Monday, June 24, 2013

Two couples, two dogs by A. Bock and T. Nevin



Middle-aged couple with dog
Hand-tinted carte-de-visite by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1870
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2013 ARR




Alfred BOCK [photographer]
Hobart Town, Australia 1835 – Wynyard, Tasmania 1920
Movements: 1867 Sale, Victoria 1882 Auckland, New Zealand 1887 Melbourne 1906 Wynyard, Tasmania
(Portrait of a couple with their dog) c.1866
sennotype image 18.4 h x 13.6 w cm
Purchased 1988
Accession No: NGA 88.1443


This sennotype (above) by Alfred Bock, titled "Married Couple with Dog" features the carpet which Thomas J. Nevin had acquired from Alfred Bock by 1867, along with their studio and glass house at the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart. The same carpet can be seen (below) in the solo portrait of Nevin's fiancee Elizabeth Rachel Day, taken ca. 1867 while operating as the firm Nevin & Smith, with partner Robert Smith until 1868. Nevin began an apprenticeship with Alfred Bock in early 1863 and succeeded to the business on Alfred Bock's sudden departure (due to insolvency) to Victoria in 1867.



Elizabeth Rachel Day, Thomas Nevin's fiancee (married 1871)
Taken by Thomas Nevin at Nevin & Smith (late Bock's) ca. 1865
140, Elizabeth Street Hobart Town
Full-length portrait, carte-de-visite
Copyright © KLW NFC 2009 ARR Private collection. Watermarked.

The "T. Nevin Late A. Bock" portrait of a middle-aged couple with a dog was hand-tinted by the family who purchased it or by subsequent owners. Such inept colouring was not the work of Nevin himself. His own family portraits show delicate and precise tinting. Other heavily tinted portraits bearing the same studio stamp used by Nevin for commercial portraiture into the early 1870s show the owners' preference for red and violet colours. This portrait  of a couple with dog is unusual in that green and brown colours were used. In all these extant cartes-de-visite portraits bearing Nevin's stamp which were coloured subsequent to purchase, it is the carpet which has received the most savage treatment. The strange blobs defy conventional perspective, although the intention may have been the opposite. This carte - as with many of the others bearing amateurish daubs - probably originated from the same family in northern Tasmania.



Middle-aged couple with dog
Hand-tinted carte-de-visite by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1870
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2013 ARR



Page 63, cdv of two men with Clifford & Nevin Hobart Town handwritten on verso,
exhibited at the QVMAG, The Painted Portrait Photograph in Tasmania,
November 2007-March 2008.



Unidentified woman, seated with sewing
A highly colored carte-de-visite ca. 1872
Taken by T.Nevin late A.Bock, 140 Elizabeth St., Hobart Town
Held at the Archives Office of Tasmania TAHO Ref: PH31/439
Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2012 ARR

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Prisoner Robert aka James OGDEN, photographed by T. J. Nevin 1875

TEENAGE MURDERERS James Sutherland and Robert Ogden
DEATH WARRANT with hand-tinted mugshot by T. J. NEVIN
NEVIN FAMILY Collections at the State Library of NSW



Prisoner Robert Ogden (1861?-1883), known as James Odgen,
Executed on 4th June 1883 at the Hobart Goal for murder.
Photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, 23 September 1875.

Source of image: State Library of NSW
Miscellaneous Photographic Portraits ca. 1877-1918
36. James Ogden
Photographs : 54 silver gelatin photoprints, 2 albumen photoprints ; 7.8-21.3 x 5.8-17.5 cm.
Link: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/YezVeZW9/QlkmJb0R6a2PQ



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (police gazette), 13 April 1883

TRANSCRIPT
"Referring to murder of William Wilson, James Ogden, proper name Robert Ogden, and James Mahoney, alias Sutherland, have been arrested by P. C. Phillips. of the Campbell Town Municipal Police, and party. Ogden and Mahoney are also charged with the murder of Alfred Holman."
This photograph - a standard 1870s carte-de-visite prisoner mugshot in an oval mount produced by Thomas J. Nevin - has escaped the attention of photo-historians of the 1870s Tasmanian prisoners' identification photographs, the so-called "Convict portraits, Port Arthur 1874" labelled and catalogued as such in Australian national collections, viz. the National Library of Australia, Canberra, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. It belongs to the same series of fine albumen prints in oval mounts of prisoners taken by commercial and police photographer Thomas J. Nevin for the HCC Municipal Police Office and Hobart Gaol authorities from 1872 to the mid 1880s.

