By his own hand: Morton Allport's trade in Aboriginal remains

Morton Allport's Letters
Letterbooks of Morton Allport (ALL19)
Source: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/ALL19

ALERT: please note ...
The resources in this article contain offensive language and negative stereotypes. Such primary historical documents should be seen in the context of the period and as a reflection of attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The items are part of the historical record, and do not represent the views of this weblog.

The many references to photographs in Morton Allport's early letters written before 1868 relate to fish, fauna, landscapes and family portraits. Only later, from 1871 does it become clear he is trading in Aboriginal skulls and skeletons with anatomists and collectors in the UK for recognition, rewards and membership of the most prestigious scientific organisations in England and Europe.

The Book: Cassandra Pybus on Morton Allport (2024)

In her latest book A Very Secret Trade, Professor Cassandra Pybus explores the sensitive and troubling history of the removal and trade of Tasmanian Aboriginal remains.
She estimates 168 skulls and full skeletons of Tasmanian Aboriginal people were stolen and distributed to private and public collections around the world.
Pybus believes the figure is a "massive" underestimation of the true number of Indigenous remains that were traded in 19th century Van Diemen's Land.
A Very Secret Trade is the third in a trilogy exploring the author's own family history alongside - and in collision with - Tasmanian Aboriginal lives.
She said she was not prepared for what her research would uncover.
Pybus said she is very anxious about how the book will be received, but believes it is a story that must be told.
"We are regarded as the luckiest people in the world, we regard ourselves that way," Professor Pybus said. "How did we get to do that, at whose cost was that?"

ABC Radio Hobart interview with Lucy Cutting 5 May 2024
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/hobart-sundays/cassandra-pybus-new-book-a-very-secret-trade/103806698

The book: A Very Secret Trade: The dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania
The video: Lecture delivered to the AGM, Royal Society of Tasmania
The podcast: Uncovering Tasmania's gruesome past with Richard Fidler, ABC RN.



Pybus, Cassandra (2024) A Very Secret Trade: The dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania
Allen & Unwin, 30 Apr 2024 - History - 336 pages

The Video: March 11, 2024



AGM 2024 Lecture. Morton Allport: the resurrection man of the Royal Society of Tasmania
https://www.youtube.com/@theroyalsocietyoftasmania3505
https://youtu.be/TOZueVJohag?feature=shared

Cassandra Pybus "Morton Allport: the resurrection man of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1862-1876". “Resurrection man” is the 19th century term for a person who secretly exhumes bodies from the grave to trade or sell for personal gain. In the 1860s and 1870s, stealing remains from graves from Oyster Cove and Flinders Island was an important sideline business for the prominent Hobart lawyer Morton Allport. This illegal activity has not been publicly known in Tasmania despite having been well-documented in his business letterbooks and accessible to researchers for many decades in the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts established in 1972.

The Podcast: May 26, 2024
Cassandra Pybus: Uncovering Tasmania's gruesome past | ABC Conversations Podcast
YouTube: https://youtu.be/I9AZ8EyWcPA?feature=shared



By his own hand ....
Central to Cassandra Pybus's case are these two letters dated 23 January and 8 August 1873 from Morton Allport (Tasmania) to Dr Joseph Barnard Davis (UK) which explicitly refer to the skulls of Augustus and Caroline, and dissection of Aboriginal woman Patty's unburied "perfect" skeleton. The skeleton sent to Brussels is the focus of Pybus's ongoing research.

1873, January 23:
Where Allport talks about ABORIGINAL SKULLS and SKELETONS

TRANSCRIPT Book 4
Page 107-108

Hobart Town
23rd Jany 1873

Dear Sir,
Many thanks for your letter of 15th Septr. last and the pamphlet on the [Aino?] skeleton & skulls which arrived by the same post and which I at once perused with great interest.
In a case forwarded per “Ethel” to “G.W. Wheatley & Co. 156 Leadenhall St. London there is a parcel for you containing two casts of skulls of Tasmanian aborigines known as “Augustus” and “Caroline”. Two stone implements of our aborigines and four sets of photographs from skulls in the possession of the Royal Society of Tasmanian. Please arrange for obtaining the parcel on the arrival of the “Ethel”.
The stone implements as you will see are of the roughest possible description but I have plenty of proof that they were found in the shell mounds left by the natives and far from where the rock occurs in situ. These stones were chiefly used for skinning animals but sometimes for cutting notches in the bark of the gum trees when ascending them.
The photographs may or may not be interesting, if not burn them.
Since the parcel was despatched I have secured a treasure for you in the shape of an adult male skeleton of Tasmanian native all but absolutely perfect. Skull perfect except as to the styloid processes which always seem very fragile – every tooth in position. All the vertebrae to the very end of the sacrum are present (in the specimens at the Anthropological Institute & College of Surgeons the [os coccyse?] is I think missing) all the ribs perfect – sternum perfect all the main bones of the limbs perfect and out of the 106 bones of the hands & feet only some two or three of the final phalanges are gone. It is altogether a most noble specimen & will I am sure be highly valued. It shall be sent your address by the next ship leaving this probably the “Wagoola” and when shipped I will write you again.
Please accept this as a present and expend anything you would have been willing to give for it in the articulating and figuring it our only bargain being that I am to have 3 copies of any publications in reference to it one for myself, one for our Royal Society’s library and one of for our public Library.

I remain
Yours sincerely
Morton Allport [sender]

Dr. J. Barnard Davis [addressee]
Shelton Haules
Staffordshire

Source: Series Letterbooks of Morton Allport (ALL19)
Start Date 03 Nov 1871 End Date 10 Jan 1874
Links: Book 4. https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/ALL19-1-4

1873, 8 August:
Where Morton Allport talks about DISSECTION and DISEMINATION of Aboriginal bodies



