May 2023 – Tasmanian photographer | Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

“HOPE”: John Nevin’s poem on slavery 1863 and the U.S. Proclamation of Emancipation

May 31, 2023

John Nevin published his poem in five stanzas on the injustice of slavery, titled “Hope” in the Weekly Times, Hobart, Tasmania, 12th September 1863 just a few months after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, 1st January 1863. Lengthy articles on slavery appeared regularly in the Tasmanian press during 1863 detailing the manstealing and killing of men from the South Pacific Islands of Tahiti, Rapa (French Polynesia), Raratonga and Mangaia (Cook Islands). … More “HOPE”: John Nevin’s poem on slavery 1863 and the U.S. Proclamation of Emancipation

Mrs Elizabeth Goldsmith and the saltmarsh known as Lady’s Tippett, 1870

May 4, 2023

The title deed to the parcel of marshland in the Higham Salts, County of Kent (UK), known as “Lady’s Tippett” which Captain Edward Goldsmith asumed to be legally his according to his last will and testament prepared in 1865 and proved July 1869 on his death, was not found among his conveyancing documents when his entire estate was prepared for auction in June 1870. Yet he had received “rents and profits” from its tenants since 1857, income which his executors continued to accrue up to the planned date of sale. “Lady’s Tippett” could only be sold legitimately if Captain Goldsmith’s widow, Mrs Elizabeth Goldsmith, set forth in Chancery a declaration (oath) that this piece of land’s provenance in her husband’s estate was the result of an informal arrangement with wine merchant James Saxton in 1857. Up until a week before the date of auction set for the 14th June 1870 at the Bull Hotel Rochester where purchaser Robert Lake would bring to light the property’s “fee simple” status, Elizabeth Goldsmith, as one of three executors to her husband’s estate along with silk merchants Alfred Bentley and William Bell Bentley, was still receiving rent from the tenant Mrs Mary Youens. To absolve the executors of any suspicion they had knowledge of the anomaly, Elizabeth Goldsmith’s sworn declaration was made in Chancery just days prior to the auction, on Thursday 9th June 1870 under an Act of Parliament which was incepted at the time of William IV’s reign and later amended to abolish unnecessary oaths and suppress voluntary, extrajudicial affadavits. … More Mrs Elizabeth Goldsmith and the saltmarsh known as Lady’s Tippett, 1870

The Poulter album: “Weekly Courier” reprints 1900s of 1870s photographs by T. J. Nevin

May 3, 2023

The photographs in this album certainly belonged to Reginald Clifford Poulter by the time he compiled the album in the early 1900s, but none were taken by him, none are personal portraits of him or his family, and none are attributed to the original photographers, with the exception of one featuring the government photographer John Watt Beattie. Although several date from the early 1860s, very few are “real” photographs originating from the era in which they were produced. The majority are reprints which Poulter sourced from tourist destinations such as John Watt Beattie’s shop, photographic studio and convictaria museum in Murray Street, Hobart (and not at Port Arthur). Poulter’s other source was the Hobart Weekly Courier which published a Pictorial edition on Saturdays featuring beautifully reproduced photographs of contemporary events by living photographers. To save space, the Weekly Courier cropped each photograph to fit as many as possible on each page, only crediting their contracted studios, called their “Representatives” such as Beattie’s, or Spurling’s & Son, or Harvey and Sutcliffe’s, at the bottom of each page. Those photographs which Poulter cut from the Weekly Courier and pasted into his album were clearly already cropped of their cdv frame and mount and any accompanying photographer attribution. Instead, on each page of Poulter’s album there are pencilled inscriptions next to each item giving information about the content or subject of each photograph and no more, written by an anonymous hand. … More The Poulter album: “Weekly Courier” reprints 1900s of 1870s photographs by T. J. Nevin