Only 300 or so are currently extant from the thousand or more produced over two decades by Thomas J. Nevin and his younger brother Constable John Nevin in Hobart's courts and prisons for the central registry, the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall. Up to 25 duplicates were being taken on arrest and discharge of prisoners in NSW by 1872 and a comparable number was produced in Victoria. In Tasmania Thomas Nevin produced on average four duplicates from his original capture on glass. If the prisoner repeatedly offended and was sentenced within a short period, the glass plate was used again and again until it became damaged (see Peter Killeen's record). Additional sittings with the prisoner and new photographs were taken if the prisoner repeatedly offended over years extending into decades. In Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the 1870s, the police used commercial photographers.

The photograph (above) of Robert Ogden (aka James Ogden) is held at the State Library of NSW, catalogued as "No. 36 James OgdenMiscellaneous Photographic Portraits ca. 1877-1918 " (DL PX 158). It bears no attribution, no studio mark or inscription, except the name of the prisoner on verso. The fact that it is a mugshot of a prisoner is not stated. The name "James Ogden" was written no doubt by its donor to the State Library of NSW, John Watt Beattie, who admired Thomas Nevin's photography of prisoners taken in the 1870s to warrant their salvage for commercial advantage as Port Arthur souvenirs for the burgeoning dark tourism trade of the 1890s.

Most in this miscellany are portraits of notable men and women. No. 25 is catalogued as "Le Grande [sic] Bookseller Hobart, d. Nov. 1902 / J. W. Beattie, Hobart". There is little doubt that it was John Watt Beattie, collector and dealer in convictaria in Hobart from the 1890s, and Tasmanian government photographer from 1895, who contributed this 1870s prisoner mugshot by Thomas Nevin, along with dozens more that he had salvaged from the Hobart Gaol (held at SLNSW PXB 274) for inclusion in an intercolonial travelling exhibition in conjunction with the fake convict ship Success.

This cdv of prisoner Robert Ogden found its way to the State Library of NSW, along with Beattie's own photograph of the conchologist William Legrand before 1907. The Ogden mugshot belongs with the other collection of eleven Thomas J. Nevin photographs of Tasmanian prisoners catalogued in the David Scott Mitchell Collection, Mitchell Library, State Library NSW at PXB 274. An additional hand-coloured prisoner mugshot by Thomas Nevin, pasted next to the death warrant of Ogden’s accomplice, James Sutherland, is also held in the David Scott Mitchell collection (Tasmania Supreme Court - Death warrants and related papers, 1818-1884 - see below). Other Nevin family materials held in the same collection include a published copy of Thomas J. Nevin’s father’s poem, “My Cottage in the Wilderness” (1868) by John Nevin snr. These and other selections of Tasmaniana were contributed to David Scott Mitchell’s collection by John Watt Beattie in the early 1900s.





Prisoner photographs by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Mitchell Library State Library NSW. at PXB 274
Link: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/YzOgQ689
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Private Collection 2009

J. W. Beattie's somewhat cavalier use of Tasmanian government property from 1895 is the seminal reason why so many hundreds of prisoner portraits taken by T. J. Nevin on government contract in the 1870s were removed from the original Hobart Gaol Photo Books, prisoner rap sheets, Police Office warrants and Sheriff Office registers, to surface decades later as artistic artefacts in libraries and museums, sourced as often as not from John Watt Beattie's own shop in Hobart where he sold any item he could associate with the "Port Arthur" brand. Beattie's name has become associated with early to mid-19th century photographic Tasmaniana to the point where he is sometimes attributed as the original photographer, although this is chronologically impossible. John Watt Beattie was still a teenager living in Scotland when Thomas J. Nevin took this particular prisoner identification photograph of Robert aka James Ogden in 1875.

Police Records for Robert aka James OGDEN
These police records are sourced from the Tasmanian police gazettes 1870-85, published as Tasmania Reports of Crime, Information for Police; James Barnard, Government Printer.

