Showing posts with label 19th century photographers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 19th century photographers. Show all posts

Prisoner Albert DORAN 1874

Prisoner Albert DORAN or Alfred or Archibald DORMAN
Photographer T. J. NEVIN at the MPO 1874 and Hobart Gaol 1875
Crimean shirts, photos by J. Bishop-Osborne


The TMAG copy
The verso of this cdv of Albert Doran bears his name - or rather his incorrectly transcribed alias - the ship on which he was transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), the inscription - "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - and the number "35" . This information was inscribed by photographer and collector John Watt Beattie with his assistant Edward Searle in the early 1900s for the tourist market despite their provenance as official police documents. The number "35" on the verso of this cdv also appears on the bottom right of Beattie's sepia reprint from Nevin's original negative, inscribed by Beattie when preparing the print to be pasted to one of three panels he offered for sale in 1916 at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray St. Hobart (see below). This cdv, together with another 300 or so Tasmanian mugshots, was accessioned at the QVMAG Launceston from Beattie's estate on his death in the 1930s.

Between February and April 1983, five dozen or more cdv's from Beattie's collection of mugshots held at the QVMAG in Launceston were removed and exhibited at the Port Arthur prison site south of Hobart for the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP). To keep track of them, each was numbered in pencil on the front mount underneath the prisoner's image. Those numbers do not correspond to the original numbers written on the versos by Beattie in the early 1900s. After the exhibition, fifty (50) or so of those cdv's exhibited at Port Arthur in 1983 were not reinstated in Beattie's collection at the QVMAG, they were deposited instead at the TMAG in Hobart. An inventory of 200 mugshots drawn up in the 1980s at the QVMAG with these new numbers recto showed 127 were missing, dispersed to national and state libraries, museums and even publishers, and 72 were remaining. Albert Doran's mugshot, numbered "21" on the mount in the removal to Port Arthur and relocation to the TMAG in Hobart, was among those missing.The QVMAG inventory list can be viewed here.





Prisoner DORAN, Alfred [sic - registered by police as Albert Frederick DORAN, transported as Archibald Dorman, arrested as Alfred Dorman, Dormian and Albert Doran.
Source: TMAG Ref: Q15580

Albert Doran was transferred from Launceston to the Hobart Gaol on 29 Dec 1873. He was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Police Office Hobart on 18 February 1874 when he was arrested for escaping from a gang at the Cascades Reservoir. Within days, on 22 February 1874, he was sent to the Port Arthur prison, 50 kms south of Hobart. He was transferred back to the Hobart Gaol - the Hobart House of Corrections - on 9 March 1875 when Nevin would have printed more duplicates of his cdv to be pasted to Doran's rap sheet. Unfortunately, these rap sheets from the 1870s seem not to have survived. This information is taken from the conduct record below:



Albert Doran as Archibald Dorman and McQueen
Tried Launceston Court 17 Sept 1872 Four years imprisonment with hard labor
Removed to Hobart Town 29 Dec 1873
PO Hobart Town 18.2.74 Escaping 6 months imprisonment with hard labor
Received again at Port Arthur 22 Feb 1874
Transferred to the Hobart House of Corrections 9 March 1875
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON94-1-2/CON94-1-2P61

The QVMAG copies
Albert Doran's photograph in this panel is top row first on left. It is one of three panels with 40 uncut sepia mugshots which John Watt Beattie offered for sale at his convictaria museum, Hobart, from his 1916 catalogue.



QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176 (one of three panels)



The photograph (above) is an unmounted sepia print from the negative of Thomas J. Nevin’s sitting with Albert Doran taken at the MPO 18 February 1874. It is held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. In the early 1900s John Watt Beattie salvaged this unmounted print from the Hobart Gaol records for display at his "Port Arthur Museum" located in Murray Street Hobart, and for inclusion in intercolonial travelling exhibitions of convictaria associated with the fake convict hulk, Success, Hobart Adelaide, and Sydney. Beattie pasted this print on one of three panels of 40 sepia uncut prints of Tasmanian prisoners sourced from the Hobart Gaol Sherriff's Office and the Municipal Police Office, Town Hall, removing them from prisoners' rap sheets and the police "Photo Books" of mugshots. He offered the three panels for sale in his 1916 Catalogue. The number "35" visible in reverse at bottom right of the print was inscribed by Beattie for numbering the print and the cdv he produced for display and sale as tourist souvenirs.

