ALLPORT Morton: a short life in public service
COHORT of Tasmanian photographers 1860s-1880s
EXHIBITIONS and PUBLICATIONS Lily Allport
T. J. Nevin's portrait of Elizabeth Allport
This photograph taken by Thomas J. Nevin at his studio, the City Photographic Establishment of Elizabeth Allport (1835-1925) is arguably the finest portrait taken of her in her mature years. There is no other photograph - and there were many taken throughout her life - which reveals her sublime grace and character to this extent, a quality due in no small measure to the professional expertise of Thomas J. Nevin.
Elizabeth Allport was the elder daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Ritchie, wife of Morton Allport (1830–1878), mother of Curzona (Lily), Minnie, Cecil, Evett and Henry Allport, and a friend to the family of Thomas J. Nevin, his wife Elizabeth Rachel Day and his sister Mary Anne Nevin.
Subject: Elizabeth Allport nee Ritchie (1835-1925)
Photographer: T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist ca. 1876
Location: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
Details: full-length carte-de-visite, albumen print
Verso bears T. J. Nevin's government contractor stamp with Royal insignia
Scans are courtesy of © The Liam Peters Collection 2010. All rights reserved.
Verso of portrait of Elizabeth Allport nee Ritchie (1835-1925)
Photographer: T. J. Nevin Photographic Artist ca. 1876
Location: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
Details: full-length carte-de-visite, albumen print
Verso bears T. J. Nevin's government contractor stamp with Royal insignia
Scans are courtesy of © The Liam Peters Collection 2010. All rights reserved.
Some time near the end of 1875, Thomas J. Nevin produced this full length cdv on a plain buff mount of Elizabeth Allport at his Elizabeth Street studio. For this sitting she wore a strikingly handsome dark dress with white stripes and a frilled full bustle. Nevin positioned her on his polished leather slipper chair, turned slightly to his left, and invited her to gaze directly at him and his camera. She let her left hand rest on her dress, her right hand placed next to a vase in the shape of a hand holding a cornucopia on the small table with griffin-shaped legs which, like the slipper chair, were key items of Nevin's studio decor over the decade 1867-1876.
The verso of this cdv bears the Royal Arms colonial warrant insignia used by all government contractors of the period. Thomas Nevin's design for this stamp as distinct from his New Town stamp and impress, was more formal - the use of initials alone with his surname plus the designation "Photographic Artist" above the Royal Insignia to signify that he was engaged in contractual work for the government while still operating as a commercial photographer from his Elizabeth St. studio. His contractor's stamp on the verso of Elizabeth Allport's portrait certifies this photograph as a sitting commissioned by her husband Morton Allport who represented the colonial government in many endeavours to do with fisheries, zoology, education, and photography at international and intercolonial exhibitions. This excerpt from a biography published in 1969 by G. T. Stilwell gives some idea of Morton Allport's extensive activities during a short life. He died on 10th September 1878, just 47 yrs old:
... In 1866 Morton Allport became one of the first salmon commissioners. He was also responsible for introducing other European fish into Tasmania. He became a fellow of the Linnean and Zoological Societies, and of the Royal Colonial Institute in London, a foreign member of the Sociétés de Belgiques Malacologique, Royale Botanique, Royale Entomologique, and Linnéenne, and an honorary life member of the Otago Acclimatisation Society and of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, which awarded him its silver medal. In 1870-78 he was vice-president of the Royal Society of Tasmania, which he had joined in 1849, and for some years served as a member of its gardens committee; several of his articles were printed in its Papers and Proceedings. He was also agent in Tasmania for distributing the various works by John Gould, and a notary public...
... On 3 January 1856 Allport married Elizabeth (1835-1925), elder daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Ritchie. Of their children, Cecil (1858-1926) became a well-known solicitor in Hobart and built up a large collection of books and colonial paintings, forming the nucleus of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts which was bequeathed to the people of Tasmania by his son Henry (1890-1965). Curzona Frances Louise (1860-1949) continued the artistic traditions of the family and exhibited at the Royal Academy and other overseas galleries. Evett Gordon (1863-1934) was awarded the gold medal of the Tasmanian Council of Education and was Tasmanian scholar in 1883.... read the full article here at the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Miss Nevin and Mr Allport
When the Nevin family of Kangaroo Valley, Hobart, sat down to read the Mercury on the 4th October 1865, they must have despaired at the notice it contained about their application for aid of £25 p.a. to open a school at Kangaroo Valley, especially Mary Ann Nevin, 21 years old, and determined to start her working life as a teacher. The reporter had mispelled the family name - McNevis instead of Nevin. A week later, when the Mercury reported that Mary Ann's application was rejected, the reporter again mispelled her name as NEVEN.
