Helen ENNIS and her theory of "power dynamics" in reading the image
John Watt BEATIIE's 20th century prints of 1870s Tasmanian prisoner mugshots
Two copies of Thomas J. Nevin’s original photographic capture of prisoner John White in 1875 are extant in two national collections with the same information inscribed on the versos. The first (below) is held at the National Library of Australia, and the second is held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Government contractor Thomas J. Nevin photographed John White at the Mayor’s Court, Hobart Town Hall, on White’s discharge from the Hobart Gaol in the fortnight preceding 24 March, 1875. John White, 40 yrs old when discharged, was tried in the Supreme Court, Hobart on 13 March 1872 for burglary, sentenced to ten years, and discharged with sentence remitted in March 1875. T. J. Nevin produced at least four photographs, some mounted, others unmounted, from his original negative taken at the one sitting with the prisoner per police requirements in force by 1872 following legislation requiring photographs of prisoners introduced in NSW and Victoria. The commercial mounted carte-de-visite format was produced by contractor photographer Thomas J. Nevin with his brother Constable John Nevin (1852-1891) for the Municipal Police Office and Hobart Gaol administration records, Campbell Street from 1872 to the early 1880s.
The NLA copy
The National Library of Australia’s copy bears no numbering on the front mount. It was deposited at the NLA in 1964 from Tasmanian government estrays by Dr Neil Gunson (pers. corr). Although printed from the same original negative as the print held at the TMAG, it differs remarkably in terms of mount and sepia toning, although the factually incorrect information transcribed verso appears to be the same, if the NLA catalogue notes are to be believed. What is NOT to be believed in the NLA catalogue notes is the furphy ascribing a photographer attribiution to A. H. Boyd (see below, 1983: Port Arthur Heritage site exhibition. )
John White, per Eliza, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [incorrect information]
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/7/54.
Title from inscription on reverse.
Inscription: "40"--On reverse.
Condition: Slight foxing.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142918918
The TMAG copy
This print from Thomas J. Nevin's negative taken at the one sitting with prisoner John White in 1875 differs from the print held at the NLA in terms of mount and toning.
Prisoner WHITE, John per Eliza 2
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, March 1875
TMAG Ref: Q15612
Prison, Police and Welfare Records
This document records John White's sentence served on Norfolk Island.
Name:White, John
Record Type:Convicts
Employer:Burgess, F.: 1854
Additional identifier: 1
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 24 Dec 1849
Departure port: London
Ship: Eliza (3)
Place of origin: Galway
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON37-1-6/CON37-1-6P90
1868: discharged
John White per Eliza was tried at the Quarter Sessions Launceston (Tas) on 29 October 1862, sentenced to six (6) years for receiving, discharged at the Mayor's Court Hobart from the Port Arthur prison, 2 December 1868.
1872-75: sentenced and discharged
Prisoner John White, 40 yrs old, was photographed by T. J. Nevin on discharge at the Mayor’s Court Hobart Town Hall in the week ending 24 March 1875. He was sentenced to ten (10) years in the Hobart Supreme Court on 13 March 1872 and sentence remitted on 24 March 1875.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J. Barnard Gov't Printer.
WELFARE RECORDS
John White per Eliza. The last recorded date is 1911.
White, John
Record Type:Health & Welfare
Age:80
Property:Launceston Invalid Depot
Admission dates:07 Sep 1911 to 28 Sep 1911, 01 Aug 1901, 01 Apr 1902 to 03 Apr 1902, 16 Sep 1904 to 30 Jan 1905, 03 Jan 1906 to 30 Jan 1908, 09 Sep 1899, 06 Jun 1901, 12 Aug 1902
Place of origin:England
Ship to colony:Eliza 2 Eliza
Paupers & Invalids no.: pi1884700
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1775662
Admitted:
NS1172/1/1 Pages 323-324 (07 Sep 1911)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 83-84 (01 Aug 1901)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 99-100 (01 Apr 1902)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 152-153 (16 Sep 1904)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 184-185 (03 Jan 1906)
Discharged:
NS1172/1/1 Pages 323-324 (28 Sep 1911)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 99-100 (03 Apr 1902)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 160-161 (30 Jan 1905)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 230-231 (30 Jan 1908)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 37-38 (09 Sep 1899)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 79-80 (06 Jun 1901)
NS1172/1/1 Pages 107-108 (12 Aug 1902)
Twentieth century exhibitions and publications
1977: the QVMAG Exhibition
This copy of the cdv of prisoner John White on a buff mount produced by Thomas J. Nevin was one of at least four duplicates he made for police and prison records in the 1870s. One was pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet, one was pasted into the Municipal Police Office central registry's Photo Books, and the remaining were forwarded to regional police stations wherever the prisoner was assigned employment. The verso of this copy was inscribed by Beattie in the early 1900s with the number "40", the name of the prisoner, the ship on which he was transported and the factually incorrect phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" in the interest of tourism to the heritage site's ruins.
