Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

Mugshot of 'native' convict Henry Cavanagh 1873 at NLA with no attribution

From no attribution to Thomas J. Nevin attribution 2007:

NLA Catalogue full record (as at April 17, 2009)

Henry Cavanagh at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874 [picture] Title Henry Cavanagh at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874 [picture] Date 1874. Extent 1 albumen print : sepia toned; 10.5 x 6.5 cm. Context Part of Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] Series * Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874. Biography Henry Cavanagh was a convict at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874. Notes Condition: Fair, some foxing. Title devised by cataloguer. "306 Henry Cavanagh Native Taken at Port Arthur 1874."--In ink on verso. Convicts confidential Gunson collection. Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874. NLA neg. 1998. Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3660505 Subject * Cavanagh, Henry -- Portraits. * Convicts -- Tasmania -- Port Arthur -- Portraits. Occupation * Prisoners. Identifier nla.pic-vn3660505 Bib id vn3660505 Call number(s) * P1029/76 LOC Album 935 *

Henry Cavanagh was sent to Port Arthur in December 1873. His name does not appear in the House of Assembly Journals, Nominal Return of Prisoners sent to Port Arthur since its transfer to Colonial Government in 1871, tabled in Parliament on 11th June, 1873. He was discharged before that date, on the 14th June 1872 after sentencing of one month in Hobart, and arraigned in Launceston nine months later, on the 3rd September 1873. He was received at the Hobart Gaol, sentenced to 6 years, and photographed there on 17th September 1873 by the government contractor, commercial photographer T. J. Nevin. He was a 'native', i.e. a locally-born prisoner, and too young to be a transportee among the thousands who arrived before 1853 when transportation ended to Tasmania.

The numbering on the verso of this carte, according to the NLA notes is "306". This is an archivist's number which could date from ca 1916 sourced from Beattie's Museum, or from the 1960s with the Gunson Collection acquisition by the NLA, or from the 1930s when the QVMAG acquired Beattie's Collection, or from the 1980s when the QVMAG copied and distributed more than 70 cartes to the Port Arthur prison site, the NLA, the AOT, the TMAG etc.

POLICE RECORDS
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police (police gazettes).

Henry Cavanagh was discharged in the week ending 14 June 1872

Details: Henry Cavanagh, aged 19 yrs, arraigned 3 September 1873 and sentenced to 6 years for stealing a posted letter and uttering. He was admitted to the Hobart Gaol (Campbell St Gaol) and photographed by T, J, Nevin on 17th September 1873.

This prisoner mugshot is included in the Gunson Collection by the National Library of Australia, and was unattributed until 2007 when all Tasmanian prisoner cartes-de-visite were identified as the work of government contractor and commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin. It has all the characteristics of the other booking photographs, mugshots, or "convict portraits" by T. J. Nevin held at the NLA, including pose, processing, framing, and verso notes. The verso bears the number '306' and the factually incorrect inscription "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" which was touristic spin written in the early 1900s on the versos of dozens of these prisoner cdvs for inclusion in travelling exhibitions associated with the fake convict hulk Success .

The NLA's unattributed catalogue entry prior to 2007 looked like this:

NLA Digital Collection: Henry Cavanagh at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874 [picture] Date: 1874.
Extent: 1 albumen print : sepia toned; 10.5 x 6.5 cm.
Biography: Henry Cavanagh was a convict at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874.
Notes: Condition: Fair, some foxing. Title devised by cataloguer. "306 Henry Cavanagh Native Taken at Port Arthur 1874."--In ink on verso.
Convicts confidential Gunson collection. NLA neg. 1998.
Cavanagh, Henry -- Portraits. Convicts -- Tasmania -- Port Arthur -- Portraits. Occupation Prisoners. Identifier nla.pic-vn3660505 Bib idvn3660505
Call number(s)PIC/10045 LOC BOX PIC/10045 *

Updated May 2009

Jack Nevin at the Hobart Gaol 1860s

Constable John (W. J. aka Jack) NEVIN 1860s-1800s
Prisoners' barracks, Hobart Gaol, Campbell St.
Stereographs, colour and frame, 1860s

Map of the old Hobart Gaol
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2009

