At Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley 1868

LADY FRANKLIN MUSEUM, Ancanthe
THE PEDDER COLLECTION (TMAG) Stereographs by Thomas J. Nevin
NEVIN FAMILY at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley, Tas)


Lady Franklin Museum stereograph (TMAG)
This fine stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin which is held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was noted verso by someone in pencil as "best picture". It may have been chosen by Dan Sprod for publication in 1977 (see book below), or it may have been used as early as 1949 by the Tasmanian Amateur Cine Society when they produced a silent 16mm film of the re-opening ceremony of Lady Franklin Museum. A black and white single image printed from this stereograph appears third in the opening sequence of stills (see video below).



Group on the steps of Lady Franklin's Museum, Ancanthe, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart.
Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.34



Verso: Group on the steps of the Lady Franklin Museum, Ancanthe, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart.
Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.34

No longer available online, this stereograph was catalogued online at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2006 with the following details:

TMAG Catalogue (text database):
Ref: Q1994.56.34
ITEM NAME: Photograph:
MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
TITLE: 'Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley'
DATE: 1870c
DESCRIPTION : Group of people at Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back in pencil: Mrs A Pedder / and in different hand Lady Franklin's Museum/ KangarooValley and in different hand again best picture.

Royal Society of Tasmania print (UTas)
This print from Thomas Nevin's stereograph of a group at the Lady Franklin Museum, Kangaroo Valley, Tasmania, is held in the Royal Society's Special Collections, University of Tasmania library. Frederick Stops, a colleague of Nevin's at the Municipal Police Office who was the right-hand man to the Attorney-General the Hon. W. G. Giblin, may have acquired it along with another landscape by Nevin - Melville St. Under Snow(1868) - prints of which subsequently surfaced in the TMAG Collections as well in the Royal Society collections at the University of Tasmania. Frederick Stop's son, W. J. T. Stops, was Vice-chancellor of the university at the time of his father's death in 1926.



Group at the Lady Franklin Museum Kangaroo Valley (Tas)
Stereograph c.a. 1871 by Thomas J. Nevin
Royal Society ePrints University of Tasmania No. 18-9

Tasmanian Amateur Cine Society 1949
Watch the women in their period costumes battle the wind!



Source: YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/qD_m4aU1sJA
Tasmanian Archives: The Tasmanian Amateur Cine Society Presents Re-opening ceremony of Lady Franklin Museum ; shows Sir Hugh and Lady Binney, Stephen Hickman, Robert and Gertrude Cosgrove; guests dressed in period costume. See Mercury 14 Nov 1949, p1 and p4. (black and white, silent) - 16mm B&W 24 fps 100 ft - 4m 14s - Reference: NS6350/1/22

Dan Sprod's compilation 1977




This black and white image was poorly reproduced from the original stereograph by Thomas Nevin for inclusion in the 1977 compilation of old photographs published with the title Victorian and Edwardian Hobart from old photographs by Dan Sprod. No index was included in the final book, nor were attributions by name to Thomas Nevin for several of his photographs including this reproduction from Nevin's stereograph of the group at the Lady Franklin Museum. The date given by Sprod is a little too early. It was taken by Nevin ca. 1867-8 in a series of stereographs he produced for visitors to Kangaroo Valley (now Lenah Valley) which included a group at Sir John Franklin's tree.



Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015
CAPTION:
172. Right. Not Greece but Van Diemen's Land, ca. 1860. Lady Jane Franklin's romantic ideas found expression in this tiny Greek temple, erected in 1842-43 on her Lenah Valley estate, Ancanthe, The building, which still stands, was intended as a museum, particularly for indigenous products.



Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015
Victorian and Edwardian Hobart from old photographs / [compiled by] Dan Sprod.
Publisher: St. Ives, N.S.W. : John Ferguson, 1977.
Description: 1 vol.
ISBN: 0909134065 :
Notes: Hobart. Social life, 1850-1910. Illustrations (ANB/PRECIS SIN 0152382)
Subjects: Hobart (Tas.)--History--Pictorial works.
Hobart (Tas.)--Social life and customs--Pictorial works.
Other Authors: Sprod, Dan, 1924-, comp.
Bib ID: 2222496



The bridge in the foreground crosses the New Town rivulet. The Lady Franklin Museum sits below the site where John Nevin snr built his cottage (now demolished), next to the house (pictured) above on the rise at 270A Lenah Valley Rd. Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2012 ARR.

