This Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery notice about their photographic collections appeared in November 2006. It is now September 2010, and the promised website with viewable databases of their vast photographic holdings is still not up and running. The TMAG … Continue reading
From Thomas Bock to Thomas Nevin: Supreme Court prisoner portraits
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“… portraits of prisoners taken in the dock …” THOMAS BOCK Police artists worked in the Supreme Court of Tasmania from as early as 1824. An album of portraits of “prisoners taken in the dock” (Dunbar, QVMAG catalogue 1991:25) by … Continue reading
The Supreme Court mugshots taken by T.J. Nevin from 1871 onwards
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THE PHOTOGRAPHER Professional and commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin undertook the job of systematically photographing prisoners who were tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart from mid 1871 at the behest of the Tasmanian government. His job description was to photograph … Continue reading
The Photographer’s Wife
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“Look for a long time at what pleases you and longer still at what pains you.” Colette Photographed from Nevin’s original. © KLW NFC 2010 ARR Carte-de-visite of Elizabeth Rachel Day, ca. 1870-71. Married on July 12, 1871 to photographer … Continue reading
Lyn Hagan: art from Nevin’s ‘Tazmanian’ convicts
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Lyn Hagan is a British artist who used these two photographs by Nevin of prisoners James Harper (on left) and Charles Downes (on right) to create her own images. … Thomas J Nevin’s photographs of Tazmanian convicts. Read more at … Continue reading
Aliases, Copies and Misattribution
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ALIASES, COPIES & MISATTRIBUTION … numbered copies … George White as Nutt, George Nutt alias White … Above: The database image of George NUTT with verso at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery: note that the verso is inscribed … Continue reading
Samuel Page’s Royal Mail coach
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Samuel Page held the government contracts for the Royal Mail coach deliveries between Hobart and Launceston, and contracted Nevin for photographic advertisements of his coachline. Samuel Page lived at Belle Vue, New Town, a villa with stables, paddocks and gardens. … Continue reading
John Nevin in the Royal Scots at the Canadian Rebellion 1837-38
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MOTTO of the ROYAL SCOTS “Nemo me impune Lacessit”. “No-one touches me with impunity” (or “Dinna mess wi’ me!”) While research into the life and times of photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) in Tasmania has uncovered many fascinating aspects of … Continue reading
Watering the Town Hall trees too “infra dig” for the caretaker
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Hobart Town Hall (Tasmania), opened in 1864. Photo © KLW NFC 2008 ARR. On a dry Spring afternoon, a day or so before 19th September, 1879, a reporter at The Mercury newspaper office looked out his window and across the … Continue reading
A Question of Stupidity & the NLA
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CARDBOARD CONVICTISM … Cardboard convict Hyde Park Barracks Sydney All photos © KLW NFC 2009-2010 ARR If A.H. Boyd were alive today, he would be very surprised indeed to read that he was the photographer of the extant Tasmanian prisoners’ … Continue reading
The Excelsior Coal Mine at New Town 1874
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The former Commandant at Port Arthur, James Boyd, incumbent to the position prior to the appointment of A.H. Boyd (who was NOT a photographer), had left Tasmania by the 29th December 1873 on the barque Ethel, bound for England (per … Continue reading
Husbands and Wives NPG Exhibition 2010
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An exhibition of early colonial portraits titled HUSBANDS and WIVES has recently opened at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Australia. Apart from the usual collection of cartes-de-visite, there are several daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of individuals, couples and family groups on … Continue reading
ANZACS: Gunner Athol Tennyson Nevin and his WW2 medals
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Athol Nevin, known as both Athol Clarence Nevin and Athol Tennyson Nevin, was born to Thomas James “Sonny” Nevin ((1874-1948) and Gertrude Tennyson Bates (1883-1958) at Launceston, Tasmania on 26 October, 1915. He would have known his grandfather, photographer Thomas … Continue reading
The Colonists’ Trip to Adventure Bay 1872
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On February 2, 1872 Thomas J. Nevin placed an advertisement in The Mercury informing the public and visitors (tourists) that his photographs, taken on a Colonists’ Trip down the River Derwent to Adventure Bay on the eastern side of Bruny … Continue reading
A first-class faithful Likeness February 1873
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Hard times 1872 Thomas Nevin’s commercial studio stamp ca. 1871 Images courtesy Marcel Safier © 2006. Small businesses in Tasmania were affected by an economic downturn in 1872, precipitated by excessive costs involved in railway construction, a decline in population, … Continue reading