Three early stereographs of the Hobart Gaol
These three stereographs (below) of the H. M. Gaol, known as the Campbell Street Gaol, Hobart Town, taken in the mid 1860s are held in the State Library of Tasmania. Colour auto-adjustment of the first one in particular - depicting Jack Nevin as a boy and a top-hatted man, possibly the Superintendent J.P. Ball in the courtyard of the gaol - has revealed the yellow mount and arch framing used by Tasmanian photographer Alfred Bock, and his junior partner Thomas J. Nevin in his stereograph series from the 1860s located at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Prolific stereographer Samuel Clifford (1827-1890), Thomas J. Nevin’s long time friend and partner, used the same paper and framing for an exhibition of 100 stereoscopic views at Melbourne’s 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition. Clifford’s association with the Gaol was long-standing: between 1851 and 1856 he was the storekeeper at the Hobart Town Prisoners’ Barracks (Kerr, 1992:164), the subject of these three views below. Clifford reprinted many of Thomas J. Nevin's commercial negatives for his former private clientele after 1876 on Nevin joining the civil service as full-time Keeper of the Hobart Town Hall.

An unusual monogram appears on the verso of the last in this series - “J. P. Ball” . This monogram appears on the verso of another stereo at the State Library of Trinity Church with this note in the catalogue:

“Monogram in ink on left side of verso, with [J.P. Ball] in pencil, probably printed by G.T. Stilwell”

The late G. T. Stilwell was the curator of the ALMFA and Special Collections Librarian but who was J.P. Ball? He may have been one of more than twenty people named Ball living in Hobart at the time. There was an established firm of solicitors called Gill & Ball in the 1870s, whose company name can be seen on the office windows - building on left - in the photograph below (not dated):

Source: University of Tasmania ePrints

Lilac fixer was used extensively to cater to contemporary taste in the printing of photographs during the 1860s. These two versions of each of the three early stereographs taken at the Hobart Gaol, also known as the Prisoners' Barracks, Campbell St., show the print (a) scanned for digital display by the State Library of Tasmania, and (b) auto colour-corrected to reveal the colour of the mount.

Above: scan at AOT
Below: colour auto-adjusted

Title: View of the prisoners' barracks, Campbell Street
Creator(s):Unknown
Date: ca. 1860
Description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 9 x 18 cm. (mount)
Notes: Descriptive inscription in ink on verso., Image size 71 x 69 mm. each.
Subjects: Prisoners' Barracks (Hobart, Tas.) - History - 1851-1901
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001125299420/AUTAS001125299420

Above: scan at AOT
Below: colour auto-adjusted

Title: Prisoners Barracks i.e. Gaol, Hobart Town
Creator(s):Unknown
Date: ca. 1865
Description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 7 x 7 cm. each, on mount 9 x 18 cm.
Notes: Title inscribed in ink in centre of verso, in Sir William Crowther's hand., Date and accession number in pencil upper right corner of verso., Exact size 69 x 66 mm. each, on mount 86 x 171 mm.
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001124851619/AUTAS001124851619

Above: scan at AOT
Below: colour auto-adjusted

Title: Interior, Hobart Gaol
Creator(s):Unknown
Date: ca. 1865
Description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 8 x 7 cm. each, on mount 9 x 18 cm.
Notes: On verso: title inscribed in ink in upper left, in Sir William Crowther's hand ; the no. 63, circled, in pencil in centre in unknown hand ; monogram in ink on right side, consistent with one identified as J.P. Ball in stereoscope 8/14., Date and accession number in pencil upper right corner of verso., Exact size 72 x 68 mm. each, on mount 86 x 171 mm.
Format: photograph
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001124851627/AUTAS001124851627

Jack Nevin at the Prisoners' Barracks
The boy in this stereograph (figure on viewer's left) is Jack Nevin, the younger brother of commercial and police photographer Thomas J. Nevin. He was photographed standing in conversation with an older man in top hat, perhaps prison official Mr J. P. Ball, Superintendent of the Prisoners Barracks, Campbell Street, Hobart, Tasmania.

Source: "View of the prisoners' barracks, Campbell Street", 1860s
W.L. Crowther Library State Library of Tasmania
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AUTAS001125299420/AUTAS001125299420

Detail of stereo right image above: A very young Jack Nevin ca. 1865, later Constable W. John Nevin in his favourite pose - left hand on hip - at the Hobart Gaol.

