John Watt Beattie and the Nevin family legacy

The friendship between these two photographers, Thomas J. Nevin and John Watt Beattie extended back to 1887 on the death of Thomas Nevin’s father, John Nevin at the family house and farm adjacent to the Lady Franklin Museum at Kangaroo Valley (renamed Lenah Valley in 1922). It had long been a wish of John Nevin that the Franklin Museum be restored to its original purpose when first built on Jane Franklin’s land, named Ancanthe, as a library and botanical museum, but by 1887, it was little more than a storage shed for local orchardists and farmers. As a gesture towards reviving John Nevin’s wish, before his own death in 1930, John Watt Beattie approached the Hobart City Council with a proposal to house his vast convictaria collection in the Lady Franklin Museum at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley) but the Hobart City Council declined. … More John Watt Beattie and the Nevin family legacy

Portraits of youngest son Albert with horse 1914-17

Albert most likely chose the black and white photograph as the best representation of himself he could give his fiancee Emily Maud Davis in 1914, and having succeeded in winning her hand, presented the painted version to Emily on their wedding day, March 5th 1917 in Launceston. By August 13, 1917, they were back in Hobart and Albert was racing again, at Moonah in the Derwent Handicap … … More Portraits of youngest son Albert with horse 1914-17