Original glass plate negatives by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprints by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176




"Unknown" convict at the QVMAG. Ref: QVM: 1985:P: 200151
Link: https://collection.qvmag.tas.gov.au/fmi/webd/QVMAGweb

 Albert Doran's photograph, as one of the 40 mugshots pasted to three panels and offered for sale by Beattie in 1916, was reprinted in black and white from Beattie's reprint of Nevin's original sepia negative in 1985 by Chris Long during a short "residency" at the QVMAG. He fogged out cracks, dirt and scratches in the process for reasons known only to himself since they serve no apparent purpose. The prisoner, however, was not identified as Albert Doran at the QVMAG because the carte-de-visite print in an oval mount of this same capture (e.g. the TMAG cdv above) which was inscribed with his name and ship verso in the early 1900s had been removed from the QVMAG in 1983 for exhibition at the Port Arthur Heritage site. He was therefore listed as "Unknown" when put online in the 2000s (QVMAG. Ref: QVM: 1985:P: 200151).

The Archives Office Tasmania copy



Archives Office of Tasmania webshot 2005
Reference: PH30/1/3257
Title: Alfred Doran or Albert Dorman


Caption: Alfred Doran, probably Albert Dorman, convict transported per Blenheim. Photograph taken at Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin.

DUPLICATE or COPY?
This mounted cdv of Albert Doran now held at the Archives Office Tasmania is either a duplicate made by Nevin from his original in 1874 (he produced 4 prints from his negative at the one sitting with the prisoner) or a poor copy of the cdv now held at the TMAG (see above). As a copy it was most likely sourced as an estray from Radcliffe's tourist attraction at Port Arthur (by then called Carnavon) in the 1930s called "The Old Curiosity Shop" where he displayed convictaria originally sourced from Beattie's collections.



Archives Office of Tasmania APA citation 2013:
"Alfred Doran, probably Albert Dorman, convict transported per Blenheim. Photograph taken at Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin. LINC Tasmania"
BDM details: Albert DORAN
ARRIVAL VDL (Hobart) 1851 as Archibald Dorman, Alfred Dorman https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1388173
Dorman, Albert
Record Type: Convicts
Departure date: 29 Jul 1851
Departure port: Cork
Ship: Blenheim (4)
Place of origin: Down
Remarks: Transported as Archibald Dorman
Conviction: Larceny of plate, transported for 7 years per Blenheim 4
Source: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON33-1-104/CON33-1-104P84



Transportation record, listed as Archibald Dorman, labourer, 24 years old
LInk: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON33-1-104/CON33-1-104P84

CONDUCT 1857 -Albert Dorman
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1502869
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON94-1-2/CON94-1-2P61

CHILDREN with Bridget Kenny
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/964845
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/968990 [and more etc etc]

DEATH 21 November 1890 New Town Charitable Inst 66 yrs old
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/RGD35-1-13/RGD35-1-13P6

Police Gazette and Court Records
Sources: The Archives Office of Tasmania for original documents. Additional information from the weekly police gazettes, Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J. Barnard, Gov't printer, and court records with links from the Prosecution Project, Griffith University from Archives Office of Tasmania records.
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1388173;
Link: https://app.prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/web/public-search/search

1857: larceny
Larceny, sentenced to 2 yrs HM Gaol with hard labor
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1502869

Name: Dorman, Albert
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 23 Jul 1857
Place of trial: Oatlands
Offense: Stealing 1 pair of candlesticks value: 20/- and other articles the property of daniel brown
Verdict: Guilty

1863: housebreaking
Larceny 1863 housebreaking with Bridget Doran
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-8/SC32-1-8_223

106576 ALBERT DORAN MALE HOUSEBREAKING AND STEALING 1863-07-29 HOBART TOWN SMITH NOT GUILTY Link 1 and Link 2

1864: discharged
Discharged 1864 by proclamation
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-8/SC32-1-8_252

106780 ALBERT DORAN MALE LARCENY 1864-06-01 HOBART TOWN SMITH DISCHARGED BY PROCLAMATION Link 1 and Link 2

The reason for Albert Doran's discharge by proclamation probably came down to a lack of evidence or witnesses. This episode in 1861 prompted the reporter to query discharge by proclamation:
DISCHARGED BY PROCLAMATION. Our readers know that when a prisoner has been "committed" to take his trial it not unfrequently happens, or rather it too frequently happens, that the grand jury of the colony, the Attorney-General, declines to file a bill of indictment. In that case when the court is in session the crier at the command of the judge begins, "0yez, 0yez, 0yer," and invites all and sundry who know of treason, felonies, &c., against the prisoner, to come forward and prosecute, and the functionary then informs all and sundry that if they will not or cannot do so, the prisoner will be discharged, and discharged he is. At the last sessions of the Supreme Court, this operation was performed in the case of two individuals charged with housebreaking, brought home to them by the clearest and most conclusive evidence. A witness saw part of the property identified, in the dwelling of the prisoners. Another witness saw them jointly planting property on the north side of the Cataract. The police were informed of this, and two detectives discovered the articles. They also found a counterpane belonging to the prosecutor on the bed of the prisoners. The male prisoner was seen in the plundered dwelling on the day of the robbery. Now why were not these persons left to the disposal of a jury ? Why were they discharged by proclamation ? We ask on public grounds and in the interests of justice to society -Can any satisfactory explanation be given ? We fear not.
Source: Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Tuesday 22 January 1861, page 2

1872: larceny
Larceny, tried Launceston, 4 yrs imprisonment
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ab693-1-1/ab693-1-1_101
He was charged with stealing a gun and spoons.