William John Nevin (1851-1891), known as Jack to the family, and as Constable John Nevin on joining the civil service at age 18 yrs in 1870, was stationed at the Asylum, Cascades Prison for Males, Hobart until 1876. His service continued at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street, as "Gaol Messenger", a rank which covered his duties as photographer, and as a hospital "Wardsman" until his untimely death in the typhoid epidemic of 1891 while still in service, aged 39 yrs old. The registrar of his death gave his age as 43 yrs old; however, his burial records at Cornelian Bay Cemetery on 19th June 1891 listed his death at 39 yrs, i.e. born 1851, and this date is consistent with the sick lists of the Fairlie shipping records stating that he was a babe in arms, less than 9 months old, when he arrived in Hobart on 3rd July 1852 with his settler parents, his father John Nevin snr, his mother Mary Anne (Dickson) Nevin, and his three older siblings: Thomas James Nevin, Rebecca Jane Nevin, and Mary Ann Nevin. The Fairlie sick list recorded:

Folio 5: William Nevin, aged 6 months, Child of Guard; sick or hurt, convulsio; put on sick list 2 June 1852, discharged 9 June 1852 to duty.

Their father John Nevin snr, former soldier of the Royal Scots First Regiment with service in the West Indies and Canada, worked the family's passage on the Fairlie as guard of the 292 adult male convicts and warden of 32 boys exiled from Parkhurst prison.

A full-length portrait of William John Nevin, 16 years old, taken by his brother Thomas J. Nevin in early 1868 during the visit to Hobart Tasmania of Alfred Ernest Albert, the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria on board the Royal yacht HMS Galatea, shows even more clearly the typical pose and dress of young William John aka Jack Nevin, choices made whenever he was photographed while still a youth, left arm bent, hand on hip, clean shaven (until his twenties when he favoured a moustache), a three piece suit with fob chain, and jacket with velvet revers (lapels).

Subject: William John Nevin (1852-1891), known as Jack to the family;
also known as Constable John Nevin from 1870-1891
Photographers: Thomas J. Nevin (older brother) and Robert Smith, as the firm NEVIN & SMITH
Location and Date: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania, January 1868.
Details: verso stamped with Prince of Wales blazon of three feathers, coronet and Ich Dien;
"From Nevin & Smith late Bock's, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town"
Source: Private Collection, Sydney Rare Books Auction, June 2019

Jack Nevin's signature pose in this photograph - left hand on hip - also appears in a family group photograph taken in 1871:

Thomas nevin seated Jack Nevin top right

Detail of group photo: Nevin Group Portrait taken at the wedding of Thomas J. Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day, July 1871:
Jack Nevin, top right, Thomas James Nevin snr and Elizabeth Rachel (Day) Nevin seated
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2003

This detail of a group photo taken (by whom?) at the time of Thomas James Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day's marriage, 12 July 1871 at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley, together with wedding guests, shows the bridal couple Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin seated and younger brother Jack Nevin standing with hands on hips, on viewer's extreme right.

A younger Jack Nevin standing on viewer's extreme right
Nevin Group Portrait taken at the wedding of Thomas J. Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day, July 1871
Jack Nevin, top right, Thomas James Nevin snr and Elizabeth Rachel (Day) Nevin seated
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2003

Constable John (William John aka Jack) Nevin ca 1874-6
Photographed by his brother Thomas J. Nevin
City Photograph Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint & Private Collection of Denis Shelverton 2006

This image was scanned from a photograph taken ca. 1874-6 which had been printed on thin paper and left unmounted. It was pasted into the scrapbook of George Nevin (1880-1957), the fourth son of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin, born at the Hobart Town Hall during Nevin's incumbency as Hall Keeper.

The original photograph by Thomas J. Nevin was taken at his studio the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town. Even such a poor image gives details of the studio decor which featured a diamond-patterned carpet, and a table with griffin-shaped legs. Thomas J. Nevin captured his younger brother Jack in a relaxed standing pose leaning on a book (one of those key Victorian signifiers of literacy), wearing a shirt, tie, fob watch, and three piece suit with velvet collars.

In this later photograph (below) taken ca. 1880, Jack Nevin looks very relaxed and very savvy about the process of being photographed. His gaze is direct and very keen, his clothes suitable for everyday work in a foul place such as a prison. His salaried positions were primarily in administration, with a career path and ranking similar to the Gaol Keeper's until his untimely death during the typhoid epidemic of 1891. Older brother Thomas Nevin had been a Keeper too of a public institution, at the Hobart Town Hall between 1876-1880; a special constable during the Chiniquy Riots of 1879, and assistant bailiff in the courts during the 1880s.

In his own words ...

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

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

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

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

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

IMPORTANT NOTICES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

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

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872