HAND-TINTED PORTRAITS as CHRISTMAS CARDS Red and green sprigs 1874
PHOTOGRAPHIC REDUCTIONS of LARGE DOCUMENTS Cdv of Mercury 1874; fire bell warnings 1878
CHARLES DICKENS and CAPTAIN GOLDSMITH The Gadshill mail box 1859
CHRISTMAS DRINKS at the MAYPOLE Drunk and disorderly at New Town 1885
PRISONERS partying 1881 and SAILORS hugging the holly 1850
CHRISTMAS CONCERT Theatre Royal Hobart ca. 1958 … More Christmas from our Archives
In August 1866 at his Hobart studio, 42 Macquarie Street, photographer Charles A. Woolley (1834-1922) would ask of his three sitters, Truganini, William Lanney and Bessy Clark, to bear with him while he rearranged their clothing, repositioned the studio decor, swapped their seating, and gave instructions as to sightlines. This short session, perhaps no more than an hour, resulted in a series consisting of at least four full-length portraits of the trio as a group, each slightly different in configuration and composition. The earliest example to survive from this session, an original carte-de-visite produced by Charles A. Woolley before 1869, has surfaced in the family collections of Woolley’s young contemporary, Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923). … More Lost and found: one day in 1866 and the scientific racism which followed
We are delighted to announce that a private collector and American resident has generously donated to the National Library of Australia, Canberra, a total of 45 photographs of Port Arthur convicts taken by Thomas J. Nevin, including the photograph of John Gregson, 1874 (pictured), together with original records, prison logs, prison ephemera and realia, and letters written to Thomas J. Nevin from the adiministration regarding his government commissions at both the Port Arthur penitentiary and Hobart Gaol, Tasmania during the 1870s-1880s. The donation was bequeathed from a large collection of 19th and early 20th century Pacifica, the bulk of which will remain in the United States. … More Donation of Nevin graphica from private collector to the NLA
DECOR: the shiny low chair, the table with griffin-shaped legs, tinted flowers and hair ribbons, the draped curtain, the diamond-patterned carpet, and the backdrop of a patterned patio looking out from an Italianate terrace to a vista of a cart path meandering stream, characterise this phase or aspect of Nevin’s commercial practice. … More A highly coloured portrait
Seven (7) previously unpublished photographs by Thomas J. Nevin or pertaining to Thomas J. Nevin’s photography from the late 1860s to the mid 1870s were scanned and submitted to this weblog by private collector Liam Peters in December 2010. The brief descriptions below of each item will be expanded eventually for each photograph (use search box in sidebar). … More Preview: The Liam Peters Collection
Although this image is faint – it is a scan of a print pasted into the scrapbook of his son George Ernest Nevin (1880-1957) which is held by Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin’s descendants in the Shelverton family – it shows clearly enough that George’s father, photographer Thomas J. Nevin, was rather fond of his big box table top stereograph viewer. It provided clientele with a ready amusement, a novel experience of 3D. The Victorian fascination with this “advanced” photography is quite understandable. Viewing a static stereograph, three images can be seen, not just one: the central image appears in deep perspective, with the image split into halves on either side. A double lens stereograph viewer of this size could hold a large number of stereograph cards; turning the wooden handle changed the card being viewed, providing a motion picture effect. In Nevin’s self-portrait – not a selfie in the strict sense, of course, taken probably by his younger brother Jack Nevin – a frame holder on top is propped up. In the two portraits below, the holder is flat. An earlier portrait of Thomas Nevin, taken ca. 1868, shows him wearing white gloves, posing with a smaller portable stereoscopic viewer, similar in size to a stereoscope camera. … More T. J. Nevin’s big tabletop stereograph viewer
Tasmanian photographer | Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) 
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