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_13



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_14



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_15



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_16



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_17



Book 4: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-4/ALL19-1-4_18

TRANSCRIPT Book 4
Page 178

Hobart Town
8th August 1873

My dear Sir,
Your letters of April 13. May 4. May 23 and June 3. all reached me in due course and subsequently I received the beautiful book which I prize highly and shall read with great interest. You who have so many historical remains round you of various eras can scarcely imagine the utter want of such sources of interesting study which we in Australia suffer under and therefore nothing you could have sent me could have given me more pleasure than the “Crania Britannica.”
I must now do my best to answer your questions in the order in which I received them. The originals of the casts sent you were the “Augustus” and “Caroline” of Flinders Island but they both died at Oyster Cove after the station at Flinders was broken up. You are quite right in your conjecture that our Aborigines used two sorts of rock for their implements the best were made of a rock containing a large percentage of Silex due probably to the action of hot springs. The others & most numerous were made of an indurated clay rock.
In the Museum of our Royal Society there is one recent skeleton (I mean one dissected out not having been buried) of a Tasmanian woman “Patty” or “Cooneana” and this specimen is perfect.
There is another nearly perfect male which was obtained from Flinders Island and which is in precisely the same condition as that sent to you. This is the skeleton of “[Malabackanissua?]” who was leading Chief of the tribe roaming over the Southern end of the Island, where Hobart Town now stands, when Tasmania was first colonized.
A third specimen consists of the greater part of the skeleton of the (so called) last male aborigine “William Lanney”. Of this specimen the head and two vertebrae were stolen from the general Hospital Hobart Town by one of the Medical officers and the skull is now believed to be in London in the possession of one of the students at Grey’s (a Mr Bingham Crowther) where you might very possibly see it if you carefully conceal the fact that you obtained this information from me. I have said the so called last male because there have been strong ground for suspecting that Lanney was a half cast and the form of the head, as seen in the photography, is utterly unlike the true Tasmanian.
If you get an opportunity of examining this skull I should much like to have your opinion as to its genuineness.
Of skulls, besides those of Caroline & Augustus, we have 9 specimens of undoubted authenticity two being remarkably sp shaped and coming from the tribe which inhabited the lake district on the high central plateau of the Island.
There are 7 other skulls said to be of Aborigines some of which are doubtful and some of which are unquestionably not Tasmanian. There are two good casts of faces taken after death one marked “Deviah Shert” and the other marked “Bethengie” of these copies could be sent you but we have no record of the originals.
We have also a good bust in plaster of “Woureddy” a Copy of which you probably have.
Your specimen was obtained at Flinders Island & was buried while the station was there but no record was kept of the person. Its good condition was due to the nature of the soil, dry sandy loam.
Shouldn’t I dearly like to see the result of your Articulator’s labours? But fear the probabilities are strongly against me as it is not easy to leave a Solicitor’s business to take care of itself and I should also find it difficult to leave my good parents who have been 40 years in this Colony.
Any other questions you send me I will do my best to answer and when you next write I should be glad to hear how you treat the bones before using the gelatine also what proportion of gelatine you use & how.
Any memorandum from you however short about the skeleton or any peculiarity in any part of it would be greatly valued by our Royal Society if it would not press too heavily upon your time.
One other skeleton from Flinders Island is on its way to Europe destined for the Museum at Brussels.
Again thanking you for the Book. I remain

Yours Faithfully
Morton Allport [sender]

Dr F. Barnard Davis [addressee]
[Shelton?]

P.S. I am sorry to find that part of the sternum was wanting in your skeleton but would suggest that the missing bone might be copied from that in the Anthropological Institute or at the College of Surgeons. M.A.

Source: Series Letterbooks of Morton Allport (ALL19)
Start Date 03 Nov 1871 End Date 10 Jan 1874
Links: Book 4. https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/ALL19-1-4

Focus on Truganini
Morton Allport shifts his attention to Truganini who was still alive in 1875 - she died 8th May 1876.

1875, 28 November:
Where he talks about PHOTOGRAPHS and BUST of TRUGANINI

TRANSCRIPT Book 5
Page 187-189

28th Novr. 5 [1875]

Dear Sir, Yours of August 15th duly reached me and I have posted Bleeker’s Fishes to your address as requested.
Many thanks for the additional memoir which I have handed to our Public Library.
I will endeavour to get you the Photograph of Truganina & post it by the mail following this. She is still living though she suffered severely from bronchitis during the past winter. I often have a chat with her about her old trips with Robinson.
The bust you speak of was by a man named Law who took casts from a number of the Aborigines years ago.
Pray give kind remembrances to Dr. [Milligan] from me when next you see him as we were fellow workers on the Council of our Royal Soc. many years ago though I never get a line from him now.
Iain from whom you obtained the skull was a General collector of all sorts of objects & his localities are to accepted with some caution as the most painstaking men who do not actually kill & preserve their specimens are sure to be constantly misled and from all I have heard he was no exception to the rule.
I have not gathered from your letters that you take much interest in minerals but if you do you will be much astonished at the discoveries of Tin & Iron on our Northern Coast.
The deposits of both are of great richness & the quantity seems unlimited – the export of Tin will probably reach 1000 tons during the next 12 months & that from a Country which produced none three years ago. One effect is a steady rise in the value of property which means an increase of business so that I really begin to hope I may some day visit England again.
Please add my name (if not too late) to the list of subscribers to the Supplement to Thesaurus Craniorum & believe me

Yours sincerely
Morton Allport [sender]

R. J. Barnard Davis [addressee]
Shelton Hauley
Staffordshire

Source: Series Letterbooks of Morton Allport (ALL19)
Start Date 07 Aug 1874 End Date 08 Jul 1876
Links: Book 5. https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-5



National Library of Australia
Baily, H. H. (1866). [Portrait of Truganini]
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136734375

TRANSCRIPT Book 5
Page 213

26th Decr. 5 [1875]

Dear Sir,
Enclosed are two of the Photographs of Truganina by Baily which gives a very good idea of her actual appearance at the present time as she has quite recovered from her recent illness and may remain the last of her race many years.

Yours sincerely
Morton Allport [sender]

Dr. J. Barnard Davis [addressee]
Shelton Hanley
Staffordshire

Source: Series Letterbooks of Morton Allport (ALL19)
Start Date 07 Aug 1874 End Date 08 Jul 1876
Links: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ALL19-1-5

Morton ALLPORT & the NEVIN family
Morton Allport took photographs of his wife Elizabeth (Ritchie) Allport (1835-1925) at all stages of their marriage until his death in 1878 but none quite so appealing has survived as this photograph taken of her by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1875 at his studio, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town:



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.



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.

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.

Morton Allport was a close family friend and supporter of Thomas J. Nevin's sister Mary Ann Nevin when she applied for aid of £25 p.a. to open a school at Kangaroo Valley in October 1865. 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 rejection of her application for school aid, published by the Mercury on 11th October 1865, mentioned support from photographer and naturalist Morton Allport with an offer of a memorial, without specifying details or purpose of the memorial.

Other Resources

BOOKS and ARTICLES
MacDonald, Helen Patricia (2006) Human Remains: Dissection and Its Histories (Yale University Press)



MacDonald, Helen (2004) 'The Bone Collectors', New Literatures Review, 42, October 2004, pp.45-56

Plomley, N. J. B., (1962) A list of Tasmanian Aboriginal material in collections in Europe (Launceston, Tas.: Museum Committee, Launceston City Council, 1962), 18 pp.

