Prisoner James HARRISON

MULTIPLE COPIES and DUPLICATES
FALSIFICATION of PHOTOGRAPHER ATTRIBUTION

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery copy

TMAG Ref: Q15603
TITLE: '[Convict] "125" "99 / James Harrison per Rodney 1 / Taken at Port Arthur 1874".
DATE: 1874
PHOTOGRAPHER: Thomas J NEVIN

Exhibited in the 1970s at the AGNSW and QVMAG as the work of professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin, the TMAG deliberately falsified a photographer attribution of fifty or more of these 1870s mugshots to pander to descendants of the Port Arthur prison Commandant, non-photographer A. H. Boyd when Elspeth Wishart removed them from the QVMAG in 1983 to include them in an exhibition at the Port Arthur penal heritage site. At the close of the exhibition, they were deposited at the TMAG instead when they should have been returned to their original holdings in the QVMAG, thereby causing a lie to be perpetuated about A. H. Boyd as well as the loss of several of these rare photographs through dispersal to other state and national public institutions.

The National Library of Australia copy

The NLA catalogue caption was devised from the verso inscription:
"James Harrison, per Rodney, taken at Port Arthur, 1874."

The Archives Office Tasmania copy
A hard copy and a paper copy are held at the Archives Office of Tasmania:

Webshot: A soft paper copy of the QVMAG mugshot of James Harrison held at the Archives Office of Tasmania Ref: PH30/1/3261

Caption: "James Harrison, convict transported per Rodney 1. Photograph taken a Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin"

The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery copy

Prisoner Harrison, James per Rodney
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

This is a black and white reprint from Thomas Nevin's sepia print (1873) produced at the QVMAG in 1985 by Chris Long along with 39 others for reasons known only to himself, since they serve no purpose. The several hundred mounted cdvs which T. J. Nevin also produced for prison and police records (1874) are held at the National Library of Australia, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Archives Office of Tasmania, and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW..

James Harrison: Police Records

James Harrison per Rodney 1 was sentenced to 10 yrs on 5 July 1866 for manslaughter and discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 26 November 1873 (aged 43) where he was photographed by T. J. Nevin on discharge.

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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THE MUGSHOTS:Thomas Nevin's extant prisoner identification prints and cartes-de-visite in oval mounts - "mugshots" - were taken between 1871 and 1888. The public collections consists of 350+ estrays from more than 2000 photographs taken of prisoners in Tasmania by Thomas Nevin and his brother Constable John Nevin. The National Library of Australia currently holds 87 photographs, the State Library of NSW holds 13 photographs, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery holds 112 photographs, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds more than 50, and the Archives Office of Tasmania holds 10 originals and 100 or so paper copies of the QVMAG collections. A dozen or so are held in Private Collections.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of 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 Nevin weblogs to apply the misattribution.

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 nipaluna, the traditional lands 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.

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Prisoner James HARRISON

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Hobart Gaol camera and mugshot books 1891-1901

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