Month: January 2009

Prisoner Charles HEYS [Hayes?] as Ward

January 19, 2009

Two different photographs are extant in the National Library of Australia collection – and not recorded in any other public collection – of a prisoner whom the police discharged as Charles Heys on 22nd July 1874, noting in the gazette that his alias was Ward, transported to Tasmania on the Moffatt 2. Thomas J. Nevin took both photographs at the Hobart Gaol, and possibly of two different men, but which photograph is the one taken on discharge in 1874 of the prisoner identified by police as Charles Heys in 1874? If it is the same prisoner in both photographs, he was photographed at different times wearing the standard issue winter prisoner uniform in one, and summer uniform in the other. Given that Charles Heys [what is the verso inscription -Heys or Hayes?] as Ward was discharged during the winter month of July, the prisoner wearing the heavy overcoat was most likely the man recorded as Charles Heys when Nevin photographed him for that event. … More Prisoner Charles HEYS [Hayes?] as Ward

Prisoner William WALKER

January 19, 2009

William Walker was photographed at the Mayor’s Court, Hobart Town Hall by Thomas Nevin on discharge, 22 July 1874, having served 7 yrs of a 10 year sentence. But William Walker was convicted again 23 October, 1875, sentenced to 6 months for larceny, and incarcerated at the Hobart Gaol. His age was listed as 68 yrs;  his occupation as “painter”. … More Prisoner William WALKER

Prisoner John TOOMEY

January 19, 2009

John Toomey was received from Port Arthur, photographed by T. J. Nevin on discharge at the Hobart Municipal Police Office, Town Hall on 1st May 1875. Also discharged and photographed by Nevin in the same week were John Moran and Bewley Tuck. … More Prisoner John TOOMEY

Prisoner Henry PAGE

January 19, 2009

Public outrage at capital punishment, sparked by the execution of Job Smith whom Nevin had photographed under the alias of William Campbell (NLA and TMAG Collections), referred to the reprieve granted to Charles Downes, as well as Marsh and Henry Page, in letters to The Mercury, May 29th 1875. … More Prisoner Henry PAGE

Prisoner John MORAN

January 19, 2009

From being “enlarged” on a ticket-of-leave in January, 1874, John Moran was in and out of Hobart Gaol on a regular basis. He was photographed by Nevin on discharge on 6th February 1874, and this photo of him circulated with the warrant on 26th October 1875. … More Prisoner John MORAN

Prisoner James HARPER like Oliver Twist

January 19, 2009

A. Dangerous Character-A prisoner under going a sentence in H M Gaol was brought before the Police Magistrate yesterday for committing an assault on one of the warders of the establishment It appeared that the man, whose name is James Harper, of a remarkably villanous countenance was like “Oliver Twist, the workhouse boy, and wanted more breakfast, after consuming his legal allowance of “skilley”, and because the warder refused this most unreasonable request, he took up a zinc bucket containing about two gallons of the coveted “skilley, ” and sent bucket and all flying at the warder’s head … More Prisoner James HARPER like Oliver Twist

Prisoner George FISHER and Chief Justice Sir Francis Smith

January 19, 2009

Chief Justice Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith (1819–1909) of the Supreme Court Hobart was administrator of the colony of Tasmania in 1874 and most interested in the uses of judicial and forensic photography which he had witnessed on a visit to Victoria in 1872 (TRE1/1/363 1154). He was photographed by the Hobart City Corporation’s commissioned photographer Thomas Nevin in the 1870s in an unusually informal pose, his expression one of vindication while examining a carte-de-visite photograph of a prisoner held in his right hand. Sir Francis Smith’s professional interest in the uses of judicial photography to increase surveillance and reduce crime was more than justified when he became the victim of burglary himself at his home by absconder and recidivist George Fisher in 1877. … More Prisoner George FISHER and Chief Justice Sir Francis Smith

Prisoners Micheal GILMORE and James KILPATRICK

January 19, 2009

The information about Gilmore’s criminal activities from the police gazettes, called Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, James Barnard, Gov’t Printer, is easily obtainable, so why was nothing but basic transportation records about this prisoner, Michael Gilmore (and the second man with a similar name) included in the National Library of Australia’s publication of their Tasmanian “convict portraits”, titled Exiled, The Port Arthur Convict Photographs (NLA 2011)? … More Prisoners Micheal GILMORE and James KILPATRICK

Prisoner Thomas GRIFFIN

January 19, 2009

Thomas Griffin per Rodney 2 was discharged from the Port Arthur prison on 22-26 June 1872, with a ticket of leave. He was not photographed at Port Arthur, despite the inscription on the verso of his photograph – if the NLA Catalogue notes have literally transcribed it, that is, which is often not the case with these photographs of prisoners bearing the 20th century archivist’s incorrect information compounded by the NLA’s batch edit of all 84 of their collection. His TOL was recorded earlier, on the 12 June 1872. He remained in service at the Military Barracks (Anglesea Barracks, Hobart) until he absconded on 6th January 1873. When he was found and arrested at Glenorchy, he was incarcerated at the Hobart Gaol where Thomas Nevin photographed him in the week of 10 June 1873. … More Prisoner Thomas GRIFFIN

Prisoner John APPLEBY

January 19, 2009

The inscription ‘Taken at Port Arthur 1874” is Beattie’s confabulation of facts in the name of tourism. Beattie prepared copies of these prisoner cdv’s for display in his collection of Tasmanian convictaria at his “Port Arthur Museum” located at 51 Murray St. Hobart (and not at Port Arthur) to coincide with the first of two early 20th century film adaptations (1908-9, 22 minutes – see theatre poster below; the second was filmed at Port Arthur in 1927) of Marcus Clarke’s popular fiction For The Term of His Natural Life which appeared as a serial in 1870 and in novel form in 1874. Hence the date “1874” and the place “Taken at Port Arthur” written on the verso of this cdv when the actual date and the actual place of photographic capture were respectively 1873 and the Hobart Gaol in Campbell Street. Beattie fabricated this fake history for several dozen original mugshots taken in the 1870s by government contractor T. J. Nevin because he was required under the terms of his own commission as government contractor (from ca. 1900) to market photographic imagery of Tasmania’s penal heritage to the intercolonial tourist. The loose cdv’s such as this one of prisoner John Appleby were prepared for sale and exhibition at Sydney’s Royal Hotel in 1915 to be displayed as Port Arthur relics, alongside relics and documents associated with the fake convict hulk Success which visited Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The collection of “convict portraits” held at the National Library of Australia Canberra and at the State Library of NSW in the Mitchell Collection are the estrays from these exhibitions. … More Prisoner John APPLEBY

Prisoner Leonard HAND

January 19, 2009

Locally-born Leonard Hand was a mere 26 years old. He was a special case for the chaplain of the prison, Rowland Hayward, and the surgeon Dr Coverdale who made a strong representation to the House of Assembly’s committee on penal discipline on Hand’s behalf in 1873, hoping to remove the prisoner from the isolation of the separate prison. It was evident to Dr Coverdale that rehabilitation was only possible if Hand (and others) were removed to the general prison community . … More Prisoner Leonard HAND

The Nevin group portrait and wedding photographs 1871

January 6, 2009

Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day, wife of Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923), was born in London on 26 March 1847, and christened at St Mary’s, Rotherhithe, London, UK on 28th April 1847, the eldest daughter of  Captain James Day and Rachael Pocock who were married at St David’s Church Hobart on January 6th, 1841. Her younger … More The Nevin group portrait and wedding photographs 1871