The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holdings

The missing online database
This Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery notice about their photographic collections appeared in November 2006. It is now September 2010, and the promised website with viewable databases of their vast photographic holdings is still not up and running. The TMAG holds a sizable collection of rare works by Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923).



Webshot: TMAG notice of website redevelopment 2006 for the images collections.

Current notice (Sept 2010):

ONLINE ACCESS TO THE STATE COLLECTION
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is in the process of developing world-class access to our collection information. The TMAG has one of the most diverse collections in Australia, and with this diversity, challenges for digitisation are presented. The TMAG is committed to providing access to this information, and whilst our on-line service is unavailable, requests for assistance can be directed to tmagmail@tmag.tas.gov.au.

The TMAG's collections hold ninety and probably many more uncatalogued photographs by Thomas Nevin, sixty of which are stereographs, called "stereoscopes" in the former catalogue entries. In addition, fifty or so of his Tasmanian convicts' portraits are held there, but with the wrong attribution to A.H. Boyd, a result of the confusion generated by researcher Chris Long, which appeared in the TMAG's publication, Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory (1995:36). Boyd was a prison Commandant at Port Arthur (1871-73) but he was not a photographer, neither amateur nor official. T. J. Nevin was the commercial photographer on government contract who photographed those prisoners known as "Port Arthur convicts", i.e. those who were transported before 1853, when they re-offended in the 1870s and were arrested, sentenced and arraigned at the Supreme Court and incarcerated at the adjoining Hobart Gaol for a month BEFORE they were returned to Port Arthur to serve their sentence, if that was their fate. By late 1873-74, the majority of those sent back to Port Arthur, 109 in all, had been transferred back to the Hobart Town Gaol in Campbell St., where they were photographed on being received if sentenced prior to early 1872 when Thomas J. Nevin began the systematic documentation of their images for the colonial government.

The TMAG's annual report for 2002-2003 gives some idea of the extent of their photographic holdings, including their chartered obligation to give the public access, in this webshot which also shows the misattribution to Boyd of one of Nevin's convict cartes, that of James Glen sentenced to 10 years in the Hobart Supreme Court on July 4, 1871. Nevin photographed James Glen on the prisoner's relocation from the Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol in April 1874.



Webshot: TMAG Annual Report 2002-2003

T. J. Nevin's "convict" photographs



The A.H. Boyd misattribution appears below this prisoner photograph of James Glenn taken by Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, April 1874 and not at Port Arthur.



James Glen was arrested for stealing plate from Webb's Hotel, notice published in the police gazette of 10 February 1871.



Source of police records: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, Gov't printer

James Glen held a conditional pardon from Western Australia when he was sentenced to ten years for feloniously receiving.. He was sent to Port Arthur as one of the "Supreme Court men" convicted in 1871, assigned to employers, and returned to the Hobart Gaol as one of the sixty (60) of a total of one hundred and nine (109) men listed in Parliament on July 13th 1873 who had either been relocated back to the Hobart Gaol already before July or were scheduled to return to Hobart by October 1873 through to mid 1874. See the full lists (below) of the 109 sent to Port Arthur since the transfer from Imperial to Colonial government funding, and Attorney-General W. R.  Giblin's response to the question put forward to him about the progress of relocating the prisoners from Port Arthur to Hobart (called the Mainland, as distinct from the Tasman Peninsula, site of the Port Arthur prison) . As Giblin says in reply, (60) sixty had already been relocated back to Hobart by the time of his response in the session of July 13th 1873. James Glen was among them, and was photographed on arrival by Thomas Nevin, as were all these men at their Supreme Court sittings, again on their relocation, termed  being received at  the Hobart Gaol, and again on arrest, arraignment and discharge, termed being enlarged  throughout their criminal careers .

From the JOURNALS of the HOUSE of ASSEMBLY:
11th June 1873 and July 17th 1873
Port Arthur: Returns Relating to the Removal of Prisoners;





June 11th 1873 and July 13th 1873:
The Supreme Court prisoners were photographed at trial between 1871-1873, and photographed again on relocation to the Hobart Gaol May 1873-November 1873. They were NOT photographed at Port Arthur: photographic materials listed as cargo for Port Arthur in August 1873 were privately ordered AFTER the majority of the 109 prisoners had left the site, and could have been used for any number of purposes and at any time stretching into the years before the site finally closed in 1877, if indeed those glass plates listed as cargo on July 30th 1873 actually arrived at Port Arthur.