An exhibition of these 1870s prisoner photographs by T. J. Nevin was held at the QVMAG in 1977, curated by John McPhee and Special Collections Librarian (Tas) Geoff Stilwell.
Prisoner WHITE, John per Eliza 2
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, March 1875
TMAG Ref: Q15612
Verso: Prisoner John WHITE
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania March 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "40"
Numbered recto "181" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15612
1983: Port Arthur Heritage site exhibition
At least fifty of these prisoner photographs from the 1870s which were originally held in the QVMAG collection were removed in 1983 for an exhibition at the Port Arthur heritage site and not returned, deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Those missing on the QVMAG inventory list were inscribed with a pencilled number on the front under the image to keep track of them when they were physically removed from the QVMAG by the exhibitors. Only 72 cdvs of the much larger acquisition from Beattie's estate in the 1930s are now extant at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.
This numbered inventory devised in the 1980s of the collection of 1870s Tasmanian mugshots originally acquired by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston from the estate of photographer and convictarian John Watt Beattie shows that the number "181" in pencil underneath John White's image on the mount was physically missing from the QVMAG holdings. It was removed for exhibition at the Port Arthur Development Project in the 1980s along with another 120 or so; only 72 of those listed from 1-200 remained. Those that were removed were sent to the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart; and the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula. This dissemination of copies was intended to augment national and state collections and for travelling exhibitions.
Verso: Prisoner John WHITE
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "40"
Numbered recto "181" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15612
The mounted cdv photograph of John White, numbered "181" under the image is shown here (pencilled) as missing from the 1980s inventory of Beattie's collection of convict mugshots at the QVMAG. Those 50 os so that were instead deposited at the TMAG from the 1983 Port Arthur exhibition were then used to re-assign Thomas J. Nevin's photographer attribution to a public official, superintendent of the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd, not a photographer in any genre or sense of the word, at the whim and fancy of his descendants. This fabrication then led to confusion if not downright suspicion of deliberate fakery of a photographer attribution to talk up the significance of Port Arthur as Tasmania's premier tourist attraction and PAHSMA's bid for World Heritage status in the following decade.
2000: "Mirror with a Memory" exhibition, NPG Canberra
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery constructed four wooden-framed collages under glass from their collection of Thomas Nevin's prisoner mugshots for an exhibition titled Mirror with a Memory at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2000. John White's image was placed top row, left in this frame. However, for reasons best described as blind-sided, the TMAG staff who chose these mugshots sent the four frames to Canberra, five cdvs in the first, six per frame in the other three, with labels on the back of each wooden frame stating quite clearly that the photographs were attributed to A. H. Boyd, the much despised Commandant of the Port Arthur prison who was not a photographer by any definition of the term, nor an engineer despite any pretension on his part and especially despite the social pretensions of his descendants who began circulating the photographer attribution as a rumour in the 1980s to compensate no doubt for Boyd's vile reputation.
Top, from left to right: John White, Daniel Murphy, James Harrison
Bottom from left to right: Daniel Davis, George Willis, James Martin
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014
This is one of the four wooden framed pictures containing a total of 22 cdvs which were prepared in the 1980s for exhibitions at venues such as the National Portrait Gallery Canberra by "curators" with highly questionable skills and motives. Through this visual association alone, these "curators" proclaimed Boyd THE photographer of these mugshots. There is no evidence anywhere that A. H. Boyd had the skills, knowledge, or official mandate to photograph prisoners, nor are there any extant photographs by Boyd. The TMAG has retained intact the four pictures in wooden frames. The one with A. H. Boyd at the centre of the picture is a FICTIONAL CONSTRUCT expressly and deliberately intended to manufacture a photographer attribution to Boyd using just five photographs, a wooden frame, and glass. Those who perpetuate the MYTH that A. H. Boyd photographed prisoners must be made aware that is it based on nothing more than a piece of visual trickery intended to pander to Boyd's descendants.