Turnbull, Paul (2007). Scientific theft of remains in colonial Australia - Australian Indigenous Law Review 7. https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/AUIndigLawRw/2007/7.html

Among the skeletons that Allport stole from the Flinders Island cemetery was the near complete skeleton of a Tasmanian man that he presented to the Anthropological Society of London in 1873. The skeleton is now among the remains at the Natural History Museum sought by the TAC.

Turnbull, Paul (2008)'The lure of Aboriginal bodies - the polygenists', in B. Douglas & C. Ballard (eds) Foreign Bodies. Oceania and the Science of Race 1750-1940. ANU Press. 2008.

AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Correspondence:
Request for repatriation of human remains to Tasmania, 2005-2006

Plaster busts:
This is the plaster bust of Woureddy by Benjamin Law which Morton Allport assumes his addressee Dr Barnard Davis has a copy in the letter dated 8 August 1873. This copy of the cast is housed in the British Museum, together with Benjamin Law's plaster bust of Truganini. Copies of both busts are also held in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra.



Companion busts of Tasmanian Aborigines by Benjamin Law ,Hobart, 1835, held in the British Museum
Left: plaster bust of Woureddy
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_2009-2025-2
Right: plaster bust of Truganini
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=truganini

The British Museum also holds a photographic print of a skeleton of a male Tasmanian Aborigine which Morton Allport shipped to the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, in 1871:

Description
Photograph of a skeleton of a Tasmanian Aborigine, held upright by a metal mount, standing in a room with a curtain beside it.

Dimensions
Height: Height: 36 centimetres
Width: Width: 23.70 centimetres

Inscriptions
Inscription type: Inscription position: bottom right
Inscription content: Skeleton of Tasmanian man. No. 1761+
Inscription note: Handwritten in ink. Writing appears to be that of Joseph Barnard Davis.

Curator's comments
The inscription No. 1761+ refers to the work by J. Barnard Davis, Supplement to Thesaurus Craniorum London, 1875 which lists at p.63:

'15. 1761+ Tasmania...This perfect and truly grand specimen of a Tasmanian skeleton was presented by Mr Morton ALLPORT. The further measurements will be given in a Table at the end of the volume (Appendix B).

The skeletons of Tasmanian Aboriginal people were highly sought after in the nineteenth century and many acts of grave robbing were committed to acquire them. In 1871 Hobart solicitor Morton Allport shipped a complete skeleton of a Tasmanian Aborigine to London to the Royal Anthropological Institute. This was considered special as no European institution then possessed a complete Tasmanian skeleton. Plomley (1962:5) in his study of Tasmanian Aboriginal collections in Europe, published by the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery states that this skeleton was sold to the Natural History Museum in 1898. The RAI Council minute 14 June 1898 records it was sold to the NHM for £100 in 1898.

Plomley (1962:3) also states that Joseph Barnard Davis had a complete skeleton of a Tasmanian Aborigine and other material. The skeletal material was sold to the Royal College of Surgeons and this was largely destroyed in the war.

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_2017-2004-5

RELATED POSTS main weblog

• Thomas J. Nevin and the Salmon Act petition 1879
• Calling the shots in colour 1864-1879
• Reproductions of Charles A. Woolley's portrait of Tasmanian Aborigines 1860s-1915
• Indigenous elder Truganini and poet Ann Kearney, 1875
• Lost and found: one day in 1866 and the scientific racism which followed
• Constable John Nevin at Trucanini's funeral 1876
• With Jean Porthouse GRAVES 1870s West Hobart
• Miss Nevin and Morton Allport

Confusion for the press, 1879: was she/he/they a female or a male "impersonator"?

Celebrating Mardi Gras 2024

Diversity in disguise, 1854
At kanamaluka/Launceston, lutruwita/Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania) in February 1854 at the Launceston Police Office, cross-dressed "male pretender" Mary Abbott and her companion who was described as "a black woman" were sentenced under the vagrancy act and imprisoned with one month's hard labour."

TRANSCRIPT

A GAY DECEIVER.--A woman named Mary Abbott was brought up at the Launceston police office, on Saturday last, charged under the vagrant clause of the Police Act, with being found in the dwelling-house of Mr. Walker, Cataract Mills, for an unlawful purpose. The appearance of the fair delinquent ex-cited considerable merriment. Her habiliments consisted of "a buff-coloured shooting coat, corduroy trousers, and a black wide-awake hat bent down, apparently to hide the feminine features of the would-be "lord of the creation." The defendant pleaded guilty to to the charge, and appeared ashamed of the personification she had assumed. She had a black woman in her company similarly charged. The police magistrate keenly censured the male pretender, and ordered her one month's imprisonment with hard labour. -Examiner.

Source: TASMANIA. (1854, February 25). Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872), p. 5.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63614023

Sensational case of Ellen Tremaye aka Edward De Lacy Evans,1879
The press in 1879 headlined their report about a woman who wore men's clothing as a "female impersonator" when clearly the person in question, Ellen Tremaye (1830-1901), was living as a transgender man, or - to use the terminology of the day - she was "impersonating" a male not a female.

Living as a man with the name Edward De Lacy Evans, Ellen Tremaye married three times: - to Mary Delahunty (m. 1856; Sep. 1862); to Sarah Moore (m. 1862; d. 1867) and to Julia Marquand (m. 1868). It was the birth of a daughter to Julia Marquand, fathered by her brother-in-law, that triggered Ellen/Edward's mental distress and episode which resulted in a sentence to the Lunatic Ward where Ellen's female biological sex was revealed.

Quoted in this article is Mrs Thompson, who recognised Ellen on delivering milk to the household of Edward De Lacy Evans and wife at Eaglehawk north of Melbourne ca. 1865. She reported to the press that she had met Ellen Tremaye on the voyage out to Melbourne in 1857 on the Ocean Monarch, yet later said she fully believed Ellen Tremaye was actually a biological man impersonating a woman called Ellen Tremaye.

The newspaper account (full text below) of this case of "personation" and "imposition" which stirred international interest in 1879 was meant to raise a laugh at the expense of everyone named, while also raising suspicions regarding Ellen/Edward’s role in the death of Ellen’s intimate friend Rose Kelly on the sea voyage out to Melbourne, and Mary Delahunty’s missing money once she had married Ellen/Edward on arrival in Melbourne. That - and Ellen/Edward’s insistence that Mrs Thompson refrain from mentioning anything of her/his/their previous marriages in second wife Sarah Moore’s presence – played the story to its coda, a joke as meta comment for the generic male reader about gender, about girls who think men to be stupid while women know they need them to father their children.

