Printed mugshots of 1870s prisoners on sale for tourists to Tasmania 1916
The one and only real photograph 1874
Badly damaged from repeated handling, messy copying and poor storage, this print from the original glass negative, if flipped, shows the lower part of Wm Baker's name and the number "220". That number was inscribed on the verso of the print mounted as a cdv when it was arranged in a sequence in the 1900s with the prisoner's name, "William Baker", the ship on which he arrived in VDL, the "Maria Soames" and the misleading phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - a phrase which written across hundreds of these 1870s cdv's when put on display for local and intercolonial tourists to Tasmania seeking images and records of their criminal ancestors in the 1900s.
In this instance, however, commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin was commissioned by the Attorney-General W. R. Giblin to photograph a group of prisoners at Port Arthur in April and May 1874. On May 8th, 1874, Thomas Nevin journeyed to Port Arthur on board the government schooner Harriet in the company of a prisoner whom he had earlier photographed as William Campbell, but who was subsequently hanged as Job Smith. The new Surgeon-Commandant of the prison site, Dr Coverdale, by that date was implementing a speedy evacuation of all prisoners to the Hobart Gaol. Nevin photographed some of these serious offenders in situ at Port Arthur, but the majority he photographed when they were received in Hobart. He was absent from Hobart when his wife Elizabeth (Day) Nevin gave birth to their second child, Thomas James Nevin jnr, born at his father's studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town, on the 16th April 1874 and given the same name as his father. Because of Thomas J. Nevin's absence from Hobart on business at Port Arthur, his father-in-law, master mariner Captain James Day, Elizabeth's father, signed the child's birth registration as informant one month later on the 26th May 1874. This was the only birth registration of all seven children that Thomas J. Nevin did not sign.
Uncut sepia print from glass negative of prisoner William Baker
Photographed at the Port Arthur prison by contractor Thomas J. Nevin, 24 April 1874
Pasted to one of three panels for sale from John Watt Beattie's catalogue 1916
Print of William Baker top row last on right.
Forty prints of 1870s Tasmania prisoners in three panels
Prints from the original glass negatives taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprinted and offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176
The unmounted print was never pasted directly to the prisoner's rap sheet [rap= record of arrest and prosecution]. The photographer Thomas J. Nevin with his brother at the Hobart Gaol, Constable John Nevin, printed the image on a buff oval mount as a conventional a carte-de-visite commercial portrait, a practice which continued through the 1880s to the 1890s in Tasmania. The cdv was then pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet listing each offence by date and length of service, together with details of the prisoner's DOB and physical appearance, a practice begun with Nevin's commission in February 1872. Most of the rap sheets of prisoners photographed at the Hobart Gaol the 1870s from which these cdv's were removed by Beattie et al ca. 1900 were destroyed, mainly because of cultural sensitivities to do with the colony's penal heritage - the "convict stain".
National Library of Australia catalogue notes
William Baker, per Maria Soames, taken at Port Arthur, 1874.
Call Number PIC Album 935 #P1029/2
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/7/54.
Title from inscription on reverse.
Condition: Slight foxing.
Inscription: title and "220"--In ink on reverse.
Also available online https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142915717
Prison and Police Records
1869: unnatural crime
William Baker was charged with the crime of attempting an unnatural offence (i.e. not specified) at the Hobart Supreme Court on 23 November 1869, sentenced to 10 years with hard labour. He was incarcerated at the Hobart Gaol awaiting trial for 10 days and then sent to the Port Arthur prison south of Hobart. He was transferred back to the House of Corrections, Hobart, on 17 April 1877 and discharged during the week ending 29 January 1879.
William Baker's earning, Port Arthur, 1874-1877
Transferred to the Port Arthur prison
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON94-1-2/CON94-1-2P14
1870: prisoner under colonial funds
William Baker per Maria Soames was 49 years old in 1870s, serving a sentence of 10 years at Port Arthur when his name was included in this list tabled in Parliament, 8 Sept 1870..
Source: Convicts. Paupers and Lunatics at Port Arthur Return to an Order of the House dated 8th September 1870 (Mr. C. Meredith
Laid upon the Table by the Colonial Treasurer, and ordered by the House to be printed October 13, 1870
Link: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/PPWeb/1870/HA1870pp128.pdf
1879: discharge from Hobart Gaol
Source: Tasmanian Reports of Crime for Police (weekly gazette) J. Barnard, Gov't printer
William Baker per Maria Soames 1 was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in the week ending 29 January 1879, having served a ten year sentence for attempting an unnatural crime, tried at the Supreme Court Hobart on 23 Nov. 1869. He was 59 years old on discharge, 5 ft 3ins tall, free in servitude (FS).
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