Captain Hector Charles James Horatio AXUP,  Thomas Nevin’s brother-in-law

In his “Unique Booklet” Hector roams over subjects as diverse as the launch of the last of the wooden three-deckers, the “Royal Albert” in 1854 which he witnessed as a school boy attending the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich; the good looks of Princess Alexandra of Denmark; Darwinism; Biblical Geometria; the Apocalypse; the Launceston Marine Board; “British Israel Truth” and Zionism; and a final word on the attitude of Christian men to Disarmament. He was in the end both disillusioned and traumatised by the Great War (World War I). … More Captain Hector Charles James Horatio AXUP,  Thomas Nevin’s brother-in-law

The QVMAG, the NLA, Chris Long and A.H. Boyd

The Queen Victoria and Albert Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, seemed so intent on abrogating the name of Thomas J. Nevin as photographer from any association with its holdings of the “Port Arthur convicts” photographs which were exhibited there in 1977 as Nevin’s work that in a letter to a Nevin descendant dated 17th November 2005, the technical officer showed considerable confusion and made contradictory and incorrect statements. … More The QVMAG, the NLA, Chris Long and A.H. Boyd

Clfford and Nevin: the journey from Hobart to Port Arthur 1873-4

The misattribution to the commandant at the Port Arthur prison, Adolarious.Humphrey Boyd, Dr Coverdale’s predecessor, as a photographer in any genre, let alone the photographer of prisoners who are invariably termed “convicts” whenever “Port Arthur” is invoked in the same narrative, was argued as a “belief” by Chris Long in the 1980s and 1990s, despite all evidence available to him pointing to the use of commercial photographers in prisons by governments in the colonies of South Australia, Victoria and NSW. There were also readily available newspaper, police and treasury documents of the period detailing Thomas J. Nevin’s contractual work in the courts and prisons with the Municipal and Territorial Police . … More Clfford and Nevin: the journey from Hobart to Port Arthur 1873-4

NLA’s ‘Intersections’ with convict carte by Nevin

There is no doubt that the early years of transportation to Tasmania’s Port Arthur prison have been the primary focus and fascination for historians. It feeds and feeds off the aggressive promotion of the prison site as the State’s key historic attraction. And it has become the convention and norm of writers to corral one or more of these prisoner ID photographs within their new texts that deal with those early years. Michael Bogle’s recent publication on convicts (2008), as an example, has Nevin’s negative (1875) of convict Charles Rosetta on the front cover, unattributed to Nevin, and wrongly dated to 1917 with attribution to the copyists Beattie & Searle, from the NLA. … More NLA’s ‘Intersections’ with convict carte by Nevin

Parkhurst Boys on board ‘The Fairlie’ 1852

On their arrival, 10 year old Thomas Nevin joined the small population of free settlers numbering 44,340 in the December 1852 Census. The convict population numbered 19,105 or 30% of the total census for that year. But by 1857, only five years later, with the cessation of transportation to Van Diemen’s Land in 1853, the convict population dwindled to just 3,008 or 3.7% of the island’s population. The numbers recorded for the Aboriginal population – estimates of 7000 in 1818 to 15 in 1857 – speak clearly of genocide. … More Parkhurst Boys on board ‘The Fairlie’ 1852

Prison photographers T. Nevin, C. Nettleton and F. Crawford

“‘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…” … More Prison photographers T. Nevin, C. Nettleton and F. Crawford

The execution of prisoners Sutherland and Ogden, Hobart Gaol 1883

“SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL SITTINGS.-The sittings of the Supreme Court in Oyer and Terminer began yesterday. Sir Francis Smith presided in the First Court, where the greater part of the day was occupied with the trial of James Ogden and James Sutherland for the murder of Wm. Wilson, at Epping Forest. The prisoners pleaded not guilty. Mr. A. I. Clark appeared for the defence. The evidence taken was that given at the inquest, and supplemented by some further evidence tracing the connection of the prisoners prior to the murder, so as to show that they acted in concert. This additional evidence was obtained by Sub-inspector Palmer, who deserves much credit for his handling of the case throughout. Mr. Clark set up the defence of insanity, working out an elaborate and ingenious construction from the evidence. He urged that the presence of an unaccountable and extraordinary desire for murder, such as seemed to have possessed the prisoners, was in itself proof of insanity. The Judge charged the jury that the law recognised only absolute proof of such state of derangement, that the prisoner did not know that he was doing wrong. After about half-an-hour’s deliberation the jury found both prisoners guilty, and His Honor passed sentence of death. There was a large crowd in court throughout the day, and much interest was displayed in the trial. The prisoners themselves remained quietly passive from first to last, and did not give way to any emotion when sentence was passed upon them. On being taken down they began joking and laughing with the other prisoners…” … More The execution of prisoners Sutherland and Ogden, Hobart Gaol 1883

Charles A. Woolley and H.H. Baily

Thomas J. Nevin belonged to a cohort of Tasmanian professional photographers of the 1860s-1880 which included his two partners Alfred Bock who was an accomplished sennotypist (until 1867) and Samuel Clifford whose output of stereographs was prodigious (1860s-1878). From Bock he learnt studio portraiture, from Clifford he learnt stereography. Others with a close association were Charles A. Woolley who experimented with mega and micro photography and whose father furnished the cohort’s studios with carpets, tables, chairs, wall hangings etc from his furniture warehouse; Alfred Winter who was a society portraitist and landscape photographer; and the Nevin family friend, H. H. Baily who was also a press lithographer. … More Charles A. Woolley and H.H. Baily