This published newspaper image in 1879 of Ellen/Edward was made as a wood engraving from a full-length carte-de-visite photograph attributed to A. Flegeltaub  (1873) of Stawell, Vic. by the process of half-toning. Photogravure and the printing of real photographs in the press was not technically possible until the late 1890s. A clever cdv (see below) was created in 1880 from a photograph of Ellen/Edward in women’s clothing on left, coupled with the cdv by Flegeltaub of Edward in men’s fashions on right, cut and pasted to seem as if taken in the one studio sitting. These cdv’s were used to promote Ellen/Edward as the “mysterious man-woman” at the Waxworks and fairground shows in the 1880s.



Caption: "ELLEN TREMAYE, ALIAS EDWARD DE LACY EVANS, THE FEMALE IMPERSONATOR."
From the Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 11 October 1879, page 32

TRANSCRIPT

Ellen Tremaye, alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator.

SOME very strange revelations have been made consequent on the discovery which took place some two or three weeks ago, that a lunatic named Edward De Lacy Evans, who was remanded from Sandhurst [Bendigo, Victoria] to the Kew Lunatic Asylum [in Melbourne], was not a man but a woman. The discovery was made in consequence of the refusal of the lunatic to take the bath usual on admission. The fact being mentioned in the papers attracted notice at Sandhurst, where the past life of Evans was well known, and some very singular statements were the result. In our issue of September 6 we gave very full particulars, to which we now subjoin the following abridged from the AUSTRALASIAN SKETCHER:—

"It was on the 22nd July that Evans was admitted to the hospital as a lunatic. The hospital record is as follows:—'Edward De Lacy Evans, male, married, admitted 22nd July, native of Kilkenny, Ireland, religion Church of England, dangerous to others, demented on the day of his admission.' The attendants, as usual, proceeded to give him a bath, but Evans struggled violently, and finally got away from the place, but was recaptured, and brought back next day. He remained in the hospital six weeks, and during that time a warder slept in his room every night, but the secret was not discovered. There is some uncertainty as to the place of his birth. He says he was born at Paris, others say he was a native of Jersey, whilst, as shown above, the hospital record gives Kilkenny as his birthplace. He speaks with an Irish accent. He has claimed to be a nephew of the late General Sir Charles De Lacy (De Lacy Evans?) Dr. Poland, resident-surgeon of the hospital, having examined Evans, states that she has herself had one or more children. It is rumoured that Evans was married several years ago in Melbourne, but regarding this the evidence is not complete.

"On September 6, the Sandhurst correspondent of the ARGUS wrote:—The De Lacy Evans case has created great excitement here. The man-woman having resided in the district about 20 years, was well known amongst the miners, but no one appeared ever to have supposed that she was other than as she represented herself to be, and the discovery of her sex has caused the greatest astonishment. The police have not yet moved in the matter of the discovery of her antecedents, but from the result of inquiries I have made, there seems to be no room to doubt that the woman is identical with the girl Ellen Tremaye, referred to in yesterday's telegram as having arrived at Melbourne by the ship Ocean Monarch in June, 1857. The nurse at the hospital, Mrs. Holt, is positive she is the same, and says the opinion was held amongst those on board the vessel that Tremaye had been well connected, and that she had left home in consequence of some misconduct. The Ocean Monarch was an immigrant vessel, and on the voyage Tremaye and another young woman, named Rose Kelly, were very intimate, but the latter, being seized with a dangerous illness, was left at Rio Janiero. Mrs. Evans, the wife of the supposed man, states that she frequently heard Evans say that she came out by the Ocean Monarch. But the most satisfactory information of Evans's previous history yet received has been obtained from a Mrs. Thompson, a charwoman at Myers's Creek, who was also a shipmate of the girl Tremaye. At the time she made the voyage she was unmarried, and was accompanied by Miss Mary Ann Delahunty, a young lady who was very well connected, and who came from the same village as herself, named Monakine, on the north bank of the river Suir, in Kilkenny. Miss Delahunty was an orphan, and brought with her about £900. After Rose Kelly was taken ill, Tremaye resorted to Miss Delahunty's berth, and the passengers appeared to think there was something strange about the manner in which Tremaye conducted herself, and she had been observed to wear a man's under-clothing. Upon the arrival of the ship in Hobson's Bay, Tremaye declared herself to be a man, and told Mrs. Thompson she intended to marry Miss Delahunty.

The next Mrs. Thompson saw of Ellen Tremaye was at Pegleg Gully, Eaglehawk. Tremaye had just established herself in a house there under the name of Edward De Lacy Evans, and Mrs. Thompson went to serve them with milk. "When she went to the house, she saw Evans sitting inside dressed in male attire, and immediately recognised him as her fellow-passenger, Ellen Tremaye. Evans had, at this time, married his second wife, Miss Moore, who was then present, Evans remarked to her—'I think I know you.' To which Mrs. Thompson replied—'I know you, too,' and added something to the effect that Ellen (referring to Tremaye) was a queer girl. 'Oh.' said Evans, evidently anxious that his then wife should not understand Mrs. Thompson's reference, 'It's a good job she is gone back to the old country.' Mrs. Thompson inquired as to what had become of Miss Delahunty, and Evans replied, 'Oh, my poor wife and boy both died of consumption, and are buried in the North Melbourne cemetery.' In reply to an inquiry as to what had been done with her (Delahunty's) money, Evans said she had sent it home to a nunnery. Evans's then wife had been absent during a portion of this conversation, but at this point she returned, and Evans went outside to the milkwoman, and said, 'For your life don't mention my dead wife's name; call me Mr. Evans. This missus of mine is death on the Roman Catholics, and she can't bear to hear my dead wife's name mentioned.' This conversation took place about 12 or 14 years ago, and Mrs. Thompson seems to have quite believed that Evans had personated a woman under the name of Ellen Tremaye on the voyage out, and was really a man. She lost sight of Evans soon afterwards, and took no further notice of the affair."
One for the Old Man.—This must have somehow set the old man to thinking. A mother and father were trying to persuade their daughter to marry a man she did not love. But the girl objected, and on being pressed for her objections, she replied: "Well, in the first place he is stupid." "Now, hold on my child," put in her mother: "that's no reason at all. Didn't I marry your father ?"

PICTURED: ELLEN TREMAYE, ALIAS EDWARD DE LACY EVANS, THE FEMALE IMPERSONATOR.