TRANSCRIPT
KANGAROO VALLEYSource: BOARD OF EDUCATION. (1865, October 4). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved February 2, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8835291
An application was received for the establishment of a school at Kangaroo'Valley.
Dr. BUTLER said that the school was proposed by a family named McNevis [sic], and Miss McNevis [sic] was willing to teach. They proposed undertaking the school on receiving aid to the amount of £25 a year.
Mr. MACDOWELL said he thought children from Kangaroo Valley could very well attend the New Town school.
Dr. OFFICER said the road was very bad. He thought the application reasonable.
After discussion, the matter was put aside for the report of the Inspector.
Family friend and amateur photographer Morton Allport was included among her supporters in her application, but to no avail. The application was rejected on the grounds that the children named as prospective students resided closer to the Public School at New Town, and that the road to Kangaroo Valley was bad. The Nevins were not asking for a building to be constructed; in all likelihood, the proposed school would utilise the Wesleyan Chapel and its Sunday School room constructed at Kangaroo Valley in 1859. A week later they learnt that Morton Allport's application in support of Mary Ann Nevin had been rejected along with the memorial he planned to construct. Details of the memorial were not published.
TRANSCRIPT
BOARD OF EDUCATION.Source: The Mercury, 11 October 1865
TUESDAY, l0th OCTOBER, 1865.
The Board met at 2.30 p.m. yesterday afternoon.
Present.- Mr. Macdowell in the chair, Dr.Officer, Mr. Tarleton, Mr. T. Westbrook, and Mr. Watkins. -
Mr. Stephens, Inspector of Schools, and Mr. Burgess, Secretary to the Board.were also present.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.
KANGAROO VALLEY.
Considered, the Inspector's report on an application for aid to a school at Kangaroo Valley, New Town, conducted by Miss Neven,[sic] together with a memorial from Mr. Morton Allport and others in support of application.
It appeared from Mr. Stephens' report, that all the children named in the application resided within an easy distance of the Public School at New Town ; it was decided that aid could not be given.
BOARD OF EDUCATION. (1865, October 11). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8835416
Photographers Allport, Clifford & Nevin 1863-1865
Although Morton Allport was an amateur and not a commercial photographer, he assisted a young Thomas J. Nevin at the beginning of his professional career, and no doubt on account of his friendship with Thomas' sister Mary Ann and their father John Nevin at Kangaroo Valley. When Thomas Nevin joined prolific professional photographer Samuel Clifford, their work became indistinguishable, especially in the production of hundreds of stereoscopic views. The difference, however, between some of Allport's stereos and Clifford & Nevin's, visible more so today because of the fuzziness resulting from the porous salt paper which the latter often (but not always) used, is evident in this example. The first is a dry plate photograph by Morton Allport, 1863, the second is a reprint of the same image from the partnership of Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin, 1865.
Boviak Beach, Excursion to Lake St. Clair February 1863 by Morton Allport
Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Ref: AUTAS001136194164. Also on TAHO at Flickr page.
Title: Lake St Clair
Publisher: ca. 1865
Ref: ADRI: AUTAS001124851494
Source: W.L. Crowther Library
Series: Views in Tasmania
Notes: On verso: title inscribed in ink on centre of label ; printed above title: Views in Tasmania ; printed below title: S. Clifford, photographer, Hobart Town
Portraits of Elizabeth Allport
The majority of photographs and paintings of Elizabeth Allport currently extant in Tasmanian public collections document her life from her late teens to her late thirties, from ca. 1855-1870. Thomas J. Nevin's photograph of her taken at his studio ca. 1875 (above) which is held in a private collection, is therefore unique in several respects.
Elizabeth Ritchie 1855
Not yet married but nevertheless already a favoured subject for her future husband's experiments in portraiture, this portrait is an enlargement from a larger image. It is not a carte-de-visite portrait in the strictest sense, just as many of Morton Allports's stereographs were not strictly stereographs, but rather identical images pasted side by side.
