Showing posts with label Hobart Town Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hobart Town Hall. Show all posts

Recent Hobart Publications 2016 and Thomas J. Nevin 1870s

ROYAL MAIL COACH - Samuel Page
HOBART TOWN HALL - Thomas Nevin



Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2017
Taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017

[On left]: Freeman, Peter, 1942 (Aug. 25)- & Evans, Kathryn, 1964-, (researcher.) & Lennard, Brendan, (author.) & Hobart (Tas.). Council (issuing body.) (2016). Municipal magnificence : the Hobart Town Hall 1866-2016. Hobart, [Tasmania] Hobart City Council

[On right]: Walker, Steven & Dunning, Tom, (writer of foreword.) (2016). Enterprise, risk and ruin : the stage-coach and the development of Van Diemen's Land and Tasmania. Hobart, TAS Fullers Bookshop Pty Ltd

Local Hobart publishers produced these two books in 2016 which included photographs directly related to the working life of photographer Thomas J. Nevin during the 1870s as both government contractor and civil servant with the Hobart City Corporation.



Top: page 199 of Enterprise, risk and ruin : the stage-coach and the development of Van Diemen's Land and Tasmania which features a photograph taken by Thomas J. Nevin of Samuel Page's Royal Mail Coach.

Bottom: page 92 of Municipal magnificence : the Hobart Town Hall 1866-2016 which features a photograph of the Keeper of the Town Hall, Thomas J. Nevin standing astride the front steps on Macquarie St. ca. 1880.

Samuel Page's Royal Mail Coach





Detail of page 199 below



Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2017
Taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017
Page 199 of Enterprise, risk and ruin : the stage-coach and the development of Van Diemen's Land and Tasmania which features a photograph taken by Thomas J. Nevin of Samuel Page's Royal Mail Coach.

Chapter 8 of this very informative book covers the history of Royal Mail coach operator Samuel Page, and on page 179 mentions the bizarre coincidence of another man by the name of Samuel Page who operated coaches in the Huon in the same time frame.





Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2017
Taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017
Pages from Chapter 8 of Enterprise, risk and ruin : the stage-coach and the development of Van Diemen's Land and Tasmania re Samuel Page.

THE PAINTED PHOTOGRAPH
This photograph may not be the only one taken by T. J. Nevin of Samuel Page's coach line, as earlier researchers in the 1980s noted that several trade advertisements by Nevin were extant in public collections. Strictly speaking, this was taken for government services rather than as an advertisement for Burdon's or Page's business interests.The verso notes suggest that either the untouched original was held at the property called "Entally" or that it is a copy of the same photo held at Entally which had been altered to eliminate the figure of Tom Davis. The area to the viewer's right of the coach bears clear evidence of a man's figure painted over. Tom Davis was employed at Burdon's in Argyle Street as a coach painter.



Above: this is the original photograph by T.J. Nevin with the figure of Tom Davis and Burdon's company name painted out (QMAG Collection Ref: 1987_P_0220). Tom Davis was a coach painter. The verso bears T. J. Nevin's Royal Arms insignia stamp used for government commissions, in this instance for the Royal Mail coach.



Detail: "S. PAGE" above door



Verso: Nevin's stamp printed with the Royal Arms insignia is faintly visible. The handwritten inscription on the reverse reads:

"From same photo held at Entally/ painted out background/ Burdons Coach Factory/ Man on r.h.s. of photo Tom Davis (has been painted out)/ 1872/ A.B. McKellar 328 Liverpool St/ coach body maker employed at Burdon and son when this coach was built"
Below is the original photo by T.J. Nevin with the figure of Tom Davis and Burdon's company name visible (TMAG Collection Ref: Q1988.77.480). The photo was taken in 1872, the date of the coach's manufacture by A. B. McKellar when the finishing touches were applied by Tom Davis, photographed here in shirt sleeves, standing proudly next to his fine calligraphic design work at right of image.



Samuel Page's Royal Mail Hobart to Launceston coach with Tom Davis on right
Photo by T. J. Nevin 1872
TMAG Collection Ref: Q1988.77.480

The top photograph may have been modified to omit Tom Davis' figure in order to sell the coach in 1880. A Brougham, similar to this one photographed by T. J. Nevin, was offered for sale at Burdon's per this advertisement in the Mercury of 2-19 November, 1880:

FOR SALE AT J. BURDON & SON'S COACH MANU-FACTORY,
No. 16, Argyle-street,
A Superior London-built DOUBLE-SEATED BROUGHAM CHARIOT, in good condition; also, a WAGGONETTE, a Whitechapel Cart,
and a new Chaise Cart.
November 2,1880.
PRISONERS CONVEYED on PAGE'S Coach
Page's coach line conveyed prisoners in irons, accompanied by constables such as Constable John Nevin, Thomas Nevin's brother and photographic assistant, from Launceston and regional lock-ups to the Hobart Gaol.



This notice about the Gregsons appeared in The Mercury, 19th February 1874

TRANSCRIPT

"By Page's coach yesterday morning, three prisoners were brought down from Launceston in irons, under the charge of Superintendent Tinmins and Sub-inspector Clements, of the Hamilton Police. Two of the prisoners, named Gregson, absconded from this city [i.e. Hobart] some seven or eight weeks ago, and made their way through the back country to their sister's residence in Launceston, where they were arrested. The other one, Mitchell, is known by several names. He absconded from the Launceston gaol, and having been arrested in the country, has now been removed, and with the Gregsons, placed in the gaol here."

Thomas Nevin photographed the Gregsons brothers at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall, on February 18th, 1874 after arrival from Launceston when arrested. Read more about the arrest of the Gregson brothers here in this article.

Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Town Hall
Commercial photograph and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin was appointed above 23 other applicants to the position of Keeper at the Hobart Town Hall in 1875. Prior to this full-time position in the civil service, he held contracts with the Hobart City Council's  Lands and Survey Department and the Colonial Government's Prisons Department on the recommendation of his family solicitor, the Hon. W. R. Giblin, Attorney General and Tasmanian Premier. From January 1876 to December 1880, Thomas J. Nevin was both Town Hall and Office Keeper for the Mayor's Court (Mercury 1st January 1878), as well as photographer for the Municipal Police Office, each housed under the one roof at the Hobart Town Hall with cells in the basement. His duties ranged from supervising inebriated constables on night watch, making sure the chimneys were swept, maintaining the grounds and watering the trees out front to preparing the Hall for exhibitions, lectures and concerts, in addition to  keeping police photographic records taken by him of prisoners at the Mayor's Court and MPO current with those taken at the Hobart Gaol, mostly with his brother Constable John Nevin.