1870-1872
The early police reports note that Robert Ogden was undergoing a sentence of 4 years passed on him 29 October 1870 at Green Ponds for being idle and disorderly, and vagrancy. His age was indeterminate to police, sometimes described as 12, or 15, or 16 yrs old, or "short for his age" . By the time he was executed in 1883, he was thought to be about 20 yrs old.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 19 January 1872
Absconded and arrested: Robert Ogden, aged 14.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 27 January 1872.
A more detailed description of the two brothers, Robert and William Ogden, who were sometimes confused with each other by unsuspecting police. In this instance, Robert Ogden's age has increased 2 years in one week..



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 6 December 1872
Robert Ogden arrested with his brother William, but Robert absconded again within weeks.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 27 December 1872
Almost a year later, Robert Ogden's age has decreased by one year.

1873



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 3 October 1873
Absconded again, Robert Ogden is thought to be 14 yrs old, one year younger not older.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 18 October 1873
Convicted of larceny, age put at 12 yrs old.





Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 12 December 1873
Absconded, and then arrested in the same week. Robert Ogden is now described as 11 yrs old, perhaps because he was "short for his age".

1875



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 6 August 1875
Absconded, now described as a 12 yr old.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 20 August 1875
On the run still, and wanted for larceny.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 24 September 1875
Robert Ogden arrested, sent to the Hobart Goal, and photographed by Thomas J. Nevin

1878



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 14 December 1878
Described as 18 yrs old, Robert Ogden was convicted for larceny for 3 months at the Hobart Gaol.

1879



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 12 March 1879
Discharged 6 months later, aged 19 yrs.

1880



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 8 May 1880
Arrested for stealing bread etc.

1881



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 28 January 1881
Arrested again.

1883
William Wilson, of Epping Forest (Tasmania). the murder victim, awoke to the sound of stones thrown onto his roof and went out to investigate. He was shot and died of his wounds. His hut - where his wife and children slept - was then set on fire. Ogden and Sutherland claimed they only intended it all as a joke.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 3 April 1883
Inquests of the murder victims of Robert aka James Ogden and James Sutherland.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 13 April 1883
"Referring to murder of William Wilson, James Ogden, proper name Robert Ogden, and James Mahoney, alias Sutherland, have been arrested by P. C. Phillips. of the Campbell Town Municipal Police, and party. Ogden and Mahoney are also charged with the murder of Alfred Holman."



Source: Mercury, 2 June 1883. Execution of Ogden and Sutherland determined, visited by Executive Council members who did not detect "the presence of insanity in either of them".

Photographers at the Murder Scene



Source: Mercury, 8 May 1883:

The Anson Brothers – not unfamiliar to police as convicted felons themselves (in 1877 Joshua Anson was convicted for theft from his master, photographer H.H. Baily, and sentenced to two years, Henry Anson was frequently arrested for drunkenness) – turned up at the burnt-out house of Ogden and Sutherland’s victim Mr Wilson just weeks into the aftermath of the murder, took photographs of the ruins – described as “a subject of mournful yet engrossing interest” by the Mercury report – and coolly advised the public that “handsome, interesting and valuable” copies were available from the photographers! The Ansons went further in pursuit of gain: they probably accessed the two doomed youths Sutherland (on left) and Ogden (on right) inside the Hobart Gaol only weeks before their execution to grab this image for sale and display in the window of their shop at Wellington Bridge, Elizabeth Street, Hobart.



James Sutherland and Robert Ogden in prison uniform April 1883
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Ref: Q16478. Unattributed.

Thomas J. Nevin photographed Robert Ogden’s accomplice, James Mahoney aka James Sutherland in prisoner clothing, for two standard mugshots required as police records: one photograph is held at the National Library of Australia, the other – a hand-coloured carte--de-visite pasted next to Sutherland’s death warrant – is held at the Mitchell Library, SLNSW.



Prisoner James Sutherland, recto and verso inscribed with the date 29.5.83
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, Hobart Gaol April 1883
National Library of Australia PIC Album 935 P1029/43



Detail of hand-tinted prisoner mugshot of James Sutherland pasted to his death warrant (below).
Photographed at the Hobart Gaol by Thomas J. Nevin 1883
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2009

This is one seven extant mugshots of Tasmanian "convicts" by T. J. Nevin which were hand-tinted at the time of printing. The colouring served two purposes: to render a more accurate image reflective of reality, i.e. blue for blue eyes, blue for the prison issue scarf, especially when the man was wanted on warrant; and to profit from the sale of the hanged man's image to the press and the public. These were called "ornaments of colour", a term used in reference to Thomas Nevin's tinting of prisoner photographs in the Mercury newspaper account of Nevin's incident with the "ghost" (December 4, 1880).