Thomas Nevin at Kangaroo Valley
From a grant of 2560 acres five miles north of Hobart to George Hull in 1824, Jane Franklin, wife of lieutenant-governor Sir John Franklin purchased 400 acres (162 ha) in the Kangaroo Valley area near New Town from Hull's estate in 1839 which she named Ancanthe and where she built her museum, hoping to house the colony's natural specimens and a library. Thomas Nevin's father John Nevin snr, built his cottage in 1854 on the one acre within the boundaries of Lady Franklin's estate which was managed in trust to the Wesleyan Church after Lady Franklin's departure in 1843. The photograph Thomas J. Nevin took of the house his father built was exhibited at the Wellington Exhibition in 1868 to complement his father's poem titled "My Cottage in the Wilderness" published the same year. John Nevin snr remained there until his death in 1887.

THE LADY FRANKLIN MUSEUM IN 1871



From Walch's Tasmanian Guide 1871 © KLW NFC Imprint 2012

At Kangaroo Valley, Thomas Nevin photographed day-trippers to the Lady Franklin Museum, school buildings, school children and their teachers, farmers and their fields, ferns with and without snow, rushing water and glistening rocks while developing skills in commercial outdoor stereography from at least 1864.Still a bachelor until 1871, he periodically resided with his parents and two surviving siblings at the house his father John Nevin snr had built on land above the Lady Franklin Museum in the early 1850s. The Museum sat adjacent to the Wesleyan Chapel where John Nevin snr and his daughter Mary Ann Nevin taught school. Although Thomas Nevin had acquired the lease and stock-in-trade of a fully functioning commercial studio in the business district of Hobart Town by 1867 from friend and colleague Alfred Bock, he maintained a separate small commercial studio in New Town close to Ancanthe until the birth of his last child in 1888.



Lenah Valley (1973).Ref: 5172-18.
Southern Met maps
AUTAS001139610562-5172-18
Archives Office Tasmania

John Nevin built his "cottage" in 1854 on land in trust to the Wesleyan Church above the Lady Franklin Museum. The house, since demolished, was located inside the boundaries visible in this Southern Met map of 1973. The land was sold by the Hobart City Council on it acquisition from the Church Trustees (those originally designated by Lady Jane Franklin) in the 1920s.

The Pedder Collection (TMAG)
Lawyers, barristers, magistrates, politicians, police superintendents, detectives, their families and their prisoners were photographed by Thomas J. Nevin from the late 1860s to the 1880s. The Pedder family of magistrates and police officers, the family of solicitor John Woodcock Graves the younger, the McVilly family of teachers and police officers, and the family of Attorney-General the Hon. W. R. Giblin, all made use of Thomas J. Nevin's commission with the colonial government's Lands and Survey Department, the Municipal Police Office and Mayor's Court, and the Hobart City Corporation to provide them with stereographic views and carte-de-visite portraits. The stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868-1870 of the Lady Franklin Museum, Kangaroo Valley bearing the inscription "A. Pedder" on verso, is one of least four held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collections. Solicitor Alfred Pedder (1881-1977) may have kept these stereographs by Thomas Nevin from the estate of his father, Police Superintendent Frederick Pedder (1841-1923) who was also a colleague of Nevin's at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart. Alfred Pedder's daughter Sylvia in turn may have donated them to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in the 1970s (see Fox, J. 2012, p. 58).

Alfred Pedder's wife, on the other hand, may have acquired photographs directly from Thomas Nevin's studio. Her interest is apparent on the verso of the Lady Franklin Museum stereograph. Inscribed in pencil is her name "Mrs A Pedder". She was in fact Dora Tryphena Elliott whose father John Henry Elliott had not only acquired the lease on Thomas Nevin's old studio at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart by 1878, he also purchased the public house next door at 142 Elizabeth St., the Royal Standard Hotel, formerly owned by James Spence.