Office-keeper, Thomas Nevin
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Tue 1 Jan 1878 Page 1 MUNICIPALITY OF HOBART TOWN.

TRANSCRIPT
MUNICIPALITY OF HOBART TOWN.
Mayor, W. P. Green. Aldermen: W. H. Burgess, jun., F. J. Pike, E. Maher, E. Espie, J. Harcourt, John Watchorn. J. E. Addison, M. F. Daly. Auditors, A. T. Stuart and W. F. Brownell. Town Clerk and Treasurer, H. Wilkinson. Accountant, W. H. Smith. Municipal Clerk,W. T. Birch. City Surveyor, J. Rait. Director of Water Works,W. C. Christopherson. Health Officer, E. S. Hall Collectors, F. H. Piesse and W. Brundle. City Inspector and Inspector of Weights and Measures, W. Mason. Lessee of Old Market, J. G. Turner ; New Market, T. H. Turner. Inspector of Stock, G. Propsting ; assistant to Inspector of Stock, Joseph Turner. Office-keeper, Thomas Nevin ; messenger, L. Marks.
Police.-Superintendent, Richard Propsting ; clerk, S. W. Rheuben. Sub-Inspectors, W. M'Connell, C. Pitman ; Detectives, W. Simpson, J. Connors. Summoning Officer. John Dorsett.
In 1879, Thomas J. Nevin was made Special Constable during the visit of the Canadian renegade Catholic priest, Charles Chiniquy. Freeman et al include a carte-de-visite of the man (Bardwell Studio ca. 1880) and an account of the "riots" during Chiniquy's visit to the Town Hall on page 87, yet no mention is made of the Special Constables, nor indeed of the Town Hall Keeper himself during the years of Thomas J. Nevin's incumbency.



Page 87 of Freeman, Peter, 1942 (Aug. 25)- & Evans, Kathryn, 1964-, (researcher.) & Lennard, Brendan, (author.) & Hobart (Tas.). Council (issuing body.) (2016). Municipal magnificence : the Hobart Town Hall 1866-2016. Hobart, [Tasmania] Hobart City Council
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2017
Taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017



Cdv of Charles Chiniquy, Bardwell Studio 1880
Detail of page 87 of Freeman, Peter et al 2016
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2017
Taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017

Omitted too is any indication among the multitude of plans and architectural designs of the whereabouts of the Keeper's residence. Thomas J. Nevin, his wife Elizabeth Rachel Nevin and their two children born before 1875 - known to descendants as May and Sonny - arrived there at the Hobart Town Hall as their new home in 1876, and by 1880, three more children had been born there, two of whom survived to adulthood - William John and George Ernest Nevin - and one who lived less than four months, Sydney John Nevin. These five children with their parents Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin were housed at the Hobart Town Hall between early 1876 and late 1880, a fact mentioned in the police report regarding Nevin's alleged involvement with the appearance of a "ghost" frightening the girls of Hobart Town in 1880. Two more were born after 1880 when Thomas Nevin resumed photographic practice at his New Town studio.

Children of Thomas James Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day
  • May (Mary Elizabeth Florence) (19 May 1872 - 4th June 1955)
  • Thomas James ("Sonny") Nevin jnr (16 April 1874 -17 January 1948)
  • Sydney John Nevin (26 October 1876 - 28 January 1877)
  • William John Nevin (14 March 1878 - 28 28 October 1927)
  • George Ernest Nevin (2 April 1880 - 30 July 1957)
  • Minnie (Mary Ann) Nevin (11 November 1884 - 14 September 1974)
  • Albert Edward Nevin (2 May 1888 - 3 November 1955)
THE MAYOR'S COURT & BASEMENT CELLS
A very questionable omission in this book is information from authentic historic sources regarding the presence of the police and their operations in the Hobart Town Hall during the 1870s, the years of Thomas Nevin's residency as Office and Hall Keeper. The Hobart Municipal Police Office was housed on the right-hand side as the visitor enters the building from the Macquarie Street entrance, and the Mayor's Court was housed on the left hand-side down the corridor past the office of the present Keeper.



Memo of the process of selection for Thomas Nevin as Town Hall Keeper 1875
Source: MCC16/129 Minutes of Meetings of the Hobart City Council 1853-1967
TAHO Ref: Z1060
Taken at the Archives Office Tasmania 7 March 2014
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

Thomas J. Nevin was paid £78 for the year 1879 as Town Hall Keeper. He received an allowance for the residence - "30 shillings per week with free quarters, fuel and light" (Mercury, 29 December 1875). He was also paid out of the City Surveyor's Department to meet photographic contracts held since 1872 to provide visual documentation for changes in landscapes (eg. the Glenorchy landslip, the waterworks, rock formations on Mt. Wellington etc); for urban development within streetscapes; and for portraiture of HCC employees and families (eg. Constable McVilly's children). From the Police Fund he was paid for the provision of prisoner identification mugshots and warrants as bailiff to detectives (e.g. Detective Dorsett), out of the costs of Printing, Stationery etc at the Municipal Police Office housed within the Town Hall. During the visit of Canadian renegade priest Charles Chiniquy in 1879 he was also paid for service as a Special Constable to the HCC.



Expenditure of the Municipal and Police Funds to January 1880



Source: MCC16/129 Minutes of Meetings of the Hobart City Council 1853-1967
TAHO Ref: Z1060
Taken at the Archives Office Tasmania 7 March 2014
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

Information such as this which is found in the day to day memos and accounts of the HCC is missing from the research summoned by Freeman et al, relying as they have done on a "sober assessment" from the University of Tasmania's History Department staff member Stefan Petrow, whose work on the history of the police in Tasmania to date appears to be both piecemeal and lightweight despite his singular claim to the niche. Petrow's apparent acquiescence to the fantasy about prison commandant A. H. Boyd as THE photographer of prisoners peddled by his "student" - creepy, crude and uncouth Julia Clark in her ridiculous fantasy fake "thesis" (2015) - evinces a lazy complacency regarding Clark's fraudulent use of these weblogs and her abuse directed at Thomas Nevin and his descendants. It's a foolish decision which has led to a demand for his resignation and the revocation of the degree awarded to Clark in 2016.

