T. J. NEVIN, Helen ENNIS and photographer misattribution
Fashions in prison uniforms at the Hobart Gaol 1870's varied according to the class of criminal, his trade or job, and the season. A visitor to the gaol in July 1882 noted the grey jacket and leather caps of the old hands, and the yellow and black uniforms of the recaptured absconders. The men in these two photographs were wearing different uniforms when photographed, but they had both been sentenced at the Supreme Court in Hobart in the 1860s, assigned to work and photographed prior to discharge in 1874 and 1875.
Standard issue to convicts: neckerchiefs summer and winter versions
Beattie Collection QVM.2003.H.0581 Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Notes (QVMAG): Neckerchiefs were produced by female prisoners at the Cascades Female Factory. One example was sent to the International Exhibition in Paris in 1855. This neckerchief is similar to those worn by prisoners at Port Arthur in the 1870s. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery has a collection of cartes-de-visite taken of prisoners wearing such clothing.
Prisoner John F. MORRIS
Summer wear neckerchief and light jacket
NLA NOTES:
John F. Morris, per P. [i.e. Pestonjee] Bomanjee 2, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] 1874.
1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.3 x 5.6 cm .
Inscription on verso includes the numbers "54 & 55" indicating at least two copies were extant in the early 1900s.
PRISON RECORD
John F. Morris, 48 yrs old, 5 ft 8ins tall, was photographed by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, April, 1875 on the prisoner's discharge as "F.S." - free in servitude. His crime was murder, his sentence was "life" with residue of sentence remitted. In 1861 he shot dead the seducer of his wife, a man called John Glann who had paraded her in the streets of New Norfolk (north of Hobart, Tasmania) - see this press article:
John F. Morris was discharged from the Hobart Gaol, 28th April, 1875, having served 14 years. His name appears only once - on discharge - in the police gazettes between 1871-1875.
Prisoner Samuel EVANS
Winter wear neckchief and heavy jacket
NLA NOTES:
Samuel Evans, native, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] 1874. 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.7 cm.
Inscription on verso includes the number "219" (NLA)
PRISON RECORD
Samuel Evans was born in Tasmania ca. 1836. He was convicted at the Hobart Supreme Court in July 1869 for sheep stealing, sentenced to 8 years. He was 38 yrs old, 5 ft 7 ins tall, when Thomas Nevin photographed him on discharge from the Hobart Gaol, 9 December 1874.
Samuel Evans release as "Free", 9th December, 1874
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police 1871-1875. Gov't Printer.
These two cdv's printed from T. J. Nevin's negatives which were taken at his one and only sitting at different times with these two well-groomed convicts, John Morris and Samuel Evans, were numbered on verso and inscribed with the phrase "Taken at Port Arthur, 1874". This was not the case: these prisoners were photographed at the Hobart Gaol in December 1874 (Evans) and April 1875 (Morris), the dates of their discharge; they were photographed according to NSW and Victoria police regulations in place by 1872. The cdv of Samuel Evans was one of twelve archival estrays donated to the National Library of Australia by Dr Neil Gunson in the 1960s (SPROD MS, NLA).
The date "1874" and the numbers ranging from 1-322 which appear uniformly across many - but not all - of these extant Tasmanian prisoner cdv's were inscribed by an archivist or copyist working decades later in J.W. Beattie's convictaria museum in Hobart (1900-1927) when Beattie displayed and reprinted the original prison photographs for sale as tourist memorabilia and for inclusion in travelling exhibitions, eg. at the Royal Hotel, Sydney, 1915 in conjunction with the floating museum and fake convict ship Success.
Despite the claim by Helen Ennis (2007: 21-22) that the poses of these prisoners, gaze averted - reinforced the unequal power dynamics in the relationships between the subject and the photographer and also between the subject and the relevant authorities - neither Morris nor Evans appeared cowered, intimidated, or fearful on being photographed and why should they on the occasion of their discharge from prison? They look at ease in the presence of the photographer. Both appear healthy, self-possessed, and clean. Both men had shaved, buttoned their jackets, and folded their neckerchiefs neatly into the top of the jacket like a gentleman's cravat. Although these men appear to be wearing their own standard issue prison uniforms, they may have been supplied with passably clean clothing for the occasion. They needed to be identifiable as prisoners from their clothing. Morris was photographed in spring and posed wearing the light jacket and neckerchief; Evans was photographed in summer but wore the standard issue woollen jacket and neckerchief. Released as "Free", he was a "native" or local prisoner whose eyes were firmly fixed on the future and freedom.
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