Source: Ellen Tremaye, alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator. (1879, October 11). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), p. 32.
Retrieved March 1, 2024, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70973757

On 4 September 1879, the Bendigo Advertiser ran with the headline 'Extraordinary Case Of Concealment Of Sex' and wrote:

"One of the most unparalleled impostures has been brought to light during the past few days, which it has ever been the province of the press of these colonies to chronicle, and we might even add is unprecedented in the annals of the whole world. A woman, under the name of Edward De Lacy Evans, has for 20 years passed for a man in various parts of the colony of Victoria... As it is almost impossible to give an account of the case without making use of the masculine pronoun when referring to Evans, we propose to use that appellation... "

Source: Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex". Bendigo Advertiser. Vic.: National Library of Australia. 4 September 1879. p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88216252

The Launceston Examiner on 9 September 1879 published the medical fraternity's opinion of the causes of Ellen/Edward's cross-dressing - what would be described today as lesbianism, or transexualism, or gender dysphoria but then as an "ailment" - with an optimistic prognosis:

As to " his" insanity it seems pretty clear that the attack is not a very bad one. The circumstances of " his" life make it very probable that "his" chief ailment is cerebral mania, which has caused the insane desire for marrying woman, and which of a necessity produces amentia. However, the disease is not incurable. The cause of none of the wives exposing the deception practiced on them has been without doubt nymphomania. It is considered likely by Dr. Poland - and his experience should be a sufficient judge - that in a few weeks the patient will be all right again. All required is rest, quiet, good nourishment, and the absence of the practices which have caused the mental weakness, to restore " him" to good health of mind, while "his" bodily health is excellent.

Source:AN EXTRAORDINARY PERSONATION CASE. (1879, September 9). Launceston Examiner, p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47801728

And by the 13th October the Hobart Mercury was re-assuring readers that : -

The woman Ellen Tremaye, who for twenty years passed as a man and went through many hardships, has recovered her reason, and has become reconciled to female attire. She expresses a desire to leave the colony.

Ellen Tremaye/ Edward De Lacy Evans died in the Immigrants' Home, St Kilda Rd, Melbourne on 25 August 1901, aged 70 [?]  years.  

Read more at Wikipedia: Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_De_Lacy_Evans



"A carte de visite of Evans created, most likely as a 'cut & paste', by photographer N. White, of Bendigo, after September 1879, to be sold as a curiosity." Source: State Library of New South Wales - [Ellen Tremaye alias Edward] de Lacy Evans, c, 1879 by N. White

The State Library of Victoria holds a collection of sepia photographs taken of Ellen Tremaye/Edward De Lacy Evans in various formats, including this one posed with third wife Julia Marquand:



Portrait of De Lacy Evans and his wife [picture] / Aaron Flegeltaub.
Flegeltaub, Aaron, fl. 1882-1891 photographer.[ca. 1870]
State library of Victoria. Link: https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/291088

Available at the National Library of Australia, the pamphlet sold at Sydney 'shows': The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman (1880):



The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman
Created/Published [Melbourne? : s.n.], 1880 printing, 
Link: View Catalogue (31 images)

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Lost and found at the American War Mirror 1879

Thomas J. NEVIN, Hobart Town Hall Keeper 1876-1880
WHITTINGTON's Panoramas of Dickens' life and work
BACHELDER's dioramas of the American Civil War
THOMPSON's dioramas of the American Civil War and Zulu War
Diorama of Tasmanian Aboriginal Group at campfire 1930s, medallion of 1976

1876-1880: Thomas J. Nevin, Keeper of the Hobart Town Hall
Professional photographer and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) was appointed to the position of Hobart Town Hall Keeper in January 1876 over 24 applicants. He took up residence in the Keeper's apartment (top of diagram below) with wife Elizabeth Rachel (Day) Nevin (1847-1914) and the first two of their seven children - Mary Florence Elizabeth (aka May) Nevin (1872-1955) and Thomas James (aka Sonny) Nevin (1874-1948). Three more children were born at the Hobart Town Hall - Sydney John Nevin who died within months of birth (1876-1877), William John Nevin (1878-1927) and George Ernest Nevin (1880-1957). Their sixth child Mary Ann (aka Minnie) Nevin (1884-1974) and seventh, Albert Edward Nevin (1888-1955) were born after their father's dismissal for alleged inebriation from the position of Town Hall Keeper in December 1880. Family BDM documents, including the marriage licenses of his children Albert and Minnie and his own burial registration, consistently recorded Thomas J. Nevin's occupation as "Photographer" up to the time of his death in 1923.



Plan of Hobart Town Hall signed by the architect Henry Hunter. nd
Item Number: NS78/1/2
Start Date: 01 Jan 1860
Format: map/plan
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NS78-1-2

Panoramas & dioramas in 19th century Tasmania
The Theatre Royal in Hobart, the Mechanics Institute in Launceston, and the Hobart Town Hall hosted the newest technological innovations in visual entertainment during the 1860s-1880s.

1863-1868: Bachelder's Grand Historic Mirror
R.G. Bachelder brought dioramas of the American Civil War to Hobart, and W. H. Thompson showed dioramas of both the American Civil War and the Zulu Wars. These were a staple of popular entertainment during the 1870s-1880s. Newspaper advertisements attracted huge crowds with enticements of free gifts including papier-mâché tables, work boxes, picture frames, new clothing, watches and baked cakes.



Bachelder's grand historic mirror of the American war and the wonderful dioramas
Publication Information: Hobart : Mercury Steam Press, [1863].
Physical description: 1 print (poster) on silk : Black text on cream ; 450 X 170 mm.
Format: poster image (online)
Notes: "Tonight, Thursday, Aug 27 ... illustrating the great naval engagement between the ironclad monsters Merrimac & Monitor, and the terrific naval combat off the coast of France between Kearsage & Alabama ... funeral procession of the late President Lincoln in the city of Washington"
"Under the especial patronage of Colonel Gore Browne, C.B., and Mrs. Gore Browne, and suite".
Measurement including fringe: 510 X 225 mm.
Citation: Digitised item from: Tasmaniana Library, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001126074780/AUTAS001126074780

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

TOWN HALL.
BACHELDER'S DIORAMA
The Town Hall was again crowded last evening to witness Bachelder's Grand Historic Mirror of the American War. This complete and magnificent moving panorama cannot fail to instruct and amuse the beholder, the representations throughout are lifelike and beautifully painted. The exciting scenes and events in the memorable rebellion as they appear before the audience, call forth long and loud applause. Mr. Bachelder takes considerable pains to describe each scene as it is presented to View, which adds considerably to the interest of the picture, as also does the appropriate music arranged expressly for the exhibition. The concluding portion of the entertainment as upon former representations, was well received and loudly cheered by all present. We again recommend our readers to pay a visit to this first class exhibition, it must be seen to be appreciated. This evening is announced as a grand million night at prices to suit all classes, reserved seats 2s. body of the hall 1s. Children half prices to reserved seats.

