John McPhee – Tasmanian photographer | Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

Woman with pink ribbons by Thomas Nevin 1870s

May 20, 2016

This carte-de-visite of an unidentified older woman, one of many older women who favoured Thomas Nevin’s services for this type of full-length studio portrait, is unusual in that the pink tint applied to her bonnet ribbons is the same shade of pink applied to the ribbons worn by Pangernowidedic in a reprint, ca. 1875 of four Tasmanian Aborigines who were photographed originally in 1864 as a series taken at Government House. … More Woman with pink ribbons by Thomas Nevin 1870s

The QVMAG convict photos exhibition 1977

April 27, 2009

Most of these prisoner ID photographs were acquired by the QVMAG in 1927, as part of photographer John Watt Beattie’s (1859-1930) collection from his estate and convictaria museum in Hobart. Beattie’s sources in turn were the police gazettes and prisoner registers held at the Town Hall Municipal Police Office, where Nevin worked full-time 1876-1880, and from the Sheriff’s Office and Supreme Court at the Hobart Gaol where his brother Constable John Nevin was his assistant. Beattie had ready access as official government photographer ca. 1900s to these documents. … More The QVMAG convict photos exhibition 1977

The QVMAG Exhibition 1977 of convict photographs

July 22, 2007

These are some of the original documents and press release prepared for the 1977 exhibition of commercial and police photographer T. J. Nevin’s prisoner mugshots at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania, catalogued as “Convict portraits, Port Arthur 1874” in public collections. … More The QVMAG Exhibition 1977 of convict photographs

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