The "mugshots" of most but not all of the "Supreme Court men" listed in Session 33 of Parliament 1873 have survived (at the QVMAG, NLA, TMAG, Mitchell NSW, and AOT). They were originally held in Treasury, along with Nevin's tender, payment claims and his photograph of the Attorney-General W. R. Giblin, noted in the Mercury 1887 on Giblin's death when the search was mounted for a suitable photograph to copy in oils, and this was it, by Nevin taken of Giblin between 1872-76.

W R Giblin, photo T Nevin.
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TAKE NOTE: The answer to this motion was resolved on July 13th, 1873, with -
"Mr. Colonial Treasurer may have leave to introduce a Bill to establish a Consolidated Revenue Fund."
- which was tabled in October 1873 and from which Thomas Nevin was paid for his continuing services as photographer at the Hobart Gaol with Special Duties. The payment was listed in the June 1874 Treasury statement of expenditure for the financial year, hence the date "1874" which an early 20th century archivist has written on the versos of many of these prisoner's mugshots.

T. J. Nevin's mugshots at the TMAG
Eighteen (18) prisoner mugshots with the photographer misattribution to A.H. Boyd were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery Canberra in 2000, including that of James Glenn. The TMAG's collections of 50 or so mugshots are either Nevin's duplicates from his original 1870s negatives, or copies made at the QVMAG in Launceston and sent to the Port Arthur Heritage site for exhibition in 1983. They were then deposited back at the Archives Office in Hobart and included in the TMAG collections when the archives were transferred to the Rosny site. Typical of the collection is this mugshot of James Martin by Nevin, taken on the prisoner's discharge, 24th October 1874,  from the Hobart Goal. 



Read more about James Martin here. 

The misattribution of Nevin's convict photos at the TMAG are due to the error made by Chris Long, reiterated here by Warwick Reeder for exhibition at the NPG Canberra March 2000: Mirror with a Memory.

Thomas Nevin's stereographs and portraits at the TMAG
Seven or so of the stereo salt paper prints were online during 2006. These were catalogued in the images database. However, in the text-only database, another 53 photographs by Thomas Nevin were listed but not digitised.

Three major problems with the TMAG lists have emerged:

(a) Confusion over name: the initial "J" for James appears as a middle initial in Thomas Nevin's name in some entries and not in others, depending on which of the several versions of his studio stamps have been sighted: e.g. T. Nevin; T.J. Nevin, Thos. Nevin, Thomas J. Nevin, and Thomas Nevin, causing confusion with his son's name, Thomas James Nevin, born in 1874. Nevin used the initials "T. J. Nevin" on his Royal Arms studio stamp from at least January 1873.

(b) Wrongful attribution to A. H. Boyd instead of Thomas Nevin of the collection of Tasmanian prisoner photographs held by the TMAG, several of which are identical to those correctly attributed to Thomas Nevin in the major collections of the National Library of Australia, the QVMAG, and the Archives Office of Tasmania.

(c) Items which have been displaced from their series lose their attribution; for example, item no. Q1994.56.4 belongs to a series by Thomas Nevin, and it was online. It is a stereograph of a group at the Rocking Stone, Mt. Wellington, and belongs in the series Q1994.56.1 etc etc which bears "T. Nevin" impressed on front. Because it lacks attribution, it does not appear among the 53 entries in the list attached.

The TMAG list 2006
NB: This list with notes was copied verbatim  - spelling errors etc included - from the TMAG online catalogues in 2006. Information regarding any of these photographs now needs to be cross-checked for errors in this list's descriptions against the same photographs documented with factual research which were posted on this weblog after November 2014 when copies were obtained and put online.