Eighteen (18) cartes-de-visite were listed in the Exhibition: the names of the prisoners whose mugshots were exhibited are the same as those listed on the back of the three wooden frames but not the first one which has Boyd placed centre and the four mugshots of Stephen Kelly, William Sewell, John Nestor, George Charlton. So, why does this first frame exist when it was apparently prepared at the same time as the other three frames for exhibition, but not listed as exhibited in the 2000 exhibition Mirror with a Memory at the NPG?
These photographs of 1870s Tasmanian prisoners wrongly attributed to A. H. Boyd were listed in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2000 minus those four in the frame with Charles A. Woolley's cdv of A. H. Boyd.
What was missing from the Mirror exhibition list? The TMAG frame which includes Boyd and the four mugshots of Stephen Kelly, William Sewell, John Nestor, George Charlton.
There were two other convict photographs, exceptions borrowed not from the TMAG but from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. Both were unattributed BECAUSE their versos were pasted to the prisoner's record sheet, and dated to 1873 without explanation.
1. Unknown photographer Henry Harris, criminal record, loose sheet c. 1873 albumen silver photograph on printed sheet 6.0 x 9.0 on sheet 22.0 x 34.5 Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
2. Unknown photographer Edward Wilson, criminal record, loose sheet c. 1873 albumen silver photograph on printed sheet6.0 x 9.0 on sheet 22.0 x 34.5 Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
The NPG exhibition from 4 March to 11 June 2000 titled Mirror With A Memory: Photographic Portraiture in Australia (director: Andrew Sayers) was accompanied by a catalogue.
On page 16 of the Catalogue, under the heading Portraiture and Power, Helen Ennis wrote:
The exhibition also includes a selection of cartes-de-visite portraits of convicts from the Port Arthur penal settlement in Tasmania. Research by [*] Chris Long and [*] Warwick Reeder has established that they were probably the work of Adolarious Humphrey Boyd, the Commandant at Port Arthur from 1871-1874, and a keen photographer.
Boyd's documentation of the convicts is systematic. The photographs are in a carte-de-visite format, nearly always vignetted; each convict is set against a neutral background and is photographed in a three-quarter view, his eyes averted from the camera and from Boyd [note 45].
The photographic transaction expresses and reinforces the power dynamics of the relationship between the Commandant and his charges. Rarely is there any engagement between them or any sense of the subject's investment in images of themselves that presumably they will never see.
[*] Neither Chris Long nor Warwick Reeder established this attribution to the Port Arthur Commandant A.H. Boyd, "probably" or otherwise. Their speculation about attribution has contributed nothing to the history of Tasmanian prison photography. The attribution to T. J. Nevin was established in 1977 without hesitation at the QVMAG which held a significant number of convict cartes stamped by Nevin, although several since seem to have vanished or been lost. Helen Ennis' later NLA publication Intersections (2004) clearly attributed the Port Arthur convict cartes to T. Nevin.
Helen Ennis' "power dynamics" discursive turn of post-modern critical theory now looks dated, and of course, it carries no factual information whatsoever. Far from a lack of "engagement" between sitter and photographer, Thomas Nevin knew convict Michael Murphy (to cite ONE example) from the voyage out on the Fairlie in 1852. Both were boys. Thomas Nevin was accompanied by his parents and three siblings as free settlers, Murphy was transported as a Parkhurst boy. Murphy was released from the Hobart Gaol in 1876. These are facts. Notice how the writer shifts the modality of uncertainty - "probably the work of ... Boyd" - to the modality of certainty - "eyes averted from the camera and from Boyd". With this slippage and sleight of hand, the reader is seamlessly co-opted to the "belief" generated by Chris Long (1995:36).
Another fact to escape Helen Ennis was the attribution of the carte of convict Mumford to support her statements in the catalogue to the exhibition. It was taken from the National Library Collection and correctly attributed to T. J. Nevin together with the rest of the NLA's 83 "Port Arthur convict portraits 1874". The majority of the convicts cartes in the Mirror with a Memory exhibition, however, were borrowed NOT from the NLA in 2000 but from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, where the A.H. Boyd attribution was derived from confusion generated by researcher Chris Long in the 1980s concurrently with the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP) 1983-5.
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