Source: TOWN HALL. (1868, August 22). The Tasmanian Times (Hobart Town, Tas), p. 2.
Link: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232862600

1871-1877: H. J. Whittington's Panoramas of Charles Dickens
Exhibited in Hobart and Launceston during the 1870s, these panoramas utilised innovative techniques illustrating scenes from Dickens' life and works to the accompaniment of live performances delivered by actors and musicians:



"Mrs. Gamp Propoges a Toast" by Phiz, June 1844
Steel-engraving 11.9 cm high by 10.5 cm wide, vignetted
Frontispiece for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit in the Gadshill Edition, Vol. 2. Chapter XLIX, facing page 563, 1844 edition.
Source: https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/mc/37.html

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

TWO HOURS WITH DICKENS.
An entertainment bearing the above title, being a, combination of music and Panoramic scenes, illustrative of the works of Dickens, will be opened in the Mechanics' Hall on Monday evening next. The agent of the company, Mr H. J. Whittington, arrived here from Hobart Town on Tuesday, and at once took steps to advertise the entertainment. Mr Whittington is both energetic and novel in his styles of advertising, his most original mode being to utilise the large mirrors of the principal hotels. Across the glass of these reflectors he writes, with a piece of common soap, the startling warning, " Look out for Charles Dickens !" The panorama has been painted in New Zealand by a well-known artist, Mr Massey, who has very ably depicted a number of beautiful scenes, including the following :—
A view of Gadshill Place, the favorite residence of Charles Dickens; Election of Beadle; Mr Pickwick on the Ice; Oliver Twist asking for more; the country manager rehearsing a combat; Quelp and Dick Swiveller; Condin and Snort; Sarah Gamp and Betsy Prig; Captain Cuttle sees a shadow on the wall; David Copperfield visits his aunt; Ham Pegoty and the wrecked ship; Micawber throws off his allegiance with Uriah Heep; rescue of Stephen Blackpool from the old shaft Little Dorrit's visit to her father in the Marshalsea prison; capture of prisoners on the Kentish Marshes; the Bird of Prey; the Opium Smokers; Poet's Corner, Westminister Abbey. Mr W. L. Skinner, one of the proprietor, lectures on the scenes, and vocal music is rendered by Messrs Skinner, Barrington, and Turner. We understand the company have been well patronised in Hobart Town, where the views were first exhibited. Each evening a number of valuable gifts are distributed, upwards of £90 worth having been given away in Hobart Town during last week. Some of those intended for distribution here are on view at Davies', Havana House, where tickets may be secured.

Source: TWO HOURS WITH DICKENS. (1877, May 11). Cornwall Advertiser (Launceston, Tas. : 1870 - 1877), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232915636

1871: C. B. Charles' Panorama of the Franco-Prussian War
Originally from Melbourne, C. B. Charles was living in London when he commissioned a moving panorama of the Franco-Prussian War. He returned to Melbourne as the panorama's proprietor in mid January 1871. The first half of his program exhibited pictures of the Suez Canal and the Nile painted by Charles James after David [Daniel ?] Roberts.



NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

CHARLES'S PANORAMA - This really meritorious panorama, illustrative of Egyptian and African scones and of the recent Franco-Prussian War, was again exhibited yesterday evening to an appreciative audience, though one by no means so large as the merits of the entertainment should command. The various African views, the Suez Canal, the Nile, the great bazaar at Cairo, the Mosque of Sultan Haroun, the pyramids, the sphynx, Siout, Alexandria, the temple of Isis, Thebes, and the ruins of Karnac, the temple of Edfon are all well executed works of pictorial art, and both the colouring and perspective exhibited a fidelity to nature attainable only by an experienced artist. The war scenes were painted by Daniel Roberts, R. A. of St James's Theatre, London, and the scenes representing " The death of General Douay" and " The soldier's dream of home," by Mr Mason, R. A. , of the Drury Lane Theatre. These war scenes were taken from the original sketches by Gray, which were exhibited in the War Court of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. Most of these scones have their merits enhanced by clever dioramic effects, and were the exhibition without anything else to commend it, these should in themselves attract crowded houses. The performances of Signor Luigi Ferrari's trained Brazilian monkeys are most remarkable, and occasioned reiterated laughter. Miss Florence Beresford s vocal efforts served to vary the evening's entertainment, and were most favourably received. The following songs were rendered with much felicity -"The silver shining moon," "Away, trumpets are sounding," " The Vivandiere," " The Rhine Watch," and " The Marseillaise " This afternoon and evening the programme will be repeated.

Source: Advertising (1871, July 8). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8868557



COVER: A satirical Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war. Illustrated by Percy Cruikshank, 1870.

The Franco-Prussian war panorama’s cover, printed in blue and red ink, shows an assembly of kings and leaders gathering to watch a bloody birds’ fight in a pit. The German double-headed eagle, in spiked helmet, is grabbing the head of the French rooster, bearing a Phrygian hat with a tricolour rosette. He has already vanquished the French imperial eagle. King Edward VII tells his neighbour, the American President Ulysses S. Grant: “Two heads are better than one”
Many large-scale painted panoramas of the Franco-Prussian war and the Siege of Paris (hundreds of meters long) were produced and circulated in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, France, Europe and the United States, from 1870 to the 1890s. Cruikshank’s Panorama of the Franco-Prussian war is only 12.5 cm high, though it does measure more than 3 meters and hardly fits on our large items Rare Books Reading room table! It folds down to a concertina book of 13 x 15 cm, a ‘pocket’ format which means it was probably intended for the personal use of a private collector, rather than for public display.

Source: Cambridge University Library

1876: W. H. Thompson's Confederate Mirror

"... an excellent piece of mechanism..."

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

THOMPSON'S DIORAMA OF THE AMERICAN WAR.
Since the great civil war between the Northern and Southern States of America, and which resulted in the abolition of slavery throughout the dominions of the great republic, we have had in Hobart Town several dioramic exhibitions of the leading incidents of the fearful struggle ; but we remember none that was more largely patronised than was that of Thompson's Diorama of the battles which took place in the Southern States, presented last night for the first time at the Town Hall. The hall, in every part, was crowded to excess, and when the curtain unveiled the first picture, a bird's eye view of New Orleans, a favourable impression of the ability of the artist was at once created, only to be enhanced as the more thrilling incidents of the war were unfolded. The scene representing the march of General Stewart's body of irregular cavalry on Richmond to oppose General McLellan's well-known attack upon that city at the head of a Federal detachment, afforded a graphic idea of the smartness of the cavalry, which the lecturer (Mr. Thompson, who, by the way, discharged his duties very efficiently), said had been described by the English press as " the finest body of regular cavalry in the world." Another equally effective picture was that representing the engagement of the 69th New York regiment under General Thomas Francis Meagher, who, after a gallant resistance, retreated before Pittsburg, with a loss of 1,400 out of 1,000 men. The battle between the famous Confederate cruiser the Alabama, and the Hattrass, off Galveston, was more than a picture, it was an excellent piece of mechanism, and the way in which the whole affair was worked proved highly interesting, particularly to the junior portion of the audience'. The funeral procession of the great southern commander General Stonewall Jackson, whose death sealed the fate of the Confederate army, is a very elaborate piece of mechanism, the movements of the soldiery forming the cortege being regulated with wonderful precision, and drawing forth warm expressions of approval. In fact, the whole diorama proved a success; and though the music in some respects was not up to the mark, still, it added much to the enjoyment of the evening. At the close of the diorama Mr. Thompson proceeded to present the prices to the holders of tickets, in accordance with the announcements in the show-bills. These consisted of some really valuable and, at the same time, useful articles, including tea and coffee service (4 pieces), two presentation cups, two sovereigns, large liqueur frames, two cruet stands, a couple of opera glasses, and an infinity of other things which we need not describe. One singular circumstance in connection with the prizes was that the great bulk of them went to the shilling part of the hall, thus doing away with any suspicion of favouritism. The exhibition will be on view again to-night.