The police were very much a presence at the Town Hall until 1888 (e.g. Centralisation of the Police, Mercury, 19 July 1888). Prisoners were detained in cells in the basement for a number of very obvious reasons: while awaiting arraignment, bail and sentencing at the Supreme Court for a serious crime, or appearance in the Magistrate's Court for misdemeanours with a fine. Discharges were administered through the Mayor's Court with a Ticket of Leave and other conditions. Some were kept in the cells for transfer to and from the Watch House located in the old Guard House opposite Franklin Square (since demolished), or for relocation from regional lockups including the Port Arthur prison en route to the main gaol, HM House of Correction on Campbell St. The "sober assessment" of these spaces and their functions, to use the term authors Freeman et al use for their preferred account from Stefan Petrow, dismisses the suggestion that the cells played any important role during the 1870s, and for special effect, the authors - drunk with laughter - ridicule the notion that the basement area might function as a present-day dark tourism attraction (pages 219-220).



The old Guard House, Macquarie St. Hobart (arches visible on the small building on corner)
Also used as the Electric Telegraph Office ca. 1869
Image courtesy Mitchell Library SLNSW Ref: 302023r



Pages 219,of Freeman, Peter, 1942 (Aug. 25)- & Evans, Kathryn, 1964-, (researcher.) & Lennard, Brendan, (author.) & Hobart (Tas.). Council (issuing body.) (2016). Municipal magnificence : the Hobart Town Hall 1866-2016. Hobart, [Tasmania] Hobart City Council



Page 220 of Freeman et al (2016)





Photos taken at the National Library of Australia 8th June 2017 of pp 219-221 from Freeman, Peter, 1942 (Aug. 25)- & Evans, Kathryn, 1964-, (researcher.) & Lennard, Brendan, (author.) & Hobart (Tas.). Council (issuing body.) (2016). Municipal magnificence : the Hobart Town Hall 1866-2016. Hobart, [Tasmania] Hobart City Council
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2017

Addenda: Prisoners in the Watch House April 1874
The records photographed here (at TAHO 2014) detailing rations supplied to prisoners held over in the cells at the MPO, Hobart Town Hall during a fortnight in April 1874 are the sorts of documents which have either been neglected or deliberately ignored by commentators on the history of the Municipal Police Office at the Hobart Town Hall, including those most recently discussed here in print - i.e. Freeman et al and Petrow (2016).

Four men and two women - six prisoners in all were listed on the Return of persons confined in the Watch house at the Municipal Police Station Hobart Town supplied with Rations during the week ending 11th April 1874. The two women were Emma Cooper and Margaret Nicholson. No police mugshots of women prisoners of the 1870s apparently survive, if indeed they were photographed at all in that decade. The prisoners were: -

James Shearer
Emma Cooper
John Moran
Michael Murphy
William Williams
Margaret Nicholson



Return of persons confined in the Watch house at the Municipal Police Station Hobart Town supplied with Rations during the week ending 11th April 1874
TAHO Ref:
MCC16/63/1/1
Draft minutes of the police committee
9 Nov 1867-17 Feb 1879
Photos taken at the TAHO & copyright © KLW NFC 2014

The following week ending April 18th, 1874, twelve new prisoners - six men and six women were being held in the MPO cells, listed in this Return of persons confined in the Watch house at the Municipal Police Station Hobart Town supplied with Rations during the week ending 18th April 1874. Some of these prisoners were repeat offenders whose photographs (if male), taken by Nevin, were already held in the Municipal Police Office at the Hobart Town Hall.

Mary Clark
ditto
George Bowen
Mary Ann ditto
Henry Fitzpatrick
William Harrison
John Mouncey (?)
William Barber
James Fink
Esther Saunders
Eliza Saunders
Bridget Quinn
Caroline Woodward



Return of persons confined in the Watch house at the Municipal Police Station Hobart Town supplied with Rations during the week ending 18th April 1874
TAHO Ref:
MCC16/63/1/1
Draft minutes of the police committee
9 Nov 1867-17 Feb 1879
Photos taken at TAHO and copyright © KLW NFC 2014

In total, these offenders were held in the Watch House of the Municipal Police Office during April 1874, tried next day, and in some cases, discharged with light sentences. See below, for example, the police gazette notices for John Moran, 27 yrs old, and Esther Saunders, 20 yrs old :

James Shearer
Emma Cooper
John Moran
Michael Murphy
William Williams
Margaret Nicholson
Mary Clark
ditto
George Bowen
Mary Ann ditto
Henry Fitzpatrick
William Harrison
John Mouncey (?)
William Barber
James Fink
Esther Saunders
Eliza Saunders
Bridget Quinn
Caroline Woodward

POLICE RECORDS
John Moran, 27yrs old,was tried at Hobart on 9th April 1874 for assaulting a constable, sentenced to one month, and discharged from H. M. Gaol Hobart during the week ending 13 May 1874.



Esther Saunders, 20yrs old, was tried at Hobart on 10th April 1874 for false pretences, sentenced to 14 days, and discharged in the week ending 29th April 1874.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, J. Barnard, Govt Printer

This was the plan for the cells and court, showing male and female cells below and the Magistrate's Court above. The court was held in the Hobart Town Hall until centralisation in 1888.



Title: Plan-Court House, constables barracks,Watch House
ADRI: PWD266-1-68
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

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Constable Blakeney's revenge on Thomas Nevin 1880

Constable Blakeney: "You have a nose on me, and now I have got you."  
"Nevin was asked by the Mayor if he would, 'as a last chance', state who his companion was, but he persisted in declaring his innocence, saying he saw no figure at all, and attributed his arrest to some ill feeling which existed between Blakeney and himself."
The Launceston Examiner, 6 December 1880



Hobart Town Hall with figure at front, probably the keeper, photographer Thomas Nevin
No date, 1876-80, unattributed, half of stereo?
Archives Office of Tasmania
Ref: PH612 high resolution image



Throughout December 1880 and into January 1881, Tasmanian and intercolonial newspapers reported at length on photographer Thomas J. Nevin's sudden dismissal from his position as Hobart Town Hall keeper, a decision reached by the Mayor because of an incident involving Nevin and three constables on Thursday evening, December 2rd, 1880. Nevin was seen in Davey St in close proximity to the "ghost", a person who had been terrorising citizens on Hobart streets wearing a phosphorescent white sheet. Nevin was also seen in company in various hotels during the evening while ostensibly still on duty, and when apprehended on suspicion of acting in concert with the "ghost", was found to be inebriated.

