Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

Prisoners Michael GILMORE and James KILPATRICK at the NLA

Michael Gilmore was a career criminal, or so it seems His convictions included burglary, larceny, indecency, idle and disorderly, feloniously wounding etc. He was in and out of prison on a regular basis from 1869. In October 1874 Thomas Nevin photographed him at the Hobart Gaol. These records include his convictions and discharges from 1874 to 1885. His aliases were Terence or Michael Moore.

Prisoner Michael Gilmore
Photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on 15 October 1874 at the Hobart Gaol.
Photos taken at the NLA, 16th December 2016
Copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR

Versos: Prisoner Michael Gilmore
Photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on 15 October 1874 at the Hobart Gaol.
Photos taken at the NLA 16th December 2016
Copyright © KLW NFC 2016 ARR

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
nla.pic-vn4269935 PIC P1029/17a LOC Album 935 Micheal Gilmore, per Prince Regent, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] 1874. 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm. on mount 10.5 x 6.3 cm.

POLICE RECORDS

Michael Gilmore absconded 9 October 1874

Michael Gilmore alias Terence Moore was arrested and photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on 15 October 1874 at the Hobart Gaol.

Gilmore discharged 4 June 1879

Gilmore discharged 12 November 1879

Gilmore discharged 28 May 1880

Gilmore arraigned 17 June 1880

Gilmore discharged 17 December 1884

Gilmore discharged 9 July 1885

Gilmore discharged 9 December 1885

The other Micheal [sic] Gilmore; photograph of James Kilpatrick
A second carte is held at the NLA of a different man, with the name spelled as Micheal Gilmore. Thomas Nevin photographed two men whom the transcriber - probably Beattie in 1915 - later named Michael or Micheal Gilmore, but Nevin would have known the identity of this man. The transcriber/copysist ca. 1915 was trying to match the physical description of a man with a bald(ish) head - "crown of head bald" - from the police gazette notices to loose mugshots removed from their criminal record sheets, and came up with two choices. This man was possibly James Kilpatrick, photographed by Thomas J. Nevin between imprisonment at the Hobart Gaol in October 1874 and discharge from the Hobart Town Gaol in the week of 30 August, 1876.

NB: This is more likely to be James Kilpatrick

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information).
nla.pic-vn4269951
Micheal Gilmore, per Prince Regent, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [2] [picture]
1874. 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm. on mount 10.5 x 6.3 cm.

"Kilpatrick is at present in H.M. Gaol at Hobart Town undergoing sentences, two years and five months of which are unexpired."

Thomas Nevin photographed James Kilpatrick in late October 1874 soon after arrest at the Hobart Gaol.This warrant was issued on 26 March 1875 while he was currently serving sentences for other offences.

James Kilpatrick, photographed by Nevin at the Hobart Gaol again on discharge from Hobart Gaol, 26 August, 1876. Kilpatrick was convicted again on 17 October 1876.

Addenda and Update
The information about Gilmore's criminal activities from the police gazettes, called Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, James Barnard, Gov't Printer, is easily obtainable, so why was nothing but basic transportation records about this prisoner, Michael Gilmore (and the second man with a similar name) included in the National Library of Australia's publication of their Tasmanian "convict portraits", titled Exiled, The Port Arthur Convict Photographs (NLA 2011)?

Above: The two convicts called Gilmore, printed here on page 206 of Exiled (2011). Basic information from the transportation records, nothing more, just the photographs.
Below: frontispiece, with the misleading sub-title.
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2012 ARR

The reason is simply this: the NLA rushed into print with this book to regain copyright of their collection of "Port Arthur convicts" which currently numbers 84 photographs, seemingly under threat of a digital audience using weblogs such as this one. Sadly, the authors of Exiled had no interest or expertise in examining the PHOTOGRAPHS themselves as artefacts, despite the sub-title of the book. Furthermore, their attribution to Thomas J. Nevin as the photographer was compromised - not surprisingly - with Port Arthur tourism propaganda and fallacies about the non-photographer A.H. Boyd by the author's historical advisor, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, as required by the masters who feather his nest with hefty grants and gullible students who otherwise might fail. Tropes and whole chunks of text were plagiarised by Barnard and Stewart from these weblogs, and whatever information we chose not to display online, those gaps also appear as lacunae in the publication Exiled, yet no request for permission was received to liberally use our weblogs for their commercial purpose. The evidence is indicative here, for example, regarding this prisoner Gilmore. The information about Michael Gilmore which we had not published to accompany his photograph by 2011- but publish now in 2014 - is also missing from Exiled (see page 206 above). With all that government assistance entails, in terms of NLA staff, hours, funding, and glossy publishing, plus free research assistance provided by Maxwell-Stewart's students at the University of Tasmania, one could reasonably expect a better product and better practice from the National Library of Australia. Instead, they have politicised this particular collection of "convict portraits", and defamed those who question their ethics.

RELATED POSTS main weblog

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.

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