Title: [Portrait of Elizabeth Allport]
Publication Information: [185--?].
Physical description: 1 oval photograph : silver albumen print ; 7 x 6 cm.
Format: photograph image (online)
Notes: Exact measurements 66 x 59 mm.
Photograph pasted on to paper together with three others.
Summary: Head and shoulders inclined to left.
Citation:Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
Link:https://stors.tas.gov.au/ILS/SD_ILS-608339
"Lizzie" Allport 1857
Not long married - they married at Morven, Tasmania in January 1857 - we learn from this accomplished portrait that Morton Allport's affectionate name for his newly wed spouse was "Lizzie". Coincidence perhaps, that Thomas Nevin's affectionate name for his wife Elizabeth Rachel Day was "Lizza".
Lizzie Allport 1857 / photographed by Morton Allport.
Author/Creator: Allport, Morton, 1830-1878, photographer.
Production: [Hobart, Tasmania] : Morton Allport, 1857.
Physical description: 1 photographic print : silver albumen print, sepia toning in oval mount ; 146 x 106 mm.
Format: photograph image (online)
Notes: Title inscribed in ink centred below the image, "a photograph by Morton Allport, G.T.S." inscribed on verso in pencil.
Summary: Photograph of Elizabeth Allport seated in the garden.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office.
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001144582996
A Stereograph 1859
Presumably, Morton Allport took this intimate photograph of his wife Elizabeth nursing their first-born child Mary Marguerite in the garden at Fernleigh, Davey St. Hobart, in 1859 and mounted it as a stereograph, in this instance as a real stereograph made for viewing with a stereoscope.
Elizabeth Allport and baby Mary M. Allport in garden of "Fernleigh", Davey Street
Publication Information:[ca. 1856].
Physical description:1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph, sepia, pasted on board ; 8 x 8 cm. each
Format: photograph image (online)
Accession number: AP17
Notes: Exact measurements of left hand photo, 72 x 75 mm..
Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand.
Attributed to Morton Allport.
Online version of this image available.
Exhibited in 'The Photograph and Australia' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21/3/15-8/6/15 ; Queensland Art Gallery, 4/7/2015-11/10/2015.
Summary: Elizabeth Allport seated in the garden in front of the house holding baby Mary.
Citation:Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tasmanianarchiveandheritageoffice/8595613277
A Vignette mid1860s
This example of Morton Allport's photography is simple yet most appealing. He produced this vignette in the early 1860s of his wife Elizabeth and daughter Minnie from a larger photograph (not online - in possession of descendants).
Mrs. Morton (Elizabeth) Allport & her daughter Minnie, afterwards Mrs. T.E.J. Steele
Publication Information:[ca. 186-?]
Physical description: 1 photograph : silver albumen print ; 15 x 10 cm.
Format: photograph image (online)
Notes: Attributed to Morton Allport.
Exact measurements 145 x 95 mm.
Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand.
A slightly less detailed view of unnamed photograph of same subjects.
Summary: Head and upper body portrait of mother and daughter holding a doll. Outer edges of portrait blurred.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/ILS/SD_ILS-608196
The Painted Photograph
This photograph is so nearly disguised as a painting, it is difficult to see how and where the photograph was filled in, apart perhaps for Elizabeth Allport's hands which appear altogether unnatural. Any member of the Allport family may have over-painted it: Morton's mother Mary Allport was an artist in her own right and her grand daughter Curzona, known as Lily Allport, studied at the Royal Academy in London before taking to printmaking later in life.
Elizabeth Allport and Mary Marguerite
Publication Information:[ca. 1859].
Physical description: 1 photograph : hand painted silver albumen print ; 14 x 11 cm.
Format:photograph picture image (online)
Notes: Exact measurements 135 x 102 mm.
Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand.
Summary: Hand painted photograph of a head and upper body portrait of mother and child holding a magnolia.
Citation:Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
The blue mount mid 1860s
Morton Allport took this photograph of his wife Elizabeth and two of their children - Marguerite and Cecil - in 1861, printing the silver albumen print on a blue stereograph mount. The poker-faced expressions of all three - mother and children - leaves the viewer wondering how the family was actually disposed to being photographed on that particular day. Were they annoyed, were they upset, were they tired?
Elizabeth Allport with Mary Marguerite Allport & Cecil Allport
Publication Information: [ca. 1861].
