Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

Prisoner Thomas KELLY 1873

The NLA copy
Government contractor T. J. Nevin's original print from his negative taken in 1873 of prisoner Thomas Kelly at the Hobart Gaol was salvaged from police records by John Watt Beattie in the 1900s and acquired from his estate by the QVMAG in the 1930s. The NLA acquired this print in the 1980s. This copy was numbered on the mount "92" and on the verso for inclusion in various exhibitions and displays dating from the 1930s to the 1970s.Thomas Kelly was transported from Ireland in 1851 under the name "Thomas Moran".

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
Verso information: Thomas Kelly, per London 2nd, taken at Port Arthur, 1874
Photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm. on mount 10.5 x 6.3 cm.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142917818

The QVMAG copy
This duplicate from T. J. Nevin's original print from his negative taken in 1873 of Thomas Kelly at the Hobart Gaol is held at the QVMAG. It was numbered on the mount "144" for relocation to an exhibition at the Port Arthur Heritage site but was never moved: it remained at the QVMAG per this inventory of the QVMAG collection ex John Watt Beattie's estate of Tasmanian "convict photographs" drawn up in the 1980s. The phrase on verso in parentheses (Taken at Port Arthur 1874) was written in the 1900s by Beattie et al for display and sale to tourists at his "Port Arthur Museum" located in Hobart who were intending to visit the ruins of the Port Arthur prison on the Tasman peninsula.

Prisoner Thomas Kelly
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin
QVMAG Ref: QVM 1985: P: 128

Verso: the phrase in parentheses (Taken at Port Arthur 1874) is incorrect
Prisoner Thomas Kelly
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin
QVMAG Ref: QVM 1985: P: 128

The Archives Office paper copy
A paper copy of the same image held at the QVMAG, Launceston, Tasmania is held at the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart.

Caption: Thomas Kelly, convict per London 2 1851. Photo taken at Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin.

PRISON RECORD
Thomas Kelly, alias Thomas Moran, born Londonderry (Ireland) and former soldier of the 58th Regiment was transported to Hobart, VDL on the London (2) in 1851, sentenced to 10 years for stealing money. He was tried on 26 January 1864 at the Supreme Court Hobart for "an unnatural offence" and sentenced to be hanged, the sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He was transferred to the Hobart Gaol from the Port Arthur prison and discharged from the Hobart Gaol 24 March 1879.

Kelly, Thomas
Record Type: Convicts
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 20 Dec 1850
Departure port: Kingston
Ship: London (2)
Voyage number: 335
Remarks: Transported as Thomas Moran
Police number: 5439
Index number: 39472
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1408607
Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1408607
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON14-1-42/CON14-1-42P200

Thomas Kelly was photographed by T. J. Nevin on being received from Port Arthur at the Hobart Gaol on 2 November 1873.

Prisoner Thomas GRIFFIN

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
Title Thomas Griffin, per Rodney 2, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] (incorrect information)
Date1874.(incorrect information)
Extent1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm. on mount 10.5 x 6.3 cm.

POLICE RECORDS

Thomas Griffin per Rodney 2 was discharged from the Port Arthur prison on 22-26 June 1872, with a ticket of leave. He was not photographed at Port Arthur, despite the inscription on the verso of his photograph - if the NLA Catalogue notes have been literally transcribed, that is, which is often not the case with these photographs of prisoners bearing the 20th century archivist's incorrect information, errors further compounded by the NLA's batch edit of all 84 of their collection with the same date and place - "Port Arthur" and "1874" . Griffin's TOL was recorded earlier, on the 12 June 1872. His crime, committed in Tasmania, was housebreaking. He remained in service at the Military Barracks (Anglesea Barracks, Hobart) until he absconded on 6th January 1873. When he was found and arrested at Glenorchy by both the Hobart Police and Territorial Police, he was incarcerated at the Hobart Gaol where Thomas Nevin photographed him at trial in the week of 10 June 1873. The photograph shows clearly Griffin’s blind left eye.

Griffin TOL 12 June 1872

Thomas Griffin absconded 10 January 1873

Thomas Griffin was arrested and photographed by Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, 10 June 1873. From then on, Thomas Griffin was in and out of prison on a regular basis until at least 1885 for crimes such as larceny, idle and disorderly, indecency and unlawfully on premises.

Thomas Griffin discharged 14 June 1882

Thomas Griffin discharge 22 August 1883

Thomas Griffin discharged 30 July 1885

Thomas Griffin was discharged 28 November 1885. Another photograph was taken of him on discharge by Thomas Nevin's brother, Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Gaol.

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.

Click here for KEY DATES 1842-1923

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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