced from the Archives Office of Tasmania. No accreditation was made to the photographer Thomas Nevin. This page includes Nevin’s photographs (from top left to bottom right) of prisoners George Willis, James Merchant, Michael Harrigan, Thomas Jackson, Charles Clifford, Joseph Grahame, William Burley and Thomas Harrison. … More Robert Hughes “The Fatal Shore” with mugshots by T. J. Nevin

Archives Office of Tasmania convict photographs by T. J. Nevin

June 9, 2007

The colonial Government of Tasmania had adopted the practice of taking identification photographs and establishing an Habitual Criminals Register or Rogue’s Gallery in 1872 from precedents set by the British Prevention of Crimes Act of 1871, and incoming legislation in NSW and Victoria in 1872. The extant photographs are “mugshots” taken of men who were arrested, arraigned, sentenced, reconvicted and/or discharged during the 1870s and early 1880s. For the most part these prisoners were recidivists, habitual criminals and repeat offenders. Thomas Nevin took the majority of these photographs at the Municipal Police Office (PO on their criminal record sheets) at the Hobart Town Hall, and at the Supreme Court and Hobart Town Gaol. The AOT records (above) were copied from the QVMAG collection in the 1970s, although some originals were acquired in the 1950s from the Radcliffe Museum at Port Arthur via the Department of National Parks which managed the site. … More Archives Office of Tasmania convict photographs by T. J. Nevin

Clifford & Nevin at the Salmon Ponds and Plenty 1860s-1870s

June 7, 2007

Samuel Clifford’s name appears only twice in the weekly police gazettes, called Tasmania Reports of Crimes Information for Police between the years 1866-1880, and in both instances because he was a victim of theft: some silver cutlery and a table cloth were stolen from his house and reported on 17th October 1873, and most wrenching of all, his camera was stolen while staying at the Wilmot Arms at Green Ponds, in the district where these stereographs of the Salmon Ponds were taken. No doubt Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin made many trips to the Green Ponds area, and since Clifford reprinted so many of Nevin’s commercial negatives from 1876, placing an accurate date and even a sole attribution to Clifford on the extant albums of views etc is far from straightforward. … More Clifford & Nevin at the Salmon Ponds and Plenty 1860s-1870s

Clifford & Nevin portraits with hand-colouring

June 6, 2007

Professional photographers Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) and Samuel Clifford (1827-1890) were close friends and colleagues over a period dating from ca. 1865 to Clifford’s death in 1890. Both maintained photographic studios in Hobart, producing commercial stereographs in significant numbers, as well as providing the local population with studio portraits. The colouring in this carte and others with a similar provenance (northern Tasmania and Victoria) is sometimes mistakenly assumed to be the work of the studio colourist, which was not the case (McPhee QVMAG, 2007). The colouring was applied after the purchase of the print by a family member, probably by a child playing with a small hand-held stereoscopic viewer. … More Clifford & Nevin portraits with hand-colouring

The Australian People (2001) mugshots by T. J. Nevin

The Australian People: six prisoner cdv’s by T. J. Nevin

June 6, 2007

These six photographs of Tasmanian prisoners – “convicts” – were sourced by the publishers of The Australian People from the National Library of Australia’s collection of 84 photographs which were correctly attributed on accession in the 1960s and 1980s to commercial and police photographer Thomas J. Nevin in Tasmania, 1872-1886. However, no photographer accreditation accompanied these photographs. They appear on page 20 within the context of Irish immigration. The caption repeats a commonly-held misconception in many 20th century publications, namely, that prisoners in Tasmania “were still held at Port Arthur” until its closure, which was in 1877. This is factually incorrect. The Port Arthur prison was in a state of disrepair by 1873; its commandant A. H. Boyd was dismissed for corruption in January 1874; and from July 1873 to early 1875 all re-offenders and lifers were relocated to the Hobart Gaol and House of Corrections where they were photographed on being received, assigned and/or discharged by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin with the assistance of his brother Constable John Nevin. … More The Australian People: six prisoner cdv’s by T. J. Nevin