Source: The Mercury Tue 26 Sep 1876 Page 2 THOMPSON'S DIORAMA OF THE AMERICAN WAR
Link: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8948153

1879: Crowded Houses !!!
W. R. Thompson, later known as "Zulu" Thompson, was back at the Hobart Town Hall in February 1879 to present his Confederate Mirror of the American War. Advertisements in the Mercury ran throughout February 1879. The large crowds presented logistical challenges to the organizers, not least to Town Hall keeper Thomas J. Nevin:



Source: THE MERCURY. (1879, February 14). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8973703

1879: Mr. Nevin and the lost portmonnaie
The week ending February 14th, 1879, was an eventful one for Thomas J. Nevin. As Town Hall keeper he was contending with huge crowds attending performances of Thompson's Diorama of the American War. An incident involving the loss of a purse and its restoration to its rightful owners was the result of Thomas Nevin's due diligence.



Source: THE MERCURY. (1879, February 14). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8973703

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

LOST AND FOUND. - A resident of Cambridge and his wife who had come to town for the holidays, visited Mr. Thompson's Diorama at the Town Hall on Wednesday evening, when the good lady had the unpleasantness of dropping in the hall her portmonnaie containing money to the amount of £9 or £10. Next morning the parties applied to Mr. Nevin hall-keeper at the Municipal Buildings about the loss, and search was made through the Assembly Room for the property without avail. Mr. Nevin advised that information should be given to the police, and that the loss should be advertised in the newspapers with the offer of a reward. The parties acted accordingly, and an advertisement was left at The Mercury office promising a reward of two pounds for the restoration of the treasure. Not long afterwards Mr. John Johnston, grocer, residing in Elizabeth-street, called at The Mercury office to know if enquiries had been made for a lost portmonnaie, saying that his little daughter had picked up one the previous night in the Town Hall containing money, and he (Mr. Johnston) had tried all he could to find an owner. He was directed to Mr. Nevin, who accompanied Mr. and Miss Johnston to the house in Liverpool-street where the Cambridge people were temporarily staying, and the lost property was restored to the owners, who were on the point of returning to Cambridge without money. In the exuberance of their joy they wished to give the promised reward of £2, which Mr. Johnston declined to take, but he allowed his daughter to accept ten shillings for the purchase of a memento of the lucky find, and as encouragement to young people to respect the axiom "Honesty is the best policy."

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

THE WAR MIRROR - The largest audience which has witnessed the American War Mirror since its exhibition at the Town Hall was present last night. The Hall was literally packed, many persons standing on both the back and front seats, while numbers had to be refused admission. The views of war which graphically depict its notable events, assisted by stage effects and suitable music, as usual formed a most useful and impressive synopsis of the bloody internecine struggle. Lieutenant Herman's humorous ventriloquial impersonations furnished an agreeable relief from the darker illustrations of the devastating progress of the war. His Irish character figures carried on the funny dialogue in a very laughable and life-like manner. The distribution of a gift to each visitor took place as usual. A grand Matinee is announced for Saturday, when every child will receive a present.

Source: THE MERCURY. (1879, February 14). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8973703

Mechanical marvels

1881: Thompson’s Diorama of the Zulu War at Adelaide, South Australia



Source: The Zulu War: Zulu warriors method of advancing to the attack
Link: https://iln.org.uk/iln_years/year/1879.htm

NEWSPAPER REPORT: TRANSCRIPT

Mr W.H. Thompson’s "Colossal Mirror of the Zulu War in South Africa" was shown at Garner’s Theatre (formerly White’s Rooms) in King William Street, Adelaide, in May 1881. The Advertiser reported: ‘The diorama consists of many well-executed pictures representing scenes that occurred during the bloody war in South Africa in 1879, during the course of which the brave Prince Imperial fell victim to the murderous assegais of the Zulu warriors.’ The views were said to faithfully represent the different scenes, and after each view was wound on to the stage it was explained by Mr Thompson. The scenes were said to occupy 30,000 (square) feet of canvas.

One part of the programme was advertised as ‘The mechanical marvel showing 8,000 figures on the march,’ and a quotation from the Sydney Daily Telegraph included in the advertisement said, ‘The mechanical portion of the diorama is constructed with marvellous cunning, and far excels anything of the kind shown in this city.’ The ‘8,000 figures’ were miniature wooden representations of soldiers en route to the battlefield. However, the Advertiser reported a small hitch in the operation of the mechanical marvel. ‘The figures are worked by persons underneath the stage, and owing to some trifling imperfection in the arrangements one or two regiments stuck fast and refused to proceed on the warpath. One troop of marines was especially obstinate and, to the great delight of the "gods," instead of advancing the insubordinate soldiers fell down flat, and only moved on after a little gentle persuasion had been brought to bear on them by a human head and arm that appeared from the depths beneath and administered the necessary progressive push.’

Another problem arose when it was time to distribute the ‘gold watch, silver watch, and 100 other beautiful gifts,’ which were to be given away ‘at the discretion of the proprietor,’ not by lucky numbers marked on a programme, which was the usual practice at most entertainments of that kind. When Mr Thompson began his haphazard distribution of gifts the audience became very noisy and disorderly. ‘Persons located in the back seats of the pit and gallery crushed forward in order to bring themselves into prominence, and so secure one of the gifts. The people in the front seats were considerably inconvenienced, and a by no means creditable scene ensued. The rush from behind, the general disorder, the whooping and catcalls being the reverse of enjoyable to orderly disposed persons.’