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Q9134 ITEM NAME: Photograph print : MEDIUM: Albumen silver carte de visite, MAKER: T Nevin late A Bock [Artist]; TITLE: 'Melville West Hobart under snow ' DATE: 1868, July DETAILS: Wellington Park exhibition DESCRIPTION : View is looking to Mt Wellington from the southern side of Melville and also shows the Kings Arms near the center of image; St Mary's burial ground near center left of image. A store is shown on the corner of Murray and Melville ?

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Q1994.56.7 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Salmon Ponds at Plenty near New Norfolk INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.5 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope - oval image, MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; TITLE: 'Ladies and gentleman, seated and standing round stone wall? Same group as in Q994.56.1, Q1994.56.24' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : recreation, walking INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T.Nevin/ photo.

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Q1994.56.34 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; TITLE: 'Lady Franklin's Museum, KangarooValley' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Group of people at Lady Franklin's Museum, Kangaroo Valley INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back in pencil: Mrs A Pedder / and in different hand Lady Franklin's Museum/ KangarooValley and in different hand again best picture

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Q1994.56.33 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Elizabeth Street showing Nevin & Smith photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth Steet near [Patrick ? Street] INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: None

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Q1994.56.30 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope, DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Hobart from Lime Kiln Hill looking down Harrington Street INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back in pencil: a Pedder and stamped Thos Nevin/ Newtown

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Q1994.56.28 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope, MAKER: Thos Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : New Town ? looking to the Domain INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Stamped on back: Thos Nevin/ Newtown

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Q1994.56.24 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Group of people in bush setting, same group as in Q994.56.1, Q1994.56.5 INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.22 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; TITLE: 'Two men sitting at fence looking out over a field' DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : post and rail fence, pipe INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.21 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Scene near New Norfolk ? INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.20.1 ITEM NAME: Label: MEDIUM: Paper and printing ink, MAKER: Nevin & Smith [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : Label from the back of Q1994.56.20 for photographers Nevin & Smith, 140 elizabeth Street, Hobarton INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back a pink label: Tasmanian views/ from/ Nevin & Smith,/ Photographers,/ 140, Elizabeth St., Hobarton./ Stereoscopic and Album Portraits/ Views Photographed./ Viiews of Residences, Tombstones copied, Terms —Cheap!

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Q1994.56.20 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print , MAKER: Nevin & Smith [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : Group of people dancing in field. INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: On back a pink label: Tasmanian views/ from/ Nevin & Smith,/ Photographers,/ 140, Elizabeth St., Hobarton./ Stereoscopic and Album Portraits/ Views Photographed./ Viiews of Residences, Tombstones copied, Terms —Cheap!

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Q1994.56.2.1 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope - Arched image, MAKER: T J Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Label from back of stereo view Q1984.56.20 -Scenic view showing waterfall INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Printed on back in oval stamp: T J Nevin/ Photographic Artist/ 140 Elizabeth Street.,/ HobartTown/ Copies may be had at any time

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Q1994.56.2 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope - Arched image, MAKER: T J Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Scenic view showing waterfall INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Printed on back in oval stamp: T J Nevin/ Photographic Artist/ 140 Elizabeth Street.,/ Hobart Town/ Copies may be had at any time

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Q1994.56.17 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : D Chisholm, standing at gate Bathurst ? Brisbane ? Street, Hobart Town, D Chisholm , school master, New Town School, 1872 [refer Q1987.388] INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: None

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Q1994.56.13 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Fern Tree ? INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impress on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.12 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1860s late DESCRIPTION : Hobart from near 140 Elizabeth Street on corner Patrick ? Street. Nevin & Smith photographic Studio in buildings on extreme right [ refer also to Q1994.56.33] INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impress on front: T Nevin/ photo

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Q1994.56.1 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope - arched image, MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Group of gentlemen and a lady on board a ship. Capstan wheel in centre of image. Same group as in Q994.56.5, Q1994.56.24 INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front : T Nevin/ Photo

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Q1990.25.401 ITEM NAME: Photograph print: MEDIUM: carte de visite, MAKER: Clifford & Nevin [Artist]; DESCRIPTION : Studio portrait of unknown woman standing next to chair INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: In ink on back: Clifford & Nevin/ HobartTown