Left hand page:
Hand-tinted prisoner identification photograph of James Sutherland by Thomas Nevin 1880s
Right hand page:
Death warrant for James Sutherland signed 23 May 1883 by Francis Smith JP
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2009
Tasmania. Supreme Court - Death warrants and related papers, 1818-1884
Date of Work: 1818 - 1884
Call Number: C 202 - C 203
Link: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nX6Oqj8Y
State Library of NSW

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Friday, June 14, 2013

Paris Expo 1855: Captain Goldsmith's blue gum plank



Elizabeth Nevin's uncle, master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith , departed Hobart Tasmania permanently in February 1856, but his entry of a blue gum plank (eucalyptus globulus) was shipped to France months prior, intended for the opening of the Paris Exposition on 15 May 1855, closing on 15 November 1855. Over five million people visited the exhibition which displayed products from 34 countries across 6 hectares (39 acres).



Exposition universelle de 1855 à Paris - Palais de l'Industrie
Restitution en 3D du Palais de l'Industrie - Film présenté lors de l'exposition au Musée des Avelines à Saint-Cloud, du 25 mars au 31 mai 2009 : "Sur les traces des Expositions universelles à Saint-Cloud".
"La France Couronnant l'Art et l'Industrie" - Groupe sculpté par Elias Robert - vestige de l'Exposition universelle de 1855 dans le Parc de Saint-Cloud.

Exposition universelle de 1855 à Paris
Opened: 15 May 1855
Closed:15 November 1855
Attendance:5,162,330
Site: 16 hectares(39 acres)
Participating ;Countries: 34



Exposition universelle de Paris en 1855
Artist/Architect: Viel, Jean-Marie-Victor, 1796-1863
Description: Lithographs: monochrome, 1 image
Format: Lithographs
Caption: This lithograph depicts the distribution of recompenses to the exhibitors at the close of the Exposition Universelle at the Palais de l'Industrie on November 15, 1855.

THE BLUE GUM PLANK



The plank was 70 feet long, 11 feet wide and 3 inches thick, according to the report in the Hobart Courier, 6 September 1855.

Although the Exposition catalogue listed his plank, the report of the Hobart Courier of September 6, 1855, suggested it never left Hobart, that is, if the plank was originally cut by the Commandant of Port Arthur, James Boyd, and Captain Goldsmith was his proxy as both shipping agent and exhibitor.




TRANSCRIPT
Hobart Courier September 6, 1855

Blue Gum of Tasmania,- Eucalyptus globulus,
plank 70 + 11 +3 inches. Captain Goldsmith.
This is perhaps the most valuable and important of the timber trees of Tasmania. Its principal habitat is in the south side of the island ; but it is also met with in the valley of the Apsley and at the Douglas River, on the East Coast, and it re-appears upon Flinder's Island, in Bass's Straits: its stronghold, however, is D'Entrecasteaux's Channel and along the south side of the island, whence it has been exported in various shapes within the last three years to the value of about £800.000.
The Blue Gum attains, when-at maturity, an average elevation and size greater probably than any other tree in the world ; a plank forwarded to the London Exhibition of 1851, which from the difficulty experienced in procuring a ship to carry it, arrived in England too late for  exposition, measured 145 feet in length, and was 20 inches broad by 6 inches in thickness. A plank of the same width and thickness was cut 60 feet in length by Mr. James Boyd, Civil Commandant at Port Arthur, Van Diemen's Land, in order to be forwarded to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, but it has been found impracticable to get it shipped by any vessel at this port, (Hobart Town), and it does not therefore appear in this catalogue.
This tree attains at its full growth a height of 250 to 350 feet, and a circumference varying from 30 to upwards of 100 feet, at four feet from the ground. In regular forest ground it rarely gives off its principal limb under 100 feet, and there is not unfrequently a stem clear of any branch for 200 foot and upwards. The most important purpose for which this timber is adapted, and to which it is extensively applied, is that of ship-building. The Messrs. Degraves and Messrs. Watson of this place have built and fitted out vessels with it of which several are now trading regularly to and from England. Its specific gravity is greater than that of  Teak, British Oak, or even Saull; and experiments instituted to ascertain its breaking weight &;c., have  established the fact, that in strength and elasticity it is superior to all other timbers. For planking and stringers, and for keels of ships, the blue gum possesses a suitability beyond all other timbers, since it affords length and dimensions which it would be impossible to obtain from any other tree.
The purposes to which the wood of the blue gum is applied are as numerous as the varieties of work which devolve on the shipwright, millwright, house carpenter, implement-maker, and engineer, for in all these departments of mechanical labour and skill it is found to be a material all but indispensable, notwithstanding the great diversity of woods available in the Colony. For instance, it is in constant use for tree-nails in ship-building, - as gunwales for boats,- for house-building. for fitting up steam engines and the heaviest machinery,- in the construction of wheels, wheelbarrows, carts. &c, and for piles on which to raise wharves ; bridges of great span are built of it, -that at Bridgewater, about II miles from Hobart Town, of which a model was sent to the London Exhibition. and which is raised upon piles measuring 65 to 90 feet each in length, stands 9 feet above the highest high watermark, and measures 96 feet from end to end, by a breadth affording a roadway of 24 feet, is constructed entirely of this timber. This tree, like most of the Eucalypti, yields a red, highly astringent gum, which has been extensively used,and found to answer, as a "kino," and the leaves by distillation yield an essential oil, having the properties of "Cajeput oil.