The readers of The Mercury's account of what took place that evening were given a partially accurate report of the meeting of the Police Committee next day where Nevin and Constables Blakeney, Oakes and Priest gave their versions of the events. The Mercury referred to Nevin's stated belief that Constable Blakeney had arrested him as revenge for an incident which took place two months earlier, in October 1880,when Nevin reported Blakeney for being drunk and asleep on duty to Sergeant Dove, who took the matter to Superintendent Pedder and the Mayor. Blakeney's counsel refuted Nevin's claim that Blakeney had said  to Nevin these words as clear intention of retaliation:
By the Mayor : When arresting Nevin, witness [i.e. Blakeney] did not say, " You have a nose on me, and now I have got you," or use any words to that effect.
The phrase used by Blakeney was curiously put: " - you have a nose on me" - by which he meant stalking or surveillance, smelling alcohol on someone found in improper circumstances, and resulting in payback in kind - "and now I have got you". The Launceston Examiner referred more directly to Blakeney's action of arresting Nevin as retaliation for his demotion,  by reporting that Nevin attributed his arrest to some ill feeling which existed between Blakeney and himself.



TRANSCRIPT
THE HOBART TOWN GHOST
... Shortly afterwards Oakes and Priest heard cries from two women whom they met that the ghost was in Salamanca Place, and they at once proceeded there, when they saw a figure in white near the Guano Store, and a man (Nevin) on the footpath, struck a light, much more brilliant than a match, and displayed the figure clearly. Constable Blakeney, who arrived upon the scene at the time, arrested Nevin, and the other constables pursued the ghost, but were unable to overtake him. Nevin was asked by the Mayor if he would, "as a last chance," state who his companion was, but he persisted in declaring his innocence, saying he saw no figure at all, and attributed his arrest to some ill feeling which existed between Blakeney and himself. Nevin, who had been repeatedly warned, was dismissed from his situation for drunkenness. The whole affair is still, to a great extent, shrouded in mystery, and the witnesses examined differ as to the precise time that the events narrated took place, but it is believed that the police have now sufficient reason for hoping that they will be able to clear the whole matter up before too long.

[No heading]. (1880, December 6). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 3. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4705106
Constable Blakeney: drunk and asleep on duty at 3 am
Constable John Blakeney was hoping to make the rank of Sergeant when his dereliction of duty - being drunk and asleep at 3am in the first week of October 1880 - was reported by Nevin to the Police Office and Mayor as a potential risk to the Hobart Town Hall's security. Housed in the Town Hall were not just the full administrative records of the Mayor's court and business dealings of the City Corporation Council; the Hobart Municipal Police Office where criminal registers were kept was also housed there on the ground floor; and the Town library containing valuable volumes was upstairs, while downstairs in the basement were prison cells housing recently arrested offenders.



Sergeant Dove reported Constable Blakeney to Supt Pedder on October 6th, 1880, in this letter, which curiously bears the word "Matter" underscored in red followed by exclamation marks.

Ref: TAHO
MCC16/63/1/2
Draft Minutes of the Police Committee
21 Feb 1879-25 March 1898
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

 TRANSCRIPT
Hobart Town
October 6th 1880
Sir I respectfully report for your information that I found Constable Blakeney asleep on his beat at half past three o'clock this morning, Blakeney was under the influence of drink, and admitted that he had a pint of ale, I bring this matter under your notice as a matter of duty and respect, Trusting that you will deal leniently with the matter as Blakeney is a very willing constable
I remain Sir your obedient W Dove Sergeant
Fr Pedder Esq
Supt of police



Superintendent Pedder requested the Mayor to summon Constable John Blakeney to appear before him and the Police Committee on 6th October 1880, because of the complaint lodged by Sergeant Dove. The Mayor approved Blakeney's demotion to 2nd class.



Minutes of the MCC: As a result, Constable Blakeney was demoted from 1st class to 2nd class.
Constable Blakeney was reinstated to 1st class 3 weeks later, on 26 November 1880.

Ref: TAHO
MCC16/63/1/2
Draft Minutes of the Police Committee
21 Feb 1879-25 March 1898
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

Blakeney's Reinstatement and Revenge



Last entry in the MCC police committee minutes:
Constable Blakeney was reinstated to 1st class on 26 November 1880 after demotion on October 6, 1880

Ref: TAHO
MCC16/63/1/2
Draft Minutes of the Police Committee
21 Feb 1879-25 March 1898
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

Within a week of being reinstated, Blakeney was intent on compromising Nevin. He had most likely coerced the other two constables, Oakes and Priest, to invent the story that "the ghost" had appeared in Nevin's company, since their witness accounts were not consistent. Nevin denied having seen anyone dressed in a white sheet. Blakeney's demotion was the result of intoxication, and he was intent on making Nevin suffer the same fate when he sought out Nevin on the night of the arrest.

According to the Mercury's report, on Thursday night, 2nd December 1880, Constable John Blakeney told the Police Committee in Nevin's presence that he had arrested photographer and Hobart Town Hall keeper Thomas J. Nevin "because he thought he [Nevin] had some apparatus for producing the phenomenon of a ghost" (Mercury, Saturday 4 December 1880, p.2). Nevin had been seen earlier that evening in the company of fellow photographer Henry Hall Baily, carrying photographic equipment.

Nevin was taken to the police watch house by Blakeney, and searched for photographic items. He was found to have none and was released by Sub-inspector Connor without charge. The next day, Friday, 3rd December 1880, he appeared at a special meeting of the Police Committee held at the Town Hall in the presence of the Mayor, Aldermen Harcourt and Espie, and Superintendent of Police F. Pedder. Proceedings began with derogatory comments about Nevin's coloured photography -"ornaments of different colour" - (read the full article here) which may have been a reference to his hand-coloured cartes-de-visite mugshots of prisoners, eg. Job Smith, Walter Bramall, James Sutherland etc. The three constables, Oakes, Priest and Blakeney, gave witness accounts.

During proceedings, Constable Blakeney addressed Thomas Nevin with this snide comment, reprised and denied by his counsel  Alderman Harcourt:

To Nevin : You then wore the same clothing that you do now. I have no ill-feeling against you.'

By the Mayor : When arresting Nevin, witness did not say, " You have a nose on me, and now I have got you," or use any words to that effect.

In other words, Constable Blakeney lied to the Mayor and Police Committee, denying he was out for revenge because of Nevin's complaint leading to his demotion two months earlier. Nevin was adamant he was being framed by the "ghost" story:

Thomas Nevin: “I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.