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Q1990.25.400 ITEM NAME: Photograph print: MEDIUM: carte de visite, MAKER: Clifford & Nevin [Artist]; DESCRIPTION : Studio portrait of unknown woman INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: In ink on back: Clifford & Nevin/ Hobart Town

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Q1987.388 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: carte de visite, MAKER: Thos Nevin [Artist]; TITLE: 'Brisbane Street, Hobart. Shows D Chisholm, schoolmaster at New Town Public School leaning on fence. ' DATE: 1870 s INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: In ink on back: "Bathurst ?/ or Brisbane St ?/ Hobart /1870s My father D Chisholm/ at the gate/ Bathurst St/ Hobart Town"

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Q16826.9 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin [Photographer]; TITLE: 'Tasmanian Views.' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : No information relative to title of his images. This one, of a house or maybe a school. INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: (On bacK) Tas. Views from Nevin & Smith (Late) Photographers (s crossed out) 140 Elizabeth Street. Steroscopic and Album Portraits Views Photographed. Views of Residences, Tombstones copied, Terms:-Cheap!

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Q16826.7 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'Beacon Light Mount Wellington ' DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : A group of people on Mt.Wellington The party appears to consist of 3/4 women and perhaps 10 malesof assorted ages.

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Q16826.6 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : A Gentleman slouched against a tree. Possibly, Mr Chisolm, the school teacher from New Town

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Q16826.5 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'New Town' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Cottage in New Town

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Q16826.4 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'A Party at the Rocking Stone, MountWellington' DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : A group of people at the Rocking Stone on Mt.Wellington. Consists of 4 men and three women.The two women sitting on the ground in front of the rock appear to be sisters.

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Q16826.38 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : A Bush Scene. Thick scrub, probably near Hobart.

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Q16826.37 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : A Bush Scene. Thick scrub, probably near Hobart. A river could be in the top of the photo,

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Q16826.36 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: TJ Nevin ? [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Mount Wellington Foothills?

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Q16826.35 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: TJ Nevin ? [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Mount Wellington

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Q16826.34 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns. Possibly near Hobart, maybe Mt.Wellington or KangarooValley.

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Q16826.33 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: TJ Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns. Possibly near Hobart, maybe Mt.Wellington.

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Q16826.32 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Shows 3 men astride large rocks on Mt.Wellington.

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Q16826.31 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia coloured stereoscope, MAKER: Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns With Snow. Ferns with snow, possibly at KangarooValley. (LenahValley)

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Q16826.30 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia coloured stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'Ferns KangarooValley.' DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : (LenahValley)

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Q16826.3 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'Domain Hobart' DESCRIPTION : Hobart Domain with two men in the foreground and Government House in the background, the Derwent can be seen on the right.

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Q16826.29 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'A conservatory' DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Inside a conservatory. Location unknown.

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Q16826.28 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : New Town Public School

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Q16826.27 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : New Town Public School

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Q16826.22 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: TJ Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : A River Front Scene. Location is impossible to identify. Maybe the Huon or the Derwent near new Norfolk.

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Q16826.21 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : Appears to be a rural location two timber cottages in the foreground. Others on the right further up the hill which looms over the site. Two people are entertaining a deer. A horned steer or cow is menacingly standing behind them. A dog kennel is further behind them near the fence.

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Q16826.20 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Mount Wellington - not Mt Wellington - looks like a man made channel

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Q16826.19 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : A waterfront shot. Location is uncertain. Possibly, the Huon. INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: T.J. Nevin Photographic Artist 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart Town. Copies may be had at any time. A. Peddar.

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Q16826.16 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Thomas Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : New Norfolk , bridge over the Derwent. Bush Hotel can be seen on the left. A gentleman is observing the scene in the right forehand.