Other examples inscribed verso with "A. Pedder" held in the TMAG collection include these landscape views:

A view of St Mary's Cathedral (R.C.), Hobart, Tasmania




Stereograph in arched buff mount of St Mary's Cathedral Tasmania
Handwritten inscription on verso: "A. Pedder" and "Part of Hobart Town"
Photographer; Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1874
TMAG Ref: Q1994-56-6



Verso of:
Stereograph in arched buff mount of St Mary's Cathedral Tasmania
Handwritten inscription on verso: "A. Pedder" and "Part of Hobart Town"
Photographer; Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1870
TMAG Ref: Q1994-56-6

A view of Harrington Street and the cathedral from Lime Kiln Hill



Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street
Stereograph by Thomas Nevin ca. late 1860s-1870
New Town studio stamp on verso
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.30



Verso:
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Database Ref: Q1994.56.30
Description : Photograph, sepia salt paper stereoscope:
MAKER: Thomas Nevin [photographer];
TITLE: '[Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street; St Mary's, Warwick Street, West Hobart]'
ITEM DATE: 1870s
IMAGE CONTENT: view townscape; .
Size : Mount buff coloured 85 x 173mm Images (2) 73 x 70mm [images rounded at top]
Inscriptions and marks : On back handwritten in pencil: A. Pedder and stamped Thos Nevin/ Newtown

A view from across the Huon River to the town known as Victoria





Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin, ca. 1870 of river scene
Verso stamp with government Royal Arms insignia,
T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
Pencil inscription verso "A. Pedder".
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014
TMAG Ref: Q16826.19

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) online in 2006 recorded this stereograph with the following details:

Q16826.19 ITEM NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope,
MAKER: T J Nevin [Artist];
DATE: 1860s
DESCRIPTION : A waterfront shot. Location is uncertain. Possibly, the Huon.
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: T.J. Nevin Photographic Artist 140 Elizabeth StreetHobart Town. Copies may be had at any time. A. Peddar.[ sic]

A group at the Lady Franklin Museum, Kangaroo Valley



Group on the steps of Lady Franklin's Museum, Ancanthe, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart.
Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.34



Verso: Group on the steps of the Lady Franklin Museum, Ancanthe, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart.
Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.34

No longer available online, this stereograph was catalogued online at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2006 with the following details:

TMAG Catalogue (text database):
Ref: Q1994.56.34
ITEM NAME: Photograph:
MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
TITLE: 'Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley'
DATE: 1870c
DESCRIPTION : Group of people at Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back in pencil: Mrs A Pedder / and in different hand Lady Franklin's Museum/ KangarooValley and in different hand again best picture.

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Updated August 2020

Harrisson Collection: three studio stamps

Private collector and professional photographer Geoff Harrisson kindly forwarded these six scans of studio portraits by Thomas J . Nevin, each bearing verso a different inscription or stamp.





Scans © The Private Collection of C. G. Harrisson 2006. ARR.

These are three examples of the seven studio stamps and inscriptions used by Thomas Nevin between ca. 1867 and 1876. Other examples can be found on the mounts and versos of stereographs and cartes held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the State Library of NSW, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, the State Library of Victoria, and the National Library New Zealand, in addition to private collections.

"Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town" is a hand-written inscription that appears on several studio portraits in private and public collections. More examples are held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery and in the private collection of John McCullagh. Thomas Nevin and Samuel Clifford were close friends and business partners from the 1860s until Samuel Clifford's death in 1890. The Mercury reported on their tour around Tasmania and arrival in the town of Bothwell in a long account of a Templars meeting, published on 26 September, 1874. They printed each other's stereographs in the 1860s. Clifford acquired Nevin's commercial negatives in 1876.

