Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

Prisoner Michael GILMORE and 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 or 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/copyist 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 Charles GARFORTH/GARFITT and the QVMAG

Mugshots in the BEATTIE Collection, QVMAG
Twentieth century exhibitions of T. J. NEVIN's mugshots 1870s

Prisoner Charles Garforth/Garfitt, photograph by T. J. Nevin, Hobart Gaol, February 1873

The Hobart Town Advertiser on Saturday 28 June 1862, page 2 reported that the Municipal Council had received a letter from Mr. Boyd announcing that John Garforth had been appointed a constable. But just two months later, in August 1862, Adolarious Humphrey Boyd was advising the Mayor's Court to fine Charles Garforth for being drunk on duty, and recommended his discharge from the constabulary.

See this later article about prisoner Charles Garfitt's experiences at Port Arthur.

"Prisoner Charles J. GARFORTH said he would make Superintendent Adolarious H. BOYD pay dearly, 1875":

Link: https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2023/10/prisoner-charles-j-garforth-said-he.html

Exhibitions

At the QVMAG 1977:
A photograph and carte-de-visite of Charles Garforth/Garfitt, taken and printed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol in February 1873 for police records, was among the 200 or so prisoner identification photographs accessioned to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery from John Watt Beattie's estate in the early 1930s. Although some of these prisoner photographs arrived at the QVMAG still attached to the prisoner's criminal record sheet, the QVMAG has not digitised any of the complete records to which these photographs were attached, nor even acknowledged holding them, despite clear statements by the researchers Geoff Stilwell and John Mcphee of their existence when preparing the 1977 exhibition of these mounted carte-de-visite portraits by Thomas J. Nevin, all sourced from the Beattie Collection.

Letter to Specialist Collections Geoff Stilwell at the State Library of Tasmania from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery curator John McPhee, dated 24th February 1977.

TRANSCRIPT

Dear Geoffrey,
Enclosed is a photostat of a convict history sheet, featuring a photograph. I think we have a couple of these.
Should you be interested in including them in your exhibition or any of our T.J. Nevin photographs, do let me know.

Best wishes,
John

[24.ii.1977]

Source: Stillwell Files, courtesy of the Archives Office of Tasmania 2005

At the PACDP 1983
This wall chart or poster of Tasmanian prisoners taken by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol in the 1870s was produced by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority in 1983 from prisoner mugshots held in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery's Beattie Collection. The title - "Who Were They? The convicts of Port Arthur" was used by the curators of the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP) in 1983-4 to suggest these photographs were taken in 1874 at the Port Arthur prison by the non-photographer prison commandant A. H. Boyd, a claim intended to flatter Boyd's descendants without proof or substance of any kind. Charles Garfitt's headshot is the last on the left, third row from top on this poster.

Wall chart or poster of Tasmanian convicts produced by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority from photographs held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection taken by Thomas J. Nevin in the 1870s.
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2009 ARR.

The Mugshot
Charles Garforth/Garfitt's photograph was reproduced in duplicate (usually 4 were printed) by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin from his original negative taken at the Supreme Court sittings and Oyer sessions per government regulations (up to 25 prints were required in NSW). This one may be a loose duplicate, but it is unlikely to ever have existed without being pasted to Garforth/Garfitt's prison rap sheet, whether in a regional police office, or at the Hobart Gaol and the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall. It was removed and transcribed with "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" by John Watt Beattie in order to attract tourists to the ruins of the Port Arthur prison site in the 1890s (renamed Carnavon), and to Beattie's convictaria museum in Hobart in particular in the early 1900s.

Once acquired by the QVMAG in the 1930s from Beattie's estate, this cdv and another 300 similar mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners (termed "convicts" in tourism discourse) held in the Beattie Collection were handled further and transcribed with more numbers verso and recto, many even copied, and others permanently removed: in 1934 for an exhibition of Beattie's work at the Launceston City Council; in 1958 for storage at the QVMAG; in 1977 for the Thomas J. Nevin exhibition at the QVMAG; in 1982 for the PAHSMA "Who were they?" poster; in 1983 for the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP); in 1985 for the National Library of Australia's exhibition; in 1987 for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, who requested originals and copies from the PACDP exhibition; again in 1995 for the TMAG publication of Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940; and finally for digitisation, post 2000.

Many of these dates and archivist's numbers are visible on both recto and verso. Oddly, those museum and library workers still alive today will not come forward with an honest account of their involvement and their reasons for wanting to sideline or trivialise photographer Thomas J. Nevin's attribution. To do so might eradicate the flim-flam arising in the 1980s as a "belief" (and hearsay) about the corrupt commandant of Port Arthur A. H. Boyd being the "author" of these mugshots (Chris Long with Warwick Reeder 1990s), reaching absurd heights in 2007 as pure nasty politics at the NLA (Julia Clark with Margy Burn). Their vacuous claims have only magnified the charismatic hold Thomas J. Nevin's mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners can have on simple minds. After all, his work was greatly admired by Beattie in the first instance, and that is why he salvaged them for the tourist market, and why these mugshots have survived today from the 1870s.

NUMBERS
This cdv of Charles Garfitt was numbered "174" on the mount under the photograph when it was removed from the QVMAG in 1983 for display at Port Arthur during the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project. The number "283" verso applied used by Beattie and Searle in the early 1900s when arranging this cdv and 300 more mugshots they designated "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" for exhibitions in the name of tourism.

Black and white print from the sepia cdv, QVMAG collection
Prisoner Charles Garforth/Garfitt, photograph by T. J. Nevin February 1873
Source: QVMAG Ref: 1985: P: 0111

Verso inscriptions (incorrect information):
"283 Charles Garforth written over Garfitt per M. S. Elphinstone 2(1848) Taken at Port Arthur 1874".
Source: QVMAG Ref: 1985: P: 0111

Police Records

Two arrests were gazetted by police on 10th January 1873: Thomas Griffin, also photographed by T. J. Nevin, was arrested by Acting D. C. Berrisford, of the Hobart Territorial Police, and Constable Murray of the Glenorchy Municipal Police.
The property stolen from Samuel Butterworth was recovered and Charles Garfit [sic] was arrested by Acting D. C. Ruddock and Constable Badcock of the Hobart Territorial Police, convicted on 25 January sentenced to one year.

Charles Garfitt per M.S. Elphinstone was arrested for larceny and convicted on 23 January 1873. He was tried two weeks later, on 18-19 February at the Supreme Court, Hobart when Thomas J. Nevin photographed him on incarceration at the Hobart Gaol.

Charles Garfoot [sic] or Garfitt was tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart for housebreaking, sentenced to 8 yrs on 18 February 1873 and imprisoned at the Hobart Gaol. He was photographed by Nevin on the same day with two other prisoners with lengthy sentences - Henry Brown transported as Broadmore ( 8 years) and William Marsden transported as Johnson (5 years).

Charles Garfitt was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 28 August 1878, the residue of his sentence remitted. His details: native place Rutlanshire, 53 yrs old, 5 fet 4 and half inc tall, light brown hair , Free isn Service (FS), left eye weak, Two years later he was tried again at the Supreme Court Hobart for breaking and entering a dwelling and sentenced to six years.

Charles Garfitt was 60 years old when he was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 12 December 1885, having been tried again and convicted at the Supreme Court Hobart on 14 December 1880 for breaking and entering.

Michael Gilmore per Prince Regent was also discharged on 12 December 1885. Two copies of his taken by T. J. Nevin are held at the National Library of Australia - see this article.

photo by Thomas J. Nevin of prisoner Michael Gilmore

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