Physical description: 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph, silver albumen print, sepia toning ; 15 x 10 cm. each.
Format: photographic image (online)
Notes: Exact measurements 70 x 66 mm. each.
Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand.
"M. Allport photo 1861" inscribed in ink on verso.
Summary: Head and upper body portrait of mother and children seated in the garden.
Citation: Digitised item from: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
The Allport Albums from ca. 1868
This album (No. 9) of photographs of Morton and Elizabeth Allport is not online at the State Library of Tasmania. The list of its contents indicates that the elder Allports, Morton's parents Joseph and Mary, were photographed by Stephen Spurling in Hobart "after 1866", while Morton and Elizabeth were photographed by Charles A. Woolley and Henry Hall Baily. Their children in turn, Mary Marguerite, Cecil and Curzona Allport were photographed at the Hobart studios of Riise & Barnett, and J. Bishop Osborne of 76 Murray St. Hobart.
These portraits are No's 4 and 5 in the accompanying list below.
Left: Morton Allport by Charles A. Woolley
Right: Elizabeth Allport by Henry Hall Baily
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014/2015
List of photographs held in Allport Album No. 9 (IX)
No. 4: ALLPORT, Morton, taken by Chas. A. Woolley
No. 5: ALLPORT, Elizabeth, taken by H. H. Baily
Taken at the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office, Hobart
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014/2015
Exhibitions and Publications 2015-2018
This stereograph of Elizabeth Allport's drawing room was exhibited but not reproduced in the book-length catalogue of the exhibition titled "The Photograph and Australia" at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21st March to 8th June 2015 and Queensland Art Gallery, from 4th July to 11th October 2015, although it was noted, along with the stereograph (above) of Elizabeth Allport and baby Mary M. Allport in garden of "Fernleigh", Davey Street, plus another stereograph from the excursion to the Lake St. Clair series 1863, titled "Looking eastward from Mount Arrowsmith" (see it at this link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/ILS/SD_ILS-691358.).
My drawing room [Mr. Morton Allport's]
Publication Information: Hobart, Tas. : M. Allport, 1860.
Physical description: 1 stereograph : b&w ; 7 x 14 cm. ; each individual image 7 x 7 cm
Format: photograph image (online)
Accession number: AS103
Notes: Exact measurements 70 x 70 mm.
Inscribed in black ink "M. Allport [?] 1860.
Photographic prints are in stereo and are mounted on a card for viewing i.e. a stereograph.
Condition at February 2003: Minor staining and spotting as well as general fading. Overall condition is very good.
Exhibited in 'The Photograph and Australia' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21/3/15-8/6/15 ; Queensland Art Gallery, 4/7/2015-11/10/2015.
At least four painted portraits of Elizabeth Allport are visible on the wall of her drawing room in this photograph. Central to the image, its punctum for the eye of the viewer, is the tall glass dome housing a botanical specimen, presumably of some rarity, or maybe a fossil.
In 2018 Marian Jameson published a biography of Elizabeth Allport's daughter Curzona "Lily" Allport titled Miss Lily: A Portrait of the Artist Curzona Allport with beautiful reproductions of Curzona's artwork.
Inside frontispiece:
Miss Lily: A Portrait of the Artist Curzona Allport by Marian Jameson
Hobart, TAS : Fullers Publishing, 2018
270 pages : colour illustrations, facsimiles, 1 genealogical table, portraits
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2018
Back cover notes:(NLA catalogue)
Lily Allport, christened Curzona Frances Louise, was a strong woman who lived between two worlds - the old and the new. Born in the nineteenth century to a prominent Hobart family of lawyers, Lily refused to take the expected path of marriage and children. Described by her brother-in-law as 'impudent and headstrong', Lily was determined to become a professional artist. Her drive to follow her own path took her to London and success in the Royal Academy of Arts, and a satisfying life at the centre of the nineteenth-century artistic world. And then in the 1930s, at an age when she might be expected to ease up, she returned to Hobart and set up a printmaking studio, creating a late flowering of works in an entirely different medium.
This book was published with the general support of the Allport Bequest and the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Hobart.
RELATED POSTS main weblog
- Miss Nevin and Morton Allport
- Trout and salmon ova for New Zealand 1873
- Nevin's photographs at the Art Gallery NSW exhibition 2015