"T. J. Nevin, Photographic Artist, 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town" includes the middle initial "J" (James) and the Royal Arms insignia of lion and unicorn rampant used by the Police Office, the Prisons Department and Supreme Court of the Tasmanian Government. The stamp was designed by the government printer James Barnard for use on the versos of Nevin's nominal trade samples of prisoner identification photographs submitted for tender under contract as prisons and police photographer while still operating as a commercial photographer, dating from early 1873 to 1876. Once Nevin joined the Municipal Police Office and City Corporation at the Hobart Town Hall as a full time civil servant, the use of this stamp was unnecessary.

"T. Nevin, late A. Bock, City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town" is a variation and elaboration of Alfred Bock's stamp whose studio and stock Nevin acquired in 1867. It also appears on studio portraits taken between 1868 and 1876.



Seated woman at the distinctive studio table, with tinted flowers
Verso stamped "T.Nevin late A. Bock"



Seated man with boater, possibly taken on Regatta Day.
Verso stamped with the official Royal Arms insignia and "T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist"



Teenage girl standing, holding a green and red tinted sprig (of holly), possibly taken at Christmas.
Verso inscribed "Clifford  & Nevin, Hobart Town"

Many thanks to Geoff Harrisson
© The Private Collection of C. G. Harrisson 2006. ARR.

Rocking Stone Parties on kunanyi/Mount Wellington

The Rocking Stone on Mount Wellington was an essential landmark for visitors to Hobart, Tasmania. The mountain was known locally in the mid 19th century as the "Hero" (1865, A Lady's Trip to Tasmania, see transcript below). Today it is also known by the Aboriginal word "kunanyi".

Thomas Nevin at the Rocking Stone
Thomas J. Nevin submitted this stereograph in the Wellington Park Exhibition of 1870.



Group at the Rocking Stone, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington.
Stereograph on buff mount
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.4.
Exhibited at the Wellington Park Exhibition 1870.


The same image is attributed to Thomas Nevin but was catalogued differently in the TMAG's database in 2006, viz:

Ref: Q16826.4
ITEM NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
TITLE: 'A Party at the Rocking Stone, Mount Wellington'
DATE: 1870s
DESCRIPTION : A group of people at the Rocking Stone on Mt. Wellington. Consists of 4 men and three women. The two women sitting on the ground in front of the rock appear to be sisters.

The "sisters" noted by the cataloguist here may have been the daughters of Captain James Day and his wife Rachel Pocock: the eldest, Elizabeth Rachel Day who married photographer Thomas J. Nevin in 1871, and her sister Mary Sophia Day who married Hector Axup in 1878.

Thomas Nevin on kunanyi/Mount Wellington
Fifty or so stereographs by Thomas J. Nevin are held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. These stereographs were taken ca. late 1860s on and around the summit of kunanyi/Mount Wellington, copies sourced from the TMAG in 2015.



Snow on kunanyi/Mt Wellington "Plough Field"
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.16.Verso below.





A group at the Beacon Light, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: 1994.56.29. Verso below.





A large party sitting atop the Beacon Light, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q16826.7. Verso below.





A group at the Rocking Stone, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington.
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.4.Verso below.





Three men sitting on boulders, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q16826.32. Verso below.





Ferns covered in snow, kunanyi/Mt. Wellington
Stereograph on buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin late 1860s
TMAG Ref: Q16826.31.1. Verso below.



[Above] A selection of stereographs taken by Thomas J. Nevin, late 1860s, on and around the summit of kunanyi/Mount Wellington. From the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection 2015

Samuel Clifford at the Rocking Stone
Another group at the Rocking Stone was photographed by Thomas Nevin's friend and partner Samuel Clifford a few years earlier:



The Rocking Stone
Publication Information:ca. 1860.
Physical description:1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 8 x 8 cm. each, on mount 9 x 18 cm.
Notes: Label on verso reads: Views in Tasmania. Curiosities of Mount Wellington. S. Clifford, photographer, Hobart Town ; inscribed below label in ink: The Rocking Stone.
Title inscribed in ink on centre of verso ; no. 115 inscribed in ink lower left of verso.
Date and accession number in pencil upper right corner of verso.
Exact size 74 x 73 mm. each, on mount 86 x 175 mm.
Citation: Digitised item from: W.L. Crowther Library, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