112579 ALBERT DORAN MALE LARCENY 1872 08-24 GUILTY4 YEARS Link 1

1874: absconding
Absconding 1874, served 6 months
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_101



Albert Doran, alias Archibald Dormian ship Blenheim (4), warrant for absconding, published in the police gazette, 6 February 1874:

TRANSCRIPT
ABSCONDED
On the 2nd instant, dressed in grey clothing, from the Gang employed at the Reservoir near the Cascade factory, whilst undergoing a sentence of four years passed on him at the General Sessions, Launceston, on 17th September 1872 for Larceny.
Albert Doran, alias Archibald Dormian, ship Blenheim (4), F.S., 45 years of age, 5 feet 4½ inches high, ruddy complexion, long head, greyish hair, whiskers shaved, round visage. high forehead, sandy eyebrows, blue eyes, medium nose, small mouth, an Irishman, a gardener, speck in left eye, scar centre of forehead, mole on centre of left cheek.
Warrant for Albert Dorian 6 Feb 1874; arrest on 20 Feb 1874.



Albert Doran was arrested on 20 February 1874 by the Oatlands Municipal Police. He absconded from this reservoir, photographed by Thomas Nevin's friend and business partner Samuel Clifford in the 1860s:

Cascades Reservoir 1860s

Description: Photograph - Mt Wellington from the Cascade Brewery Reservoir, photographer Samuel Clifford, Liverpool Street, Hobart
Item Number: LPIC147/5/159
Start Date: 01 Jan 1860 End Date: 31 Dec 1869
Source:Tasmanian Archives
Link:https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/LPIC147-5-159




Storage reservoir, H.T. waterworks Clifford photo.
Author/Creator: Clifford, Samuel, 1827-1890.
Publication Information: 1867.
Physical description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 8 x 8 cm.
Notes: Title printed on label and pasted below image.
Inscribed below image lower left in ink: Clifford photo. ; right: 1867.
For descriptive notes by Alfred Abbott see his notebook item 192.
In: Abbott album Item 112
Citation: Digitised item from: W L Crowther Library, State Library of Tasmania.
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Library/SD_ILS-136580

1877: discharged
Albert Doran, using the alias William Hales, was charged with stealing two silver spoons.



Albert Doran, 50 yrs old also known to police as Dorman or Dorman, per Blenheim 4 was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 21 February 1877 from sentencing of 4 yrs in Sept 1872 and absconding for 6 months from a gang in 1874.

1878: assault and rape
Assault and rape 1878 - ignored together with John Hall
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_117
The charge was "ignored" - what was the meaning then? Was it was dropped by the complainant?

117738 ALBERT DORAN MALE ASSAULT AND RAPE 1878-06-21 IGNORED Link 1

1879: fraud



TRANSCRIPT
The Crimean shirts obtained from Mr. W. J. Jarvis have been recovered by D. C. McMurray, of the Hobart Territorial Police, and Albert Frederick Doran convicted of the offence.
Albert Doran was convicted of obtaining five Crimean shirts from Jarvis's drapery Murray by fraudulent means, sentenced to three months.

The CRIMEAN SHIRT
As told by Google AI:
The "Crimean shirt" is so named because it was a style of shirt commonly worn by soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-1856). It was typically a wide, collared, V-necked shirt, often made of flannel, and usually without buttons. It often came in solid colors like red or blue, and was frequently worn with a sash or belt around the waist. The design allowed for ease of movement, and the sleeves were often rolled up during work, making it a practical choice for soldiers and laborers. The shirt's popularity extended beyond the Crimean War, becoming a common piece of clothing for bushmen, stockmen, and miners in Australia, especially from the 1860s onward.The Crimean War also gave rise to other clothing items, including the cardigan and balaclava hood, reflecting the need for warm clothing during the conflict.
Commercial photographer John Bishop-Osborne was active in Tasmania in the years 1879-1894. The posed tableau (below) of rugged and relaxed masculinity may have been at the request of a local tobacconist wishing to advertise his stock and wares. The message: smoking pleasure awaits working-class men of the bush if they were to indulge in a certain brand of tobacco and pipe, a pleasure enhanced no doubt by wearing a Crimean shirt in a choice of styles.

Modelled here are four styles: two men wear the short sleeve collarless style with a V-neck - one standing centre, the other seated on left in a darker colour. The man seated at centre wears the long-sleeve collarless button-to-the neck style, and the man standing to the right wears a dark - possibly red - long-sleeve style