Elizabeth Rachel Day's album opener 1860s

PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OPENERS 1860s Hobart, Tasmania
Photographers Peter Laurie REID (1833-1911?)and Thomas J. NEVIN (1842-1923)
Elizabeth Rachel NEVIN nee Day (1847-1914)

Album opener, carte-de-visite with generic poem ca. 1865-8
Inscribed "Grandma Nevin" on mount, verso blank.
From the album of Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2020

Left: from Peter Laurie Reid's studio ca. 1865 (Douglas Stewart Fine Books)
Right: from Thomas J. Nevin's studio ca. 1867 (KLW NFC Private Collection)

Cartes-de-visite such as these two examples which were sold at the respective Hobart studios of photographers Peter Laurie Reid (cdv on left) and Thomas J. Nevin (cdv on right) in the years 1865-1868 were novelty items. They were placed on the first page of a photograph album and intended to be read and recited when the viewer first opened it.

REID, Peter Laurie
TASMANIA, Carte de visite album opener, ca. 1865
Inscribed in period ink recto: only 1/- each
Inscribed in period ink verso: Mr. Reid, Photographer
Source: Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne

Peter Laurie Reid's basic sample, advertised at "only 1/- each" (one shilling) included the usual flowery border encircling the commonly included generic verse inviting the reader to add their own portrait as quid pro quo or fair exchange for the privilege of sharing. The same verse appears on both cdvs; on Thomas J. Nevin's sample, it was capitalized:

YES, THIS IS MY ALBUM.
BUT LEARN ERE YOU LOOK,
THAT ALL ARE EXPECTED
TO ADD TO MY BOOK.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO QUIZ IT,
THE PENALTY IS -
YOU ADD YOUR OWN PORTRAIT
FOR OTHERS TO QUIZ.

Thomas Nevin’s sample from the same era was much more elaborate, giving the viewer plenty to quiz. Was this cdv a commercially available album opener purchased from photographers’ stockists too? The young woman with her inviting smile in that case would supposedly represent the ideal to the prospective purchaser who was beginning her own family. Or did Thomas Nevin compose this card himself to include a photograph of his fiancée Elizabeth Rachel Day? One of their grandchildren seemed to think so when they inscribed the mount in capital letters " GRANDMA NEVIN ". If so, of course she would be smiling at him (her chosen future husband or any prospective spouse, for that matter) from within her flowery bower, spring time flowers in her hair, a large fan in her hand, the photograph album itself with metal clips placed beneath the large scroll bearing the verse, and all set off on either side with a pair of Victorian mantle lustre vases, each with four sparkling lustre drops.

The original album from which Elizabeth Nevin's album opener was removed, was long ago dismantled, its contents shared among her children, grandchildren and great grand children over many decades from the early 1900s to the present day. But perhaps her album was already purchased and sitting on the table in front of her, partially covered by her hat, when Thomas Nevin posed her for this full-length portrait taken at his studio in her twenty-first year, 1868.

Elizabeth Rachel Day, married Thomas Nevin in 1871
Taken by Thomas Nevin at Nevin & Smith (late Bock's) ca. 1868
140, Elizabeth Street Hobart Town
Full-length portrait, carte-de-visite
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint. Watermarked.

Elizabeth Rachel Day (1847-1914) married photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923), on 12th July 1871 at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart Tasmania. This full-length portrait taken by Thomas J. Nevin in February 1868 is printed verso with the stamp of his firm's name at the time, Nevin & Smith. Robert Smith and Thomas Nevin established the business soon after Thomas Nevin acquired the stock, studio and glass house of Alfred Bock at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town in 1865. The partnership was brief, lasting two years. It was dissolved by Nevin's family solicitor, the Hon. W. R. Giblin, in February 1868. Robert Smith left Tasmania soon after and established a studio at Goulburn, NSW.

Elizabeth Rachel Day (1847-1914)
Taken by Thomas Nevin at Nevin & Smith (late Bock's) ca. 1868
140, Elizabeth Street Hobart Town
Full-length portrait, carte-de-visite
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint. Watermarked.

RELATED POSTS main weblog

IN HIS OWN WORDS...

"T. J. NEVIN
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST,
Returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for past favours, and having made a considerable Reduction in his Prices to suit the times, he solicits a continuance of their patronage, and invites attention to his circulars, showing particulars of the small cost for a first-class faithful Likeness.
140 ELIZABETH-STREET"
Hobart Mercury, 1st February 1873

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.
Hobart Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"
Hobart Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."
Hobart Mercury, 19 July 1888.

BIOGRAPHY: professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

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Important Notices

INDIGENOUS NOTICE:
lutruwita/Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (loo-tru-wee-ta) always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This weblog pays respect to the ancestors and elders past, present, and emerging of the first Australian peoples and acknowledges their continued connection to land, sea and culture as the traditional custodians of this country.

Irish-born Thomas J. Nevin would have been keenly aware that the residence and photographic studio he occupied at No's 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart in the 1870s were built on the traditional lands, nipaluna of the palawa people. It is no small irony that today, the very same property, which is renumbered as No. 198 Elizabeth St. Hobart and is occupied by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, has returned to its traditional owners.

Looking east from the corner of Patrick St., the Royal Standard Hotel, 142 Elizabeth St. then T. J. Nevin’s studio and residence, 140-138 Elizabeth St. Hobart, 1870s

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the City of Sydney, and the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region on whose lands this site is maintained.

PLEASE NOTE: images on this weblog represent deceased people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Viewing such images may cause sadness and distress.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of T. J. Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A. H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Thomas J. Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

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Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR.- Mr. Trollope and the Hon. Howard Spensly, Esq., Solicitor-General of Victoria, accompanied the Hon. the Premier, J.M. Wilson, Esq., and the Hon. the Attorney-General, W.R. Giblin, Esq., embarked in the Government schooner late last night, some time after Mr. Trollope had concluded his lecture on "Modern Fiction, as a recreation for young people," and left for Port Arthur. Their visit to the Peninsula will be a very hurried one, and will afford them only scant opportunity of inspecting the penal establishment, it being the intention of Messrs. Trollope and Spensly to leave Hobart Town for the North, en route for Victoria in a few days ...

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872