The tall man with the stick on the viewer's left was possibly Mr. Woods who lived half way up the mountain at the Springs with his wife, son and daughter, and acted as a guide for visitors. They provided food and water as well, according to the visitor's account below:
The old man & woman who reside at the hut supply visitors with implements and cook what provender they may take with them for which 1/- per head is generally presented to them. We arrived there at 1/2 past eight & were glad to sit down to an excellent breakfast of cold lamb and coffee. We also enjoyed a draught of the cold crystal water from the murmuring spring....
This visitor to Tasmania from NSW in 1865 recounted her walk up kunanyi/Mount Wellington in a diary in which she had pasted photographs by Samuel Clifford, now held at the State Library of NSW:

TRANSCRIPT

A Lady's Trip to Tasmania by M. Swyny
On the 10th of January I ascended Mount Wellington with a small party of friends, 2 ladies and 4 gentlemen. We set of at 6 in the morning & drove to the foot of the mountain. The sky was clear & the bright sun-shine & fresh breeze invigorated us all on our toilsome ascent. The path is narrow & very steep, it is said the slope is at an angle of 45 degrees. It is covered with loose flat stones as

[page 21]

if flags had been broken up and thrown pell-mell over it; in some places it was not improved by being very sloppy. Our progress was slow as we required to stop frequently to take breath & to rest, and like Mr David Price in Ingoldsby "we paused and looked down on the valley below". The Captain of the party pushed forward to the hut at a place called the Springs to have breakfast prepared for us. The water flows down the mountain to the city. It is conveyed by a channel cut in the earth (about three feet wide). The old man & woman who reside at the hut supply visitors with implements and cook what provender they may take with them for which 1/- per head is generally presented to them. We arrived there at 1/2 past eight & were glad to sit down to an excellent breakfast of cold lamb and coffee. We also enjoyed a draught of the cold crystal water from the murmuring spring. At a little before ten we again sett off staff in

[page 22]

in hand for the top of the mount. At first a little level ground was our path but soon the steep and rugged way obliged us to rest; but the prospect repaid our toil for at each succeeding halt some new beauties were revealed to our view. The last ascent is more steep than the rest and is locally known by an expressive but inelegant nickname. Here we rested about 10 minutes & listened to a very beautiful echo. Some children were coming up the path singing one of the Christy's songs, and for a moment the last notes were repeated with much clearness. One of our party called out "Wellington" which was distinctly repeated once & some words answered twice. Our next exploit was to cross the "Ploughed Field"; a very odd name for a mass of confusion. It consists of large stones but to clear head and firm foot they do not present any great difficulty and we all agreed

[page 23]

that we would much rather traverse them than climb the last hill. We again rested when we had crossed this chaos & then pushed on over rugged ground with stones of all sizes and shapes from 6 or 8 feet in height to those of as many inches, interspersed with tufts of stunted, withered, grass and some bright flowers, which were but a few as the spring time was past. After more than a mile's walk we reached the Pinnacle at 10 minutes past twelve. This is the most elevated point of the mount and a sort of casing of wood has been placed round the rough stones, up which we climbed & sat on the top & beheld one of the most lovely prospects in the world. There was neither mist nor cloud to overshadow the panorama of a hundred miles. To the left were dark mountains and Adamson's Peak capped with snow. The Huon river like a blue ribbon winding its way though

[page 24]

the dark trees. The Ocean and the entrance to the Derwent were clearly visible as well as Bruin Island and Dentrecasteaux Channel . All the windings of the Derwent with its many white beaches & its sapphire waters from Storm Bay to New Norfolk were laid out before us like a beautiful picture. The city of Hobart was at our feet the streets and buildings well defined & the reservoirs looking like small blue lakes. The Public Gardens could be seen marked out like a plan. Having refreshed ourselves with a slight repast we had brought with us we descended gathering ferns and flowers on our way and reached the Hut about 4 o'clock . We made an excellent tea after which we sat outside the door taking a good rest before we attacked the last stage of our journey. The Captain of the party wrote our names in the book & when the old man heard that one of us was from N.S.Wales he began to ask

