Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

"Melville St. West Hobart under snow": Wellington Park Exhibition July 1868

Hobart under snow 1868
Commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin took this photograph of Melville Street, West Hobart from the verandah of the Hobart Gaol Governor's house in July 1868 on a day of heavy snowfall. It was one of several photographs he entered at the Wellington Park Exhibition; another was a photograph of the Nevin family house at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley), Hobart.

Title: 'Melville St West Hobart under snow' 1868
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (not online) TMAG: Q9134

Verso: 'Melville St West Hobart under snow' 1868
Photographer's stamp: T. Nevin late A. Bock
City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (not online) TMAG: Q9134

Verso inscriptions:

C300 Hbt Melville Street
Pencilled: This by W. J. T. Stops Esq.
Kings Arms Murray St 1835
St. Mary's Catholic Burial Ground
W. Hobart July 1868

The verso of this photograph carries Thomas J. Nevin's most common commercial studio stamp and the wording - "This by W. J. T. Stops Esq." - which suggests that the photograph was presented to Frederick Stops by Thomas Nevin in 1868, perhaps as a gift to Emily Stops on the birth of their daughter, and was then passed down to his son W. J. T. Stops (b. 1870), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, who subsequently donated it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from the Stops estate or even from the University of Tasmania archives (Royal Society Collection) where more of Thomas J. Nevin’s photographs are held. It was then inscribed by an archivist on accession with the note - "This by W. J. T. Stops Esq". Frederick Stops and photographer Thomas Nevin were well acquainted for several reasons, among them the dissolution of Thomas Nevin's partnership with Robert Smith operating as the firm "Nevin & Smith" in February 1868 which was underwritten by Frederick Stops' employer and Nevin's mentor, the Hon. W R. Giblin, Attorney-General. Frederick Stops was draftsman of information for the Criminal Court and Acts of Parliament, regarded as Giblin's "right-hand man".

Taken from the Hobart Gaol
Thomas Nevin's chosen position to take the photograph was from the second storey of the Hobart Gaol Governor's Quarters. His camera captured the right side of Melville Street, and a wider vista of kunanyi/Mount Wellington to the north west.

Residence of the Governor of the Hobart Gaol, at the end of Melville Street; shows brick wall at the rear of Scot's Church
Further Description: Negative date is approximate - old roll film this size could have been around from 1905 - 1930
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/PH40-1-3452

By 1900 it was called the Superintendent's house with the public entrance from Melville Street, which terminated at its front gate (photo above), rather than the Gaol's entrance in Campbell St (photo below).

Frontal side view of the Superintendent's House at the Hobart Gaol in Campbell Street [PH30-1-3691]
Locality: Campbell Street, Campbell Street, Hobart
Date: 1900, Unattributed
Archives Office of Tasmania
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/PH30-1-3691/PH30-1-3691

Entries on T. Nevin, TMAG publication, 1995
This photograph - a carte-de-visite of Melville St. West Hobart under snow, 1868 - was reproduced on page 82 of the publication Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (C. Long, G. Winter, THRA, TMAG, 1995) together with a stereograph by Nevin of New Town from the public school which carries verso his less common New Town studio stamp. The editors included these notes, which are vague and dismissive of Thomas J. Nevin's work for the most part:

TRANSCRIPT

NEVIN, Thomas J (1842-c.1922)
140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, 1867-75 [TMAG]
Also traded as Nevin and Smith in the early 1870s. Nevin took over Alfred Bock's studio and did some early commercial work photographing, for example, the range of coaches used by Samuel Page in the early 1870s...

Image: cdv: "Melville St Hobart Mt Wellington in background..."

There are also cdv portraits of Nevin's, showing a clientele which, judging from their clothes, must have been rather less than affluent. Nevin may have had a contract for taking convict photographs. (DAA) [ALMFA;AOT]

Image: stereograph; "New Town from the public school..."

NEVINS, Thomas (New Town, Tasmanian [PC]

COMMENT
A second entry on this page in Thomas Nevin's name records the only photograph extant now held at the TMAG which carries verso a remarkably ornate studio stamp with "s" added to his name, as in - "Thomas NEVINS" - of New Town Tasmania, held in a private collection [PC]. It is a cdv of the Orphan School and St John's Church New Town.

A third entry on pages 35-36 of this TMAG publication (Long & Winter 1995) titled "CONVICT PHOTOGRAPHS" makes only passing mention of T. J. Nevin's contract with the colonial government to photograph prisoners on incarceration and discharge from the Hobart Gaol from 1872-1886 (14 year contract). Chris Long attempts in this entry to attribute the extant 300 or so cdv's in public collections of so-called "Port Arthur convicts" in 20th century tourism discourse to the Port Arthur Commandant A. H. Boyd, a seriously misleading entry based on no evidence whatsoever and which ignores prison and police procedures in place in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW by 1873. Boyd was not a photographer, he did not photograph convicts at Port Arthur, and no works by him are extant (see Kerr, Stilwell, McPhee, Neville et al).