Stereo of the blue gum bridge at Bridgewater
Attributed to Morton Allport 1860s
TAHO Ref: 17AUTAS001126184597

... bridges of great span are built of it, -that at Bridgewater, about II miles from Hobart Town, of which a model was sent to the London Exhibition. and which is raised upon piles measuring 65 to 90 feet each in length, stands 9 feet above the highest high watermark, and measures 96 feet from end to end, by a breadth affording a roadway of 24 feet, is constructed entirely of this timber....
The Tasmanian Executive won two awards at the Paris Expo 1855:

EXHIBITION AWARDS
RS.157/
1,2 Paris Exhibition 1855
RS.157  I
Certificate of award of 2nd class medal to Tasmanian Executive
for (1) wood turned objects and furniture and (2) wood carvings,
signed by Napoleon Bonaparte
(80 cm. x eQ cm.) (Royal Society of Tasmania, UTas ePrints)





State Library of Tasmania
Blue gum camp and coupe ca. 1870
ADRI: AUTAS001126185776; AUTAS001126185636
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts


The Harriet McGregor, 332 tons, was built at the Domain shipyard by Alexander McGregor in 1871, and named after his wife, the former Harriet Bayley. It was the most renowned of the blue-gum clippers that made 24 voyages from Hobart to London and back as well as trading on intercolonial and Mauritian routes until sold in 1895 to Danish owners, renamed Water Queen, and destroyed soon after by fire at Rio.



Title: HARRIET MCGREGOR [picture]
Author/Creator: Allan C. Green 1878-1954
Date(s): [ca. 1900-ca. 1954]
Description: 2 negatives : glass ; each 12.1 x 16.6 cm. (half plate)
Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H91.250/130; H91.250/131
Subjects: Harriet McGregor (Ship) ; Barks (Sailing ships)
Notes: Copy of earlier negative.
Link to digitised item: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/27991

Another use for the Tasmanian blue gum was the manufacture of soap from the fresh green leaves. This advertisement ca. 1900 by New York soap company HYOMEI stressed the benefits to both mother and child.



Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Convict portraits by Thomas J. Nevin at the National Library of Australia

In June 2005, the National Library of Australia had digitised just 25 photographs of their collection of 84 prisoner identification cartes-de-visite of Tasmanian prisoners, titled "Convict portraits, Port Arhur,1874", with the long-standing and correct attribution to commercial and police photographer Thomas J. Nevin. The total of 84 in the NLA collection is available here:

Nevin, Thomas J., 1842 – ca.1922 : Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874
http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-21336-20031011-0000-www.nla.gov.au/pict/list/nevin.html



Webshot 2007
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin
NLA Pictorial list: Tasmanian convicts

These are all now digitised. The NLA's current equivocation regarding Nevin's attribution is irrelevant and meaningless. See this article and links.



Webshots 2005
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin
NLA Pictorial list: Tasmanian convicts


On board the "City of Hobart" 31st January 1872