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Q16826.15 ITEM NAME: photogrpah: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Thomas Nevin ? [Photographer]; DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : A shot of 2 men inside the entrance of Salt RockCave at Victoria, Huon INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: T.J. Nevin Photogrpahic Artist 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart Town. Copies may be had at any time. On back of Q 16826.14

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Q16826.14 ITEM NAME: photogrpah: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Thomas Nevin [Photographer]; TITLE: 'Salt Rock Cave Victoria Huon' DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : A shot of five men inside the entrance of Salt Rock Cave INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: T.J. Nevin Photographic Artist 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart Town. Copies may be had at any time.

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Q16826.12 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Thomas Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'Landscape, not Tasmanian' DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : Perhaps not even Australian, but Antipodean. (NZ)

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Q16826.11 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: Thomas Nevin [Photographer]; TITLE: 'A Mining Operation' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Appears to be a mining operation. The presence of crushed rock/ore. A trolley on tracks. Horse and pulley. Location uncertain, but there is a mountain or something like one shrouded in mist in the background. Perhaps Mt. Wellington. There are three men in the scene. One is partially hidden beside the shed on the right. INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Thomas Nevin New Town

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Q16826.10 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'A Garden Gathering' DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : A gathering in the garden. Note the presence of statues the lion in front of the young girl; and a couple of other rather ''grotesquely'' interesting looking characters. The 3 girls look sullen and the boy troublesome. Two gentlemen appear to be supervising proceedings. No hint of location, there are some buildings in the background. Two watering cans present.

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Q16826.1.2 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'School HouseKangaroo Valley' DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : This photo depicts three adults and four children at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley) INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: A Pedder

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Q16826.1.1 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: salted paper print stereoscope, MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'School House Kangaroo Valley' DATE: 1860s DESCRIPTION : This photo depicts three adults and four children at Kangaroo Valley (Lenah Valley) INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: A Pedder

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Q16826 ITEM NAME: photograph: MAKER: Nevin [Artist]; TITLE: 'Collection of stereoscopic views by various photographers. Numbering to be expanded'

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Q14529 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: carte de visite, TITLE: 'Mrs. Morrison.' DATE: 1870C INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: in ink on back: Mrs Morrison and stamped : T Nevin late A Bock city photographic establishment in oval design encircled in belt

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Elizabeth St. Studio, stereo by T. J. Nevin

Photographer: T. Nevin, Elizabeth St. Hobart Town
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.33

From Thomas Bock to Thomas Nevin: Supreme Court prisoner portraits

"... portraits of prisoners taken in the dock ..."

Thomas BOCK (1790/3-1855)
Police artists worked in the Supreme Court of Tasmania from as early as 1824. An album of portraits of "prisoners taken in the dock" (Dunbar, QVMAG catalogue 1991:25) by Thomas Bock, the father of photographer Thomas Nevin's close associate Alfred Bock, was on sale at the Sydney booksellers Angus and Robertson in 1910 when collector William Dixson bought it and bequeathed it eventually to the State Library of New South Wales.



State Library of NSW
Image no: a933021h
f.18 Thomas Jeffries: on Trial for the Murder of / Mr Tibbs' Infant. 20.9 x 15.2 cm.
Thomas Bock - Sketches of Tasmanian Bushrangers, ca. 1823 - 1843
DL PX 5. Sir William Dixson bequest, 1952

The catalogue notes for an exhibition of Thomas Bock's works held in 1991 state:

The album of drawings consists of seventeen pencil portraits of notorious bushrangers of the 1820s taken while the subjects were being tried .... When William Dixson bought the album from the Sydney bookseller Angus and Robertson in 1910 it came with four albums of original documents, police reports and depositions relating to the exploits of the Tasmanian bushrangers. Clearly the documents and the drawings had been collected together as historical evidence - but by whom is not known.

Source: Diane Dunbar, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Thomas Bock Convict Engraver, Society Portraitist
Catalogue 1991 (page 25)

Thomas Bock "invariably worked on commission" according to Dunbar's notes, which raises the question of Bock's "motivation" as she phrases it. Since the prisoner sketches by Thomas Bock were accompanied by police and judicial documents when Dixson purchased them in 1910, they must have been estrays from government records pertaining to prisoner identification and criminal history. In other words, Thomas Bock was most likely contracted on commission to provide police authorities with a "likeness" of the prisoners on trial in the dock at the Supreme Court. Of the seventeen prisoners portrayed in the album acquired by Dixson, at least six were executed.