[page 25]

some questions about a family he had been coachman to some 37 years ago asking how Master Robert and Master George were regardless of the lapse of time which had made the young men he had left grey headed fathers. We passed down the path at a more rapid rate than we had ascended but still found our long staves very useful to steady us. When we reached the foot we went along a new road that is being made to the Huon and obtained several fossils from the cutting. We were delighted to see the carriage and drove home unconscious of the flowers we had all wreathed around our hats. A warm bath concluded the day & ten o'clock found us sleeping. It is not considered safe to ascend the mountain without a little brandy as sometimes a faintness comes over those who are not very strong & they would not be able to proceed without the aid of a stimulant. There

[page 26]

is only one habitation and that not far up the mountain. Last year an invalid Doctor from India went up with a party of gentlemen. He was too much fatigued after reaching the summit of the last hill to proceed any further. His friends left him to rest while they went on to the Pinnacle. When they returned they were dismayed to find the Doctor had left his resting place. They searched that evening in vain but returned in the morning to find him dead. He was sitting upright against a rock not very far from where they had left him. The event created a great sensation. In his pocket were found the portrait and letters of a lady to whom he was to have been married. "Truth is strange, stranger than fiction". There is a great extent of ground on the top of the mountain where people often have been lost for a time. Lately some land marks have been placed as

[page 27]

guides in the confusion. Some long poles have been set up to shew the track over the Ploughed Field & small stones piled one on another at short intervals direct the way to the Pinnacle.



State Library of NSW
Call Number: MLMSS 588
1865-1866; 'A Lady's Trip to Tasmania', being an account of a holiday trip, Dec. 1865 to Jan. 1866. Author unknown, presumed a member of the Swyny family.
The account includes copies of photographs of Hobart by Samuel Clifford (Call No.: MLMSS 588/item 1)

Samuel Clifford: footsore on kunanyi/ Mt Wellington 1865
Thomas Nevin's close friend and colleague Samuel Clifford made a photographic excursion to the Falls (Springs) half way up kunanyi/Mount Wellington on February 9th, 1865, and regretted he had not worn the appropriate foot wear. This is his note left in the Visitors' book:



Visitors Book: kunanyi/Mount Wellington
Item Number: NS4160/1/1
Description: Vistors Book
Further Description:
Start Date: 04 Dec 1860
End Date: 31 Oct 1865
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

TRANSCRIPT
February 9th
S. Clifford          Hobart Town
G. Wittington     Port Arthur
H. Ballantyne     Hobart Town
Visited the Falls on a Photographic Excursion, consider our trip amply repaid by the splendid scenery but regret the Gentlemen in the preceding pages [did not leave his address =  struck through] who made the journey to the Falls and back again in 2½ hours did not leave address that we might have obtained the name of his Boot maker. -
This is the place where the guide to the mountain Mr. Woods and his family resided and where the visitors to the Falls signed the Visitor's Book, photographed by Samuel Clifford on this visit or later, reprinted with the date ca. 1873. A photograph of Samuel Clifford on kunanyi/Mt. Wellington also survives, taken by another photographer, probably Clifford's friend and collaborator Thomas Nevin.



Archives Office Tasmania
Huts at the Springs on kunanyi/Mt Wellington [ca. 1873]
Physical description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 11 x 19 cm.
Notes: Title inscribed in ink below image ; date noted in pencil at lower right of image on album page ; item number noted in ink at centre left of image on album page.
Exact size 105 x 184 mm. "Tasmanian scenes" also known as "Clifford album 1".



kunanyi/Mount Wellington with the Derwent Entertainment Centre foreground, taken from the River Derwent.
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2015 ARR.

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Thomas Nevin's funeral notice 1923

Thomas James Nevin's funeral notice appeared in the Mercury 12th March 1923. This record also omits the middle initial "J" in his name which was included on his government contractor stamp enclosed by the Royal Arms colonial warrant. He was buried at the Cornelian Bay cemetery, now called the Southern Regional Cemetery Trust  with "photographer" listed as his occupation.