Advertisements in the Adelaide papers said the paintings were the work of the eminent London artists Telbin, Walter Hann, Ballard, Rogers, Gordon and Harford, and that the diorama had been seen by over 200,000 persons in the past 6 months. The description of incidents portrayed on the canvas were described in advertisements as thrilling, and contained some stirring patriotic statements...

‘The Battle of Isandula, the last order given was -- Fix bayonets, Men, and die like English Soldiers; and so they did.’
‘The Buffalo River - Saving the Colours. They lost their lives, but they saved the colours.’

Source: https://noye.agsa.sa.gov.au/Lantern/Lan_pano.htm

1898-1906: the moving panorama



Above: Diagram showing a typical arrangement for unrolling the canvas of a moving panorama. Dotted lines show the position of the framework that concealed the mechanism. The picture represents the first scene of the Burke and Wills panorama.

EXCERPT

Although not photographic in nature, the 19th century moving panorama was a form of entertainment that was similar in some respects to the magic lantern show, and in many newspaper reports it is difficult to know whether the reporter was describing a moving panorama painted on a canvas roll or a series of lantern slides projected on a canvas sheet.

The moving panorama, or diorama, consisted of a series of paintings on canvas which were then joined together to form one very long canvas sheet that was wound onto a vertical roller. From this roller the canvas was moved across the stage and wound up on a similar roller on the other side. The canvas could be illuminated from behind, from the front, or by a combination of both, using oil or gas lamps.

Above: Diagram showing a typical arrangement for unrolling the canvas of a moving panorama. Dotted lines show the position of the framework that concealed the mechanism. The picture represents the first scene of the Burke and Wills panorama.

Some panoramas were very large. Charles’s panorama (1871) occupied 10,000 square feet of canvas, and each painting was 17 feet by 8 feet. Mankiewicz’s Pantascope used paintings that were 18 feet wide by 9 feet high, and Riseley and Humphrey’s Mirror of England had 120 paintings that were 25 feet long by 14 feet high, making a canvas that was 3,000 feet long and took two hours to unroll.

Source: The R.J. Noye Collection of Photography 1998
Art Gallery of South Australia
Link: https://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/noye/Lantern/Lan_pano.htm

Diorama of Aboriginal group
The diorama of a Tasmanian Aboriginal group in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was modelled by E. J. Dicks and presented to the museum by John Arnold in 1930. It was photographed by K. Wilby.

In January 1931, E.J. Dicks, a sculptor hailing from Melbourne, was hard at work in a studio in Tasmania’s capital city of Hobart. The task-at-hand for Mr. Dicks was to build representations of (some would say surrogates for) the “Lost Tasmanian Race.” The Hobart Mercury of January 17, 1931, reports that Mr. Dicks [had] already completed the man for the group, and is occupied with the female figure. It is a strange commentary on life to see the modeler at work with his clay, and beside him the skeleton of the last of the true Tasmanian aborigines, Truganini, while at odd intervals skulls peep out here and there, all contributing a moiety of past life to give reality to a present figment. (The Hobart Mercury, January 17, 1931: 6) Made possible by a gift of £500, the largest given to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (hereafter referred to as TMAG) to that point, the group exhibit1 sought to give Hobartians a glimpse into the “life and habits of a vanished people” (ibid.). Void of clothing and with jet-black skin, these three figures, designed to represent a natural familial unit, were a visual depiction of a people who had come to represent the lowest and most primitive culture2 ever documented (see fig. 1). In this working paper I argue that the 1931 group exhibit at TMAG sought to enact, consecrate, and consolidate one form of Tasmanian Aboriginality by literally building surrogate representations of the “Lost Tasmanian Race” (who one author poetically, and androcentrically, describes as the “Men Who Vanished” [Dunbabin 1935]).

Source: Building Bodies in the Australian Periphery: The Enactment of Aboriginality in Tasmania
Christopher Berk, University of Michigan 2012
UM Working Papers in Museum Studies, Number 9 (2012)
Link: https://ummsp.rackham.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Berk_Final.pdf

1930: the TMAG diorama



Photograph - Postcard - Diorama of Tasmanian Aboriginals on the bank of the River Derwent modelled by E J Dicks.
Item Number: LPIC147/1/5
Start Date:01 Jan 1930
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania



Description: Photograph - Hobart Museum, "Mother and child", from Diorama
Item Number:AB713/1/1763
Start Date:01 Jan 1953
End Date:31 Dec 1953
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/AB713-1-1763

1976: the Powerhouse Medallion of Diorama



Source: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney NSW
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/422272

The Truganini medallion was commissioned by the Tasmanian Numismatic Society in 1976, and was struck by Pobjoy Mint Ltd., U.K. in both bronze (225 examples) and sterling silver (100 examples). A commemorative brochure states that it was "the [society's] most ambitious undertaking to date and the third issue struck for the Tasmanian Numismatic Society. A high medallic relief and polished field have been employed for the first time." The depiction of Truganini on the obverse was taken from a line engraving, copied from a photograph by C.A. Woolley in 1866. The camp scene on the reverse was taken from a diorama of a Tasmanian Aboriginal group in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, photographed by K. Wilby; the diorama itself was modelled by E.J. Dicks and presented to the museum by John Arnold in 1930.

Source: Powerhouse Museum, Sydney NSW
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/422272

External References

ART WORKS
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG)
19th century colonial watercolours and drawings collection
https://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/124313/PRINT_Panoramic_views_room_brochure.pdf

Commemorative Medallions
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney NSW
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/422272

BOOKS



Colligan, Mimi (2002) Canvas documentaries : panoramic entertainments in nineteenth-century Australia and New Zealand . Carlton South, Vic. : Melbourne University Press.
Panoramas, pages 73-74-75. [Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2024]

ARTICLES
"Building Bodies in the Australian Periphery: The Enactment of Aboriginality in Tasmania"
Christopher Berk, University of Michigan 2012
UM Working Papers in Museum Studies, Number 9 (2012)
https://ummsp.rackham.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Berk_Final.pdf

ONLINE
The R.J. Noye Collection of Photography 1998
Art Gallery of South Australia
https://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/noye/Lantern/Lan_pano.htm

Archives Office of Tasmania
Diorama of Tasmanian Aboriginals on the bank of the River Derwent modelled by E J Dicks.
Photograph and postcard
https://stors.tas.gov.au/AB713-1-1763

Timespanner (NZ)
https://timespanner.blogspot.com/2011/02/william-henry-zulu-thompson-1841-1887.html



Source: Brown University’s John Hay Library received an enormous gift: a 273-foot-long 19th century panoramic painting depicting the dashing exploits of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Brown's University staff and an outside contractor photograph the painting 6 feet at a time.
Link: https://aesthetic.gregcookland.com/2007/12/garibaldi-panorama-at-brown.html

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