Alfred BOCK (1835-1920)
Thomas Bock (1790/3-1855) was an early precursor of the police sketch artist and the mugshot photographer working in colonial Australian courts and prisons. Alfred Bock, Thomas Bock's son also worked on commission as a police artist, producing sketches of prisoners in the dock. This sketch was taken of the prisoner William Griffiths at the Supreme Court on Wednesday 25th October 1865. Griffiths was on trial for the murder of two children. He was executed on 2nd December 1865 at the Hobart Gaol.



Alfred Bock sketch of William Griffiths
Supreme Court Hobart October 1865
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

Thomas J. NEVIN (1842-1923)
Although Thomas J. Nevin had established a studio at New Town near the Nevin family home at Kangaroo Valley and was displaying and selling portraits and stereographs from the New Town Post Office by 1864, he was working with Alfred Bock at the city studio in 1865. Within a year, when Alfred Bock sold up and departed Tasmania for Victoria, Nevin acquired the business - The City Photographic Establishment - in his own name along with the studio, the glass house, furniture and stock at 140 Elizabeth Street Hobart Town. Thomas Nevin also acquired Thomas and Alfred Bock's commission in the form of colonial warrants to provide police and penal authorities with prisoner photographs. Alfred Bock was commissioned by James Boyd, the Commandant at the Port Arthur prison during the early 1860s to produce a number of solar and cabinet portraits, including several of James Boyd himself who was an amateur stereographer. When the colonial government commission again was offered, it was offered to Thomas J. Nevin in 1872 to photograph prisoners at Supreme Court trials and at discharge: this time the commission was offered by his family solicitor Attorney-General W.R. Giblin.

The earliest photographs to survive of prisoners taken at the Supreme Court and adjoining Hobart Gaol which were produced by Thomas J. Nevin date from his first contract issued in February 1872 after the visit of the former premier of Victoria Sir John O'Shanassy, accompanied by the Victorian Solicitor-General. A handful of prisoner mugshots was taken on Nevin's visit to the Port Arthur prison during their visit in 1872 and again in May 1874 at the request of the Surgeon-Commandant of the Port Arthur prison, Dr. Coverdale, but the majority of prisoners there were photographed by Nevin (and his brother Constable John Nevin) when they were relocated to the Hobart Gaol as the closure of the Port Arthur prison commenced. Thomas Nevin continued to provide the colonial government of Tasmania with police identification photographs until his retirement in 1886.

The extant 300+ prisoner photographs taken by T. J. Nevin in the 1870s in public collections are government estrays which were salvaged or selected on the basis of the prisoner's notoriety (using the records of his Supreme Court trial, lengthy sentence or execution) for exhibition and display in the 1900s. The majority are held at the National Library of Australia, at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. They appear to have been collated in similar circumstances to Thomas Bock's album of prisoner sketches taken at the Supreme Court, and probably by the same individual. Eleven prisoner photographs taken by T. J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol were coincidentally also acquired in the early 1900s by the State Library of New South Wales from the private collection of David Scott Mitchell, some accompanied by the Hobart Gaol death warrants.





ROBERTS, Henry per Rodney 2
Photo by T.J. Nevin
Taken at the Supreme Court 28 November 1872

Recto and verso at QVMAG
Beattie Collection
Ref: 1985:P0084

An archivist in the early 1900s, or possibly in 1934 when Beattie's collection of convictaria was exhibited in Launceston, has written the date "1874" and "Taken at Port Arthur" across the versos of many of these prisoner photographs in oval cdv mounts. Henry Roberts was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Supreme Court on or about 28th November 1872 when Roberts was tried and sentenced to six years for cattle-stealing.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, James Barnard Gov't Printer.

Henry Roberts, 49 yrs old, transported to Tasmania (prior to 1853) on the Rodney 2, Free in Servitude (FS) was tried in the Supreme Court Hobart and sentenced to six years, according to this police gazette notice of 28th November 1872.