CEMETERY RECORD
The cemetery records show these details:
Southern Regional Cemetery Trust
Brief Record Details
First names : Thomas
Surname : NEVIN
Age : 80
Date of death :
Service type : Burial
Service date : 12-Mar-1923
Last residence : HOBART
Grave location -
Cemetery : Cornelian Bay
Area or denomination : Church of England
Section : DD
Site number : Number 277,



BURIAL RECORD
Thomas James Nevin (1842-1923) was buried with the rank of "photographer", address given, Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania.



TRANSCRIPT
23521
Hobart Public Cemetery
No. 3422 (Schedule C.)
FORM OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR GRAVES
Answers to be written opposite to the following Questions at the time of giving Orders
1. What denomination? Ch of England and
2. Name of deceased? Thomas Nevin
3. Late Residence of deceased? Photographer
4. Rank of deceased? Elizabeth St
5. Age of deceased? 80 years ...months...days
6. Where born? Ireland
7. Minister to officiate? Rev Summers[?]
8. Day of funeral/ 12th March 23
9. What Hour? 9.30 o'clock am
10. No. of Grave on plan issued? No. 277 Compartment DD
11. If a public grave?
12. If a private grave, what width? Yes feet
13. " " length? 8 x 4 feet
14. What depth?
15. If first or second interment? ...feet
16. Nature of disease, or supposed cause of death? ....
CLARK BROS [stamp]
Signature of William Clark
Representative or Undertaker
_______
Order received this ... day of ... 19
at ... o'clock
£. s. d
Interment in Public Grave ...
Land for Private Grave, 8ft x 4 ft 5: 4: 0
Sinking 6½ feet, or re-opening .. 1: 15: 0
Label .....: 2: 6
Certificate of Right of Burial ... : 12 6
Permission to erect Monument : 10 0
...
_________
£6: 4: 0

See also: Tasmanian Federation Records
https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/2023656



Photographer Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1876
Photographed in the city studio standing next to his big box table top stereoscope viewer.
Copyright © The Private Collection of Denis Shelverton 2007 ARR.

Click here for key chronology 1842-1923


Marcel Safier Collection

This full-length studio carte-de-visite portrait of an unidentified woman in a hat, holding her umbrella and bag in gloved hands, was taken by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1871 at his studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania. The cdv gives a clear view of his studio decor at that time: the lozenge-patterned carpet; the shiny leather-covered slipper chair; the table with griffin-shaped legs; and the painted wall hanging featuring a patio terrace, balustrade, and meandering river disappearing into the distance.

Thomas Nevin did not include the middle initial "J" in his stamp on the verso of these earlier commercial 1870s portraits and stereographs. His designation, "T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist", was printed only on  his government contractor stamp bearing the Royal Arms colonial warrant insignia from late 1872 to 1876 to signify that he was a government contractor while still operating as a commercial photographer from his Elizabeth Street studio. 



Subject: unknown older woman in hat seated with bag and umbrella
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1872
Location: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania
Courtesy © The Private Collection of Marcel Safier 2005 ARR.




Verso of portrait of woman in a hat holding her umbrella and bag
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1872
Location: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania
Courtesy © The Private Collection of Marcel Safier 2005 ARR. 

NOTES Courtesy of owner Marcel Safier:
Subject: (woman with bag and umbrella) not known.
Provenance: "It came in an album I bought from a Tasmanian dealer at a Sydney collector's fair in 2001. The pencil numbering on the rear is my own cataloguing system."
Size: "The mount is 64mm x 102mm ... It very closely resembles the mounts used by Bock previously."
Many thanks to Marcel Safier for this contribution (2007).


Alfred Bock's stock-in-trade

Alfred Bock (b.1835 -d. 1920) inherited his father Thomas Bock's daguerreotype establishment at 22 Campbell Street Hobart Town in April 1855 and announced his own photographic business.



Advertisements: Alfred Bock at Campbell Street
Source: Colonial Times, 5th April 1855

By July 1855 he had moved to Elliston's premises at 78 Liverpool Street, formerly occupied by the photographers Duryea and McDonald where he built a "Crystal Palace" studio and purchased photographic equipment from Ross of London. Financial difficulties ensued, and Bock moved several times.