Two entries for T. Nevin, including two photographs by Thomas J. Nevin (TMAG collections)
TMAG publication Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (1995, p. 82)

RELATED POSTS main weblog

T. J. Nevin's Royal Arms colonial warrant studio stamp

THE GOVERNOR'S PATRONAGE vs GOVERNMENT TENDER
ROYAL ARMS INSIGNIA

Royal Arms insignia atop Treasury building Hobart
Photo © KLW NFC 2011 Arr

Commercial photographers in Tasmania in the 1870s and 1880s were extended two basic but very different types of government support, and these differences are evident in the designs of their studio stamps. Henry Hall Baily, for example, used a stamp signifying patronage by the Governor of Tasmania. He photographed notable citizens, visiting VIPs and official functions, often with the express intention of submitting his photographs to national and international exhibitions. In other words, H. H. Baily was never contracted under tender to work for the Colonial government, merely rewarded for special commissions by the Governor. His stamp from the mid 1880s was printed with the words "Under the Patronage of His Excellency Sir G. C. Strahan", and the initials "K.C.M.G" beneath.

Thomas J. Nevin, by contrast, was issued with a stamp which contained the design of the Supreme Court seal and the Prisons Department publications banner because he served the Colonial government as a contracted photographer on a regular basis in Supreme Court sittings. From 1868, he was receiving commission for his work with the Lands and Survey Department and from 1872 for his photographic documentation of prisoners, and by 1873, he was contracted on a permanent basis, eventually joining the civil service full-time in 1876. He continued working with police in Hobart's courts and prisons until 1886. This is one of many extant examples of T. J. Nevin’s government contractor stamp with the Royal Arms insignia which he was required to display on the versos of at least one photograph per batch supplied on commission to the Lands and Survey Department and the Municipal Police Office, Hobart City Council, between 1865 and 1876

All government contractors used the Royal Arms insignia. Naval contractor J. Callaghan proudly displayed it as his business credentials above his butchery shop entrance.

Photograph – J Callaghan’s Butcher’s shop, Morrison Street, Hobart
Description: 1 photographic print
ADRI: NS1013-1-1075
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

Just as the butcher J. Callaghan displayed his government contract credentials above his shop entrance, Thomas J. Nevin would have displayed a similar sign at his studio in Elizabeth Street.

The studio stamp on the verso of Nevin's photograph of prisoner William Smith's portrait (below), held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, carries the government's official Royal Arms insignia with lion and unicorn rampant. Unlike other types of studio stamps which Nevin used between 1867 and 1884, this particular version carries the middle initial "J" for James in his name: "T. J. Nevin". The same stamp appears on the versos of T. J. Nevin's police photographs of convicts William Smith and James Mullins held at the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

Convict William Smith per Gilmore (3), transported 20th August, 1843.
Photo by T. J. Nevin, 1874, held at the QVMAG, Launceston.

Convict William Smith per Gilmore (3),
Photo by T.J. Nevin 1875, recto and verso
Mitchell Library NSW (PXB 274)
Photos © KLW NFC 2009 Arr

Above: Both these photographs of prisoners, James Mullins on left and William Smith on right, bear Nevin’s contractor stamp with the Hobart Supreme Court Royal Arms insignia.
Mitchell Library NSW (PXB 274)
Photos © KLW NFC 2009-14 Arr

Under instructions from the Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, Thomas Nevin worked with Frederick Stops, Clerk to the Attorney-General to photograph men at trial in the Supreme Court and Hobart Gaol by 1872, and the inmates from the Port Arthur penitentiary on their transfer to the Hobart Gaol in 1873. Government printer James Barnard designed this stamp for Nevin and registered it at the Town Hall Municipal Police Office in February 1872 when Nevin's commission as police and prisons photographer was underwritten by contract to the Colonial Government.

The Tasmanian Prison Act 1868 with the Royal Arms insignia:
Consolidation and Amendation of the Tasmanian Prison Act 1868, printed by James Barnard.
Source: eHeritage database, State library of Tasmania

H.H. BAILY
Photographer Henry Hall Baily, a close associate of Thomas Nevin, used a variation of the Royal Arms insignia on his studio stamp with the words, "Under the Patronage of His Excellency Sir G. C. Strahan", and the initials "K.C.M.G" beneath.

Sir George C. STRAHAN, Governor Major, KCMG 7, held the office between December 1881 and 28th October 1886, which indicates that Baily assumed the Governor's patronage no earlier than 1881. Baily's earlier studio stamps ca. 1870s on the verso of portraits taken at his Elizabeth Street studio - which was directly opposite Nevin's City Photographic Establishment - lack the Royal Arms insignia.

H.H. Baily stamp, ca 1881-86 (TMAG 1995).

ALFRED WINTER
Commercial photographer Alfred Winter (1837-1911) was fond of fashionable society and grand landscapes. He held a commission with the Land and Works Department from 1876, but retained full independence as a commercial photographer at his studio in Elizabeth St. Hobart. His usual stamp from the late 1870s into the 1880s carried the wording“By Appointment to His Excellency The Governor”. This studio portrait of Anne Delaware was taken in 1884.

IN HIS OWN WORDS...

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

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

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

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

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

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Important Notices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

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

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872