Tag: Truganini

Bust of Truganini by Bemnjamin Law 1836

Indigenous elder Truganini and poet Ann Kearney, 1875

July 11, 2022

John Woodcock Graves the elder (1795-1886), famous for his composition of the song “D’ye ken John Peel”, was a family friend and frequent visitor of Thomas Kearney’s father, William Keaney (1795–1870) of Laburnam Park, Richmond, Tasmania. His son, lawyer and townsman John Woodcock Graves the younger (1829-1876), defended Thomas Kearney (1824-1889) in a dispute in 1875 over the conveyancing of a lease five years earlier, in 1870, to neighbour William Searle for use of a road on his property. The defense was Kearney’s state of intoxication and severe delirium tremens prevented him from knowing what he was doing. Thomas Kearney’s wife, Ann Elizabeth Keaney nee Lovell, showed her gratitude to John Woodcock Graves in June 1875 by writing a poem praising his pretty youngest (non-Indigenous) daughter , Trucaninni Graves, named in honour of Indigenous elder and leader Truganini … … More Indigenous elder Truganini and poet Ann Kearney, 1875

Letter to Mercury 1961 re cdv of Tasmanian Aborigines in Nevin family collections

Lost and found: one day in 1866 and the scientific racism which followed

August 30, 2021

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

A distinguished forelock: Henry Dresser Atkinson on board the “City of Hobart” 1872

March 11, 2019

This stereograph by Thomas Nevin foregrounds an unidentified young woman, who may have been one of event organiser John Woodcock Graves’ four young daughters – Mimi (b. 1862), Mathinna (Matte b. 1859) Trucaninni (Truca b. 1864), the latter two both given Tasmanian Aboriginal names – or even fourteen year old Jean Porthouse Graves (b. 1858) who collected these photographs of the trip by Thomas Nevin for her album (see her portraits by Nevin below). This young woman with a steady gaze and fully rounded face, however, was possibly in her late teens. As she is sitting next to Henry Dresser Atkinson (1841–1921), she may have been his fiancee Sarah-Ann Ward (b. 1841 Launceston). Their son  Henry Bruné Dresser, born  on 17th  March 1874 at Gordon, Tasmania, was nursed – so legend goes – by Tasmanian Aboriginal  woman Trugernanner (Truganini) (1812–1876). Henry Dresser Atkinson’s first appointment on arrival from England was the Channel mission at Oyster Cove where Truganini’s group had been relocated to her traditional territory. … More A distinguished forelock: Henry Dresser Atkinson on board the “City of Hobart” 1872

With Jean Porthouse Graves at Caldew, West Hobart

With Jean Porthouse GRAVES 1870s West Hobart

September 3, 2015

Two tall thin metal statues of a beggar and a harlequin flank the group on either side. Their significance and provenance is not known. Perhaps they were cast by a local sculptor for private decorative use, or they may have featured as props in a theatrical production, or even confiscated by Lukin Boyes at the Customs and Tariff Office. But it is the lion statue in the foreground which is the focal point of the image. It belonged to John Woodcock Graves’ family of Caldew, West Hobart. A later photograph taken of Jean Porthouse Graves ca. 1877 shows it placed near the doorway of the house. This stereograph taken by Thomas Nevin and the one immediately below it of members of the Graves, Miller and Boyes families were possibly taken on the same day, ca. 1870 and in the same location, at the back of Caldew when West Hobart was still a sparse “wilderness”. … More With Jean Porthouse GRAVES 1870s West Hobart

Mugshots removed: Edward Searle’s album 1915

September 12, 2007

The National Library of Australia holds an album titled Tasmanian Views, catalogued in Searle’s name and dated ca. 1915. The album contains a series of contemporary snapshots taken of the Searle family while visiting the Tasman Peninsula, Maria Island, Norfolk Island, and New Norfolk, possibly accompanying Beattie on his various and highly productive photographic excursions. The family photographs are mixed in no particular order with scenic postcards bearing Beattie’s trademark, views and portraits of Antarctic expeditions, and reprints of 1860s-1870s photographs representing Tasmania’s troubled convict and Aboriginal past, all of which Beattie and Searle supplied in quantity for the 1900s tourist market, The inclusion of many family photographs in this album suggests it was intended for private viewing rather than public display, put together by Searle for his family as a memento of his four years’ employment at Beattie’s studio. … More Mugshots removed: Edward Searle’s album 1915