Commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin took this photograph of Melville Street, West Hobart from the verandah of the Hobart Gaol Governor's house in July 1868 on a day of heavy snowfall. It was one of several photographs he entered at the Wellington Park Exhibition; another was a photograph of the Nevin family house at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley), Hobart.
Title: 'Melville St West Hobart under snow' 1868
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (not online) TMAG: Q9134
Verso: 'Melville St West Hobart under snow' 1868
Photographer's stamp: T. Nevin late A. Bock
City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (not online) TMAG: Q9134
Verso inscriptions:
C300 Hbt Melville Street
Pencilled: This by W. J. T. Stops Esq.
Kings Arms Murray St 1835
St. Mary's Catholic Burial Ground
W. Hobart July 1868
The verso of this photograph carries Thomas J. Nevin's most common commercial studio stamp and the wording - "This by W. J. T. Stops Esq." - which suggests that the photograph was presented to Frederick Stops by Thomas Nevin in 1868, perhaps as a gift to Emily Stops on the birth of their daughter, and was then passed down to his son W. J. T. Stops (b. 1870), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, who subsequently donated it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from the Stops estate or even from the University of Tasmania archives (Royal Society Collection) where more of Thomas J. Nevin’s photographs are held. It was then inscribed by an archivist on accession with the note - "This by W. J. T. Stops Esq". Frederick Stops and photographer Thomas Nevin were well acquainted for several reasons, among them the dissolution of Thomas Nevin's partnership with Robert Smith operating as the firm "Nevin & Smith" in February 1868 which was underwritten by Frederick Stops' employer and Nevin's mentor, the Hon. W R. Giblin, Attorney-General. Frederick Stops was draftsman of information for the Criminal Court and Acts of Parliament, regarded as Giblin's "right-hand man".
Taken from the Hobart Gaol
Thomas Nevin's chosen position to take the photograph was from the second storey of the Hobart Gaol Governor's Quarters. His camera captured the right side of Melville Street, and a wider vista of kunanyi/Mount Wellington to the north west.
Residence of the Governor of the Hobart Gaol, at the end of Melville Street; shows brick wall at the rear of Scot's Church
Further Description: Negative date is approximate - old roll film this size could have been around from 1905 - 1930
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/PH40-1-3452
By 1900 it was called the Superintendent's house with the public entrance from Melville Street, which terminated at its front gate (photo above), rather than the Gaol's entrance in Campbell St (photo below).
Frontal side view of the Superintendent's House at the Hobart Gaol in Campbell Street [PH30-1-3691]
Locality: Campbell Street, Campbell Street, Hobart
Date: 1900, Unattributed
Archives Office of Tasmania
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/PH30-1-3691/PH30-1-3691
Entries on T. Nevin, TMAG publication, 1995
This photograph - a carte-de-visite of Melville St. West Hobart under snow, 1868 - was reproduced on page 82 of the publication Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (C. Long, G. Winter, THRA, TMAG, 1995) together with a stereograph by Nevin of New Town from the public school which carries verso his less common New Town studio stamp. The editors included these notes, which are vague and dismissive of Thomas J. Nevin's work for the most part:
TRANSCRIPT
NEVIN, Thomas J (1842-c.1922)Image: cdv: "Melville St Hobart Mt Wellington in background..."
140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, 1867-75 [TMAG]
Also traded as Nevin and Smith in the early 1870s. Nevin took over Alfred Bock's studio and did some early commercial work photographing, for example, the range of coaches used by Samuel Page in the early 1870s...
There are also cdv portraits of Nevin's, showing a clientele which, judging from their clothes, must have been rather less than affluent. Nevin may have had a contract for taking convict photographs. (DAA) [ALMFA;AOT]Image: stereograph; "New Town from the public school..."
NEVINS, Thomas (New Town, Tasmanian [PC]
COMMENT
A second entry on this page in Thomas Nevin's name records the only photograph extant now held at the TMAG which carries verso a remarkably ornate studio stamp with "s" added to his name, as in - "Thomas NEVINS" - of New Town Tasmania, held in a private collection [PC]. It is a cdv of the Orphan School and St John's Church New Town.
A third entry on pages 35-36 of this TMAG publication (Long & Winter 1995) titled "CONVICT PHOTOGRAPHS" makes only passing mention of T. J. Nevin's contract with the colonial government to photograph prisoners on incarceration and discharge from the Hobart Gaol from 1872-1886 (14 year contract). Chris Long attempts in this entry to attribute the extant 300 or so cdv's in public collections of so-called "Port Arthur convicts" in 20th century tourism discourse to the Port Arthur Commandant A. H. Boyd, a seriously misleading entry based on no evidence whatsoever and which ignores prison and police procedures in place in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW by 1873. Boyd was not a photographer, he did not photograph convicts at Port Arthur, and no works by him are extant (see Kerr, Stilwell, McPhee, Neville et al).
Two entries for T. Nevin, including two photographs by Thomas J. Nevin (TMAG collections)
TMAG publication Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (1995, p. 82)
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