Excerpt: The Mercury 4th December 1880
John Blakeney, constable in the City Police, deposed that he was on duty on the wharf as acting-sergeant, the previous night. While walking in the direction of Mr. Knight’s stores, he saw two men at the corner. He walked over to them to ascertain who they were. As he was approaching them, both began to walk up Salamanca Place towards Davey-street. One split off into the middle of the road, and the other remained on the path on the left hand side, near the stores. Witness did not know who they were. The man in the centre of the road threw a reflection upon the one alongside the wall. The reflection was also upon the wall for a height of about 7 ft. Witness walked quickly towards the man in the road, and at the same time two men came stealthily out of George-street. Witness then commenced to run. One of those who came out of George-street said, “Come back, George.” Witness replied, “Don’t you see this fellow playing the ghost?” when the man in the middle of the road again threw a reflection upon the ghost. Witness arrested this man, who proved to be Nevin. The other two me pursued the man who had been acting as ghost. Nevin was taken to the police station, where he was searched at his own request. There was nothing that would account for the appearance of the ghost found upon him. 
By Mr. HARCOURT: Nevin might have thrown anything that he had away before being searched. 
By the MAYOR: Witness arrested Nevin because he thought he had some apparatus for producing the phenomenon of a ghost. The light that was ignited was not similar to that produced by a match, but was much more brilliant. Witness arrested Nevin between half-past 12 and a quarter to 1 o’clock. Nevin was under the influence of liquor. 
To Nevin: You then wore the same clothing that you do now. I have no ill-feeling against you. 
By the MAYOR: When arresting Nevin, witness did not say, “You have a nose on me, and now I have got you,” or use any words to that effect. 
Sub-inspector Connor, who was on duty when Nevin was taken to the police station, stated that after searching Nevin at his own request, he discharged him. His reasons for doing so were that nothing was found upon Nevin which would account for the appearance of the ghost, and that Constable Blakeney did not make a specific charge against Nevin. Witness knew that the “ghost” business had given the police a lot of trouble. He considered that Blakeney simply brought the man Nevin to the station in order to obtain his (Mr. Connor’s) advice. Witness felt embarrassed about the case. Nevin was under the influence of liquor. 
Read the full article here and at Trove
Source: THE "GHOST.". (1880, December 4). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8990885

Sub-Inspector John Connor



John Connor had enjoyed just a few months of promotion to the rank of Sub-Inspector when he found himself being admonished by the Mayor in front of the Police Committee and three constables for releasing Thomas Nevin from the watch house on the night of 2 December 1880. John Connor was sympathetic to Nevin's situation, and considered him a friend. The Mercury report of the Mayor's meeting (4 December 1880) said that John Connor (viz, witness quoted below)  "felt embarrassed about the case. Nevin was under the influence of liquor":
The MAYOR: Don’t you consider that, in view of the excitement occasioned by the appearance of the ghost, and the dangerous circumstances which might arise in consequence of children, and especially women, being frightened by it, that a man arrested under the circumstances under which Nevin was apprehended, ought to be detained and locked up? 
Witness: Unquestionably so, if a distinct charge had been made against him. It was, however, principally owing to the fact that I knew Nevin well and the position that he occupied, and further, that if released and he should afterwards be required, he might readily be found to answer to any charge.



Letter written by John Connor to the Mayor etc expressing gratitude for his promotion.
Ref: TAHO
MCC16/63/1/2
Draft Minutes of the Police Committee
21 Feb 1879-25 March 1898
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2014

TRANSCRIPT
Police Station
Hobart Town
April 12th 1880
The Right Worshipful the Mayor and Aldermen in Council
Gentlemen
I beg leave most respectfully to convey to you my most grateful thanks for having been pleased to promote me to the rank of Sub-Inspector in the City police and to reassure you that I will use my best endeavours to give satisfaction by a faithful discharge of my duty.
I remain
Gentlemen
Your Obt Servant
John Connor
Sub-Inspector
Aftermath
The dismissal from the position of Hall keeper was in some respects a relief for Thomas Nevin and his family. There were the good times when the Hall was filled to capacity with crowds visiting the bazaars, moving panoramas, and concerts, but there were the bad times when the Chiniquy riots resulted in damage to the building and violent confrontations with protesters. Their third child Sydney John died in January 1877 at the Hall just four months after birth.

The Mayor's Committee expressed deep regret at the dismissal (reported in The Mercury late December and early January 1880-1881), and mindful of his growing family, the Council decided to retain Nevin's photographic services to police. Assisted by his younger brother Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell St, Thomas Nevin was re-assigned with warrant and photographic duties as assistant bailiff with The Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall. Working principally in the City Police Court, the Hobart Gaol, and Supreme Court Hobart as assistant to Sub-Inspector John Dorset(t), Nevin continued to provide identification photographs of prisoners up until 1889, a service he had provided for the Prisons Department and MPO since 1872. Many of these mugshots were collated with the Municipal Police Office issued warrants; two death warrants with Nevin's photographs of the condemned man attached (e.g. Sutherland 1883; Stock 1884) now survive intact in the Mitchell Collection at the State Library of NSW. But the incident with Constable Blakeney had clearly affected his opinion of the police. As he was reported to say at a meeting at the Hall in 1888 when government legislation pertaining to police administration was signed as a resolution on the occasion of a bill to be introduced in the House of Assembly to effectively centralise the various municipal and territorial forces:

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



Constable John (W. J.) Nevin ca. 1880.
Photo taken by his brother Thomas Nevin
Copyright © KLW NFC & The Nevin Family Collections 2009 ARR

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"Securing a proper likeness": Tasmania, NSW and Victoria from 1871

Extant examples of Thomas J. Nevin's photographs taken in the 1870s of Tasmanian prisoners - or "convicts" which is the archaic term used in Tasmanian tourism discourse up to the present - number more than 300 in Australian public collections. These two different photographs of prisoner George Leathley are typical of his application of commercial studio portraiture. They were taken by Thomas J. Nevin between Leathley's conviction for murder in 1866 and Leathley's discharge with a ticket of leave in 1876.



Prisoner George Leathley No. 89
Photographer; T. J. Nevin
Carte-de-visite originally held at the QVMAG
Now held at the TMAG,  Ref: Q15588



Prisoner George Leathley
Thomas Nevin's original print from his glass negative
Reprinted by John Watt Beattie on a panel for sale, 1916
Held at the QVMAG Ref: 1983_p_0163-0176



Prisoner George Leathley No's. 14 and 226
National Library of Australia collection
Title: George Leathley, per ship Blundell, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]
Creator: T. J. Nevin
Date: 1874.
Extent: 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm., on mount 10.4 x 6.4 cm.
Context: Part of Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]
Series: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Title from inscription on reverse.
Inscription: “nos. 14 & 226”–On reverse.

Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin was commissioned by his family solicitor, the Hon. Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, to photograph prisoners for the Colonial Government of Tasmania as early as 1871, the year the government of NSW authorised the Inspector of Prisons, Harold McLean, to commence the photographing of all prisoners convicted in the NSW Superior Courts.

New South Wales
The colony of New South Wales had already introduced the practice of photographing prisoners twice, firstly on entry to prison and secondly near the end of their term of incarceration by January 1872 when this report was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. The purpose of the visit to the Port Arthur prison by the former Premier and Solicitor-general from the colony of Victoria with photographer, Thomas Nevin and the Tasmanian Attorney-General the Hon. W. R. Giblin on 1st February 1872 in the company of visiting British author Anthony Trollope, was to establish a similar system for processing prisoners through the central Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall on their relocation from the dilapidated and dysfunctional Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol in Campbell St. The few remaining prisoners at Port Arthur were returned to Hobart from mid-1873 to early 1874. Some were photographed by Nevin at Port Arthur, but the majority were photographed by Nevin on arrival in Hobart.


Photography and Prisons
The Sydney Morning Herald 10 January 1872

TRANSCRIPT
PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRISONS.-We understand that, at the instance of Inspector-General McLerie, Mr. Harold McLean, the Sheriff, has recently introduced into Darlinghurst gaol the English practice of photographing all criminals in that establishment whose antecedents or whose prospective power of doing mischief make them, in the judgment of the police authorities, eligible for that distinction. It is an honour, however, which has to be " thrust " upon some men, for they shrink before the lens of the photographer more than they would quail before the eye of a living detective. The reluctance of such worthies in many cases can only be conquered by the deprivation of the ordinary gaol indulgencies; and even then they submit with so bad a grace that their acquiescence is feigned rather than real. The facial contortions to which the more knowing ones resort are said to be truly ingenious. One scoundrel will assume a smug and sanctimonious aspect, while another will chastise his features into an expression of injured innocence or blank stupidity which would almost defy recognition. They are pursued, however, through all disguises, and when a satisfactory portrait is obtained copies are transferred to the black books of the Inspector-General. The prisoners are first " taken" in their own clothes on entering the gaol, and the second portrait is produced near the expiration of their sentence. When mounted in the police album, the cartes-de-visite, if we may so style them, are placed between two columns, one containing a personal description of the offender, and the other a record of his criminal history. Briefer or more comprehensive biographies have probably never been framed. Copies of these photographs are sent to the superintendents of police in the country districts, and also to the adjoining colonies. To a certain extent photography has proved in England an effective check upon crime, and it is obviously calculated to render most valuable aid in the detection of notorious criminals. New South Wales is, we understand, the only Australian colony which has yet adopted this system ; but the practice is likely soon to become general.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald. (1872, January 10). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13250452

Following the NSW government example, Thomas Nevin photographed men convicted in the Hobart Supreme Court who were housed in the adjoining Hobart Gaol. Those men who were convicted in regional courts with sentences longer than three months were transferred to Hobart. He took at least two original photographs of the prisoner, on different occasions: the first, the booking shot, was taken on entry into the prison, sometimes when the prisoner was unshaved and in ordinary or street clothing as soon as convicted; the second was taken fourteen days prior to the prisoner's discharge. Additional prisoner photographs were taken by T. J. Nevin at the Port Arthur penitentiary between 1872 and 1874, and at the Cascades Prison for Males with the assistance of his younger brother Constable John Nevin in the unusual circumstance of the transfer of 103 prisoners from the Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol at the request of the Parliament in 1873. Up to six duplicates were produced from each negative.



Above: One of earliest tenders taken up by Nevin at the Office of the Superintendent of Police
for provision of police and gaol registers photographs, The Mercury 23 December 1872.

The photographs (there are 300+ extant of Tasmanian "convicts") were printed first on paper and mounted in oval frames as cartes-de-visite, both as loose duplicates and as cdvs pasted in the Hobart Gaol Photo Books containing summaries of the prisoner's criminal record.The loose duplicates were made for circulation to local and intercolonial authorities. Forty (40) or so unmounted prints from Nevin's original glass negatives survive from his government contract in the 1870s, and are held at the QVMAG. These forty sepia prints were collated on three panels in 1916 by John Watt Beattie and offered for sale from his museum and shop in Hobart. The majority, however, survive as cartes-de-visite in oval mounts, typical of Nevin's commercial studio portraiture in the decade 1870-1880 (examples are held at the NLA, QVMAG, TMAG, SLNSW Mitchell Library, PCHS and in private collections). The cdv's were formatted to fit onto the prisoner's record sheet, a blue form, held at the Hobart Gaol. The original negatives were held at the Mayor's Court and the Office of Inspector of Police at the Hobart Town Hall where Thomas Nevin held the government contract which became a full-time position with residency in late 1875.

Darlinghurst Gaol (NSW) 1871
This selection (below) of mugshots was made from searching the NSW State Records Office Prisoners Photos Index to the photographic books for the earliest date recorded for a mugshot. It appears to have been September 1871 at the Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, although the months of April and May 1871 appear in the search totalling approx. 165 prisoners in the index for 1871. These are among the earliest, all taken with the male prisoner seated in an office chair, in no particular pose apart from directing his gaze slightly to the viewer's left of frame, and with hands folded in his lap.





William McGrath, sentenced to two years for receiving stolen cattle.
Photographed on 16th September, 1871



RAP SHEET NOTES for James Peake
James Peake alias Pake alias Moocher
PEAKE James 1806 Staffordshire Darlinghurst 16/09/1871 44 43 NRS2138 [11/17378] 5133 Alias: PAKE, James Alias: MOOCHER, James 2138_a006_a00611_1737800043r
Record No. 44
Date when portrait was taken 16th September 1871
Tried at Bathurst QS 6th September 1871. Offence was stealing in a dwelling, sentenced to 2 years hard labour, It was his 3rd conviction, served a sentence on Cockatoo [Island], supposed to be a Vandemonian
Born 1806, Staffordshire, arrived on the Red Jacket in 1856, C of E, no education, 5 feet 4 half inches. weight 124 lbs, brown and grey hair, grey eyes, scar on under lip, a woman and three fishes on right forearm



NB: Dictionary meaning of "moocher" at www.dictionary.com/browse/moocher
Sense of "sponge off others" first recorded 1857. Whatever the distant origin of mooch, the verb *mycan and its cognates have been part of European slang for at least two millennia. [ Liberman] Related: Mooched; mooching. As a noun meaning "a moocher," from 1914.