Alfred Bock's studio stamp 1860s
From © The Private Collection of John & Robyn McCullagh 2005-2007 ARR.


In 1857 Alfred Bock was at 18 Macquarie Street. But on 6th February, 1858, he was insolvent. Later that year, Bock re-established himself at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town - a business he called The City Photographic Establishment - and stayed there until 1865 when he was again declared insolvent. Thomas Nevin acquired Bock's studio lease, glass house, and stock-in- trade at the auction which was held on the studio premises, August 2, 1865 by Bock's assignee John Milward:
Stock-in-Trade of a Photographer, comprising - Instruments, Chemicals, Background, accessories, chairs, tables, pedestals, vases, and many other necessary articles for taking photographic portraits etc .... A large and exceedingly well furnished glass house, 22 feet by 8 feet with dark room attached .... A few choice oil paintings in gilt frames, show cases, and photographs and a small collection of books.
Source: Joan Kerr (ed) Dictionary of Australian Artists ... to 1870 (MUP, 1992, p.68)

Thomas Nevin acquired the dwelling at 138 Elizabeth St and the lease of the studio at 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart from Abraham Biggs (Victoria), and retained the business name when he took over The City Photographic Establishment from Bock in 1865.

Alfred Bock's design for his own studio stamp was used by Thomas Nevin for commercial studio portraits with some minor alterations and additions into the mid-1870s:



Verso of T. J. Nevin's portrait of the Hon. W.R. Giblin 1872-1876.
Archives Office of Tasmania Ref: NS1013/1971


Thomas Nevin probably acquired Bock's photographic equipment, "instruments" and chemicals along with the transfer of the lease. Some of the portraits listed at the auction may be those now held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery of Sarah and Thomas Crouch. Some of the larger items, such as the carpet, the table with griffin-shaped legs, the low chair covered with a shiny material, the curtain, and the painted backdrop of river valley and mountain, can be seen in Nevin's carte-de-visite of an unidentified woman in hat, with handbag and umbrella, which bears his studio name and address on verso (Marcel Safier Collection). These items of furniture were most likely included in the sale of Bock's stock-in-trade.



T. Nevin studio portrait of woman with umbrella
From © The Safier Collection 2005-2007 ARR.


The same backdrop can be seen on the (viewer's) right in a full length studio portrait of Bishop Willson, dated at ca. 1865 and attributed to Charles A. Woolley by the TMAG. It is visible also in an unattributed photograph of Hugh Munro Hull, coroner and Clerk of the House, Tasmanian Parliament.



Charles A. Woolley attributed, Bishop Willson, TMAG Collection

With his brother Constable John Nevin, Thomas maintained his photographic studio at New Town where he first began his professional career in 1864. On marriage in July 1871, Thomas moved his wife Elizabeth Rachel Nevin (nee Day) into the premises at 138 Elizabeth Street next door to the studio. Their first two children were born there: May Florence Elizabeth in 1872, and Thomas James jnr (Sonny) in 1874. By February 1872, Thomas Nevin was working both as a commercial photographer and as government contractor with the Lands and Survey Department and the Municipal Police Office, Hobart City Corporation at the Hobart Town Hall.

In January 1876 the Nevins took up residence at the Hobart Town Hall, the location of the Municipal Police Office and Public Library where Thomas Nevin had been appointed Office and Hall Keeper. His photographic activities now centred on the provision of criminal identification photographs for the Municipal Police Office. He maintained his other studio at New Town, and the studio at 140 Elizabeth Street was retained by a Mr Edward Slide (Hobart Town Gazette 1876). The lease notice appeared in the Mercury on January 8th, 1876:
Thomas Nevin's premises to let
Thomas Nevin's former premises in Upper Elizabeth Street , Hobart town to let.
Source: Mercury 08/01/1876 Page(s): 1, column 7.

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Thomas Nevin's studio, Elizabeth St. Hobart.
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin late 1860s.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection


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