William Richards was sentenced to 2 years for horse stealing. He was discharged from Darlinghurst Gaol on 10th September 1871.



Joseph McGrath #1 and Jospeh McGrath alias Lee #2: stealing from the person, discharged from Darlinghurst Gaol on 4th October, 1871.

Source: Photographic Description Books [Darlinghurst Gaol] NRS 2138

Margaret Greenwood, NSW 1875



Margaret Greenwood, 1875, photographed at the Darlinghurst Gaol NSW
NSW State Records Archives



Booking photo, cdv in oval mount, of George Miller 1881, 
Gaol Photograph of George Miller [NRS 2138 Vol. 3/6044 Photo No. 2688 p. 219]
Unattributed photo:State Archives NSW


NSW State Records Archives Investigator - Series Detail
Series number: 2138
Title: Photographic Description Books [Darlinghurst Gaol]
Start date: by 12 Aug 1871
End date: by 13 Jul 1914
Contents start date:  12 Aug 1871
Contents end date:  13 Jul 1914
Descriptive note:

Authorisation
The taking of prisoner 'portraits' was formally authorised to be carried out at Darlinghurst Gaol by a memo from Harold Maclean (Inspector of Prisons) to the Principal Gaoler on 5 August 1871 (1). This document noted:

Authority to introduce Photography
Portraits will be taken of all prisoners convicted at the Superior Courts, except those convicted of trifling misdemeanours and who do not belong to the Criminal Class.

Portraits will also be taken of prisoners summarily convicted where the Police require it, or the Principal Gaoler thinks it desirable to secure a perfect description.

These portraits will be photographed after conviction and fourteen (or more) days prior to discharge, in private clothing where practicable.

Any prisoner refusing or by his or her behaviour putting obstacles in the way of securing a proper likeness will be brought before the Visiting Justice for disobedience and the case reported to the Inspector of Prisons with a view to the stoppage of remission indulgences and gratuities. .

The figures are to be taken ¾ size unless in exceptional cases where there may be reason for taking them in full. The negatives will be numbered to correspond with the Photographic Register, and carefully packed away under lock and key.

Twenty five copies of each portrait are to be printed and furnished to the Inspector General of Police through this Office.

Harold Maclean
Inspector of Prisons
BC 5:8:71

The Principal Gaoler
A slightly earlier general order from the Acting Inspector of Prisons on 27 July 1871 (2) dealt with some of the practical aspects of implementing photography of prisoners:

Prisoners to be photographed
Prisoners convicted at the Superior Courts and being forwarded to serve their Sentences in Darlinghurst Gaol, or to Darlinghurst Gaol en route to Berrima or other prisons, will not be shaved and their private clothing will be sent with them in order that they might be photographed as nearly as practicable in their ordinary appearance.
Harold Maclean
Actg Inspr of Prisons
The Gaolers
Parramatta
Mudgee
Windsor

The photographing of prisoners appears to have been confined to Darlinghurst Gaol (the principal prison in the Colony) until the mid-1870s, after which it began to be introduced at the major country gaols. On 15 February 1877, a general order was sent to Berrima and Goulburn Gaols advising that when a prisoner who had been photographed was transferred to another gaol, a copy of his photograph, mounted on the usual form, was to be attached to his papers. (3)

Description
In addition to at least one photograph of each prisoner, this series contains the following information: number, prisoners’ name, aliases, date when portrait was taken, native place, year of birth, details of arrival in the colony - ship and year of arrival, trade or occupation, religion, degree of education, height, weight (on committal, on discharge), colour of hair, colour of eyes, marks or special features, number of previous portrait, where and when tried, offence, sentence, remarks, and details of previous convictions (where and when, offence and sentence).

There appears to have been one face-on photograph per individual until about June 1894 when there was both a face-on and a side-on photograph per individual.

Format
While the information recorded varied little over time, there was some variation in the format of the records, particularly in the first eight years (August 1871 to April/May 1879). For this period, the primary and more complete sequence of records was kept in a double-page format, with the descriptive information recorded (with photographs) on the left hand page, and criminal history/previous convictions on the right-hand side. The original intention appears to have been to have two photographs of each prisoner, on arrival and discharge. This seems to have been done only occasionally (mainly in the first few years of the system).

An incomplete sequence of records in a single-page format has also survived as part of this series, covering the period August 1871 to March 1875. This is particularly important, as it includes some records for periods where there are gaps in the surviving primary sequence of records (particularly for the period August 1871 to February 1872, and November 1872 to October 1873).

From April/May 1879 onwards, the single page format became the standard for these records.
For the period July 1904 to July 1914, there is a parallel set of records for Darlinghurst at NRS 1942 (this series also contains records for the other NSW gaols).

Custody History
[11/2205] was an archival estray received from Mr F. Rogers of the Hastings District Historical Society.
Endnotes
1. NRS 1824, 4/6478, p.496, no.71/2676.
2. NRS 1834, 5/1826, p.144, no.71/31.
3. NRS 2179, 5/1823, p.334.
Home location: These records are held at Western Sydney Records Centre

Victoria
Victoria had yet to adopt the NSW system by September 1872, according to this anecdotal report which appeared in the Melbourne Argus and the Empire, NSW:



Prison Photography
Empire, NSW, 19 September 1872

TRANSCRIPT

PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY
A VERY good plan for assisting the police to recognise criminals is adopted in New South Wales, and might well be followed by the prison authorities in this colony. Every prisoner before he leaves the prison at the expiration of his sentence is photographed, and the likeness gives the police all over the colony the best possible description of every bad character who is at large. Copies of some of these photographs are sent to the detectives here, and one was used at the City Court on Monday. On Saturday evening a man, who gave the name of Wm. Phillips, was caught upstairs in the private bedroom of the landlord of the Dover Hotel, corner of Victoria and Lygon streets. He was wearing over his boots a pair of felt slippers, which enabled him to walk noiselessly, and on the ground which he had passed over a skeleton key was found. He was recognised as an old offender, known as Isaac Williams, with half a dozen aliases, who had been convicted repeatedly in Victoria and New South Wales. A book containing his photograph, taken just before he left the gaol in New South Wales, was produced, and placed his identity beyond doubt. His defence was that he had been doing a job at "shingling," though he was a tailor, and had put on the felt slippers to prevent him slipping off the roof he was working upon. When he went into the hotel he got past the bar and into the bedroom upstairs by mistake. He was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour, and feeling agrieved gave notice of appeal. The photographer sometimes has difficulty when "taking off" a prisoner. One man whose portrait was in the book produced was represented in the act of executing a most comical wink, and a marginal note intimated that he had tried to spoil the likeness by contorting his features at the moment the picture was being taken. - Melbourne Argus.
Source: PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY. (1872, September 19). Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60865786

Pentridge Prison (Vic) 1874



Launceston Examiner 22 Aug 1874

TRANSCRIPT

VICTORIA. The system of taking photographic likenesses of prisoners at the Pentridge Stockade is stated to have proved of great assistance to the police department in detecting crime. The system was commenced at Pentridge about two years ago, and since then one of the officials who had a slight knowledge of the art, with the assistance of a prisoner has taken nearly 7000 pictures, duplicates of which have been sent to all parts of this and the adjacent colonies. But it has been considered rather too expensive, to employ an official entirely for the purpose, and as constant employment could not be provided in the future, a photographer has lately been appointed, who will visit the stockade twice in the week, and the hulks at Williamstown once. -- Argus. Launceston Examiner 22 Aug 1874
The Victorian government employed a commercial photographer to visit the Pentridge prison twice weekly, and to visit the hulks moored at Williamstown once a week. The photographer conventionally accredited as the Pentridge photographer for more than twenty years is Charles Nettleton (1826-1902) - for example, this statement which appears in an online biography at the ADB:
He was police photographer for over twenty-five years and his portrait of Ned Kelly, of which one print is still extant, is claimed to be the only genuine photograph of the outlaw.
Yet Nettleton's name does not appear in the Victorian Gazette as a photographic contractor to any  government department during the entire period of the 1870s and 1880s. His name only appears on these dates:

1863: Partnership dissolved with John Calder



Victorian Government Gazette 16 June 1863

1879: Patent for photogravure



Victorian Government Gazette 10 April 1879

1886: Insolvency again



Victorian Government Gazette 9 April 1886

This omission was not unusual when commercial photographers operated on commission. The only photographers listed in the Victorian Gazette up until 1875 were Batchelder and O'Neill, who supplied the Department of Lands and Survey with photographic chemicals and materials. The contract dated 17th March, 1865, does not indicate they these two photographers were the ones who would eventually use the  chemicals in government service.

1865: Batchelder and O'Neill contract



Victorian Government Gazette 17 March 1865

1875: Felton, Grimawade, and Co.
This large concern supplied not just photographic materials to the General Stores of the Victorian government; they also supplied medicines etc, all of which were gazetted simply as "Contingencies 1875-76". Likewise, photographic chemicals and materials supplied by tender and used by Thomas Nevin in Tasmania from 1872 onwards were listed in Government stores simply as Supplies, Hobart City Corporation and Office of the Inspector of Police.





Victorian Government Gazette 23 April 1875

The list of chemicals here shows the extent to which the Victorian Government was using documentary photography by 1875. But again, no photographer's contract to the Prisons Department or Office of Inspector of Police was gazetted until John Noone's name was gazetted in August 1881.



Victorian Government Gazette 23 April 1875



Victorian Gazette 6 August 1881

Nettleton's Patent Registrations (Victoria) 1870s





National Archives of Australia Ref: A2388
Registers of Proprietors of Paintings, Photographs, Works of Art and Sculpture
Charles Nettleton’s government commission to take photographs of the Benevolent Asylum, National Museum, the Royal Mint (1873) etc
Photography © KLW NFC 2008 ARR

PATENTS REGISTRATION
The stamps appearing on the photographs (below) of Lowry, taken by photographer Charles Nettleton (Victoria), were inscribed with the numbers "189" and "190" when registered as commercial photographs with the Victorian Patents Office in 1870. The use of this stamp continued in Victoria until 1873. The inscription - "The convict 'Lowry' " - on the verso of the mounted cdv suggests it was taken of a prisoner for police and gaol records, because Nettleton was known to have worked for police over a period of twenty years to the 1880s (Kerr, 1992).



State Library of Victoria Catalogue
Creator: Nettleton, Charles, 1826-1902, photographer.
Title: The convict ’Lowry’ [picture] / Charles Nettleton.
Accession number(s): H96.160/1583 H96.160/1584
Date(s) of creation: 1870.
Medium: 2 photographs : albumen silver ;
Dimensions: 10 x 6 cm. each.
Collection: Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection
Contents/Summary:Two portrait photographs of the convict, Lowry. H96.160/1583 shows him full-length, outdoors and leaning on a steel fence. H96.160/1584, a vignette bust portrait. He wears a shirt and unbuttoned jacket, and has a moustache.
Notes:Title inscribed on verso.
Date of copyright registration ascertained from Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection (VPOCC) Index: Aug. 6 1870.
VPOCC registration number inscribed on item l.c. & l.r.: 189 & 190.
Registered by Frederick Secretair, Russell Street, Melbourne.
Original Picture Collection location number: Env. 24, no. 39 & 40.
Subject(s):Male prisoners -- Victoria -- 1870.
Portrait photographs ;Albumen prints.
Vignettes. Source/Donor:
Transferred from The Victorian Patents Office to the Melbourne Public Library 1908.
The files which now comprise the Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection were begun by the Victorian Patents Office in 1870. In order to register copyright, a copy of the photograph, print or illustration was lodged with the Victorian Patents Office at the Melbourne Town Hall. A number was assigned and the photographs were mounted in scrapbooks. The photographs were stamped with the date of registration but this ceased in 1873. The original registers are now in the National Archives of Australia. The Picture Collection holds photocopies of these registers. The registers or indexes contain the following information: Date of registration, name and address of proprietor or author, description of the work and date of first publication. Images were registered from 1870 until 1906. The collection was transferred to the Melbourne Public Library in 1908.
Call number: PIC LTAF 980

Tasmanian Patents 1860s-1880s
In Tasmania, Thomas J. Nevin designed seven studio stamps for commercial use, plus one which appears on the versos of prisoners' identification photographs bearing the Royal Arms government insignia. This was for use on commission with the Hobart Municipal Police Office, and Hobart City Council and registered at the Office of the Registrar of Patents, Customs House, Hobart. These registers are now held at the Archives Office of Tasmania Series RGD9/1/1, RGD12, from 1859-1904.



Webshot: Office of the Registrar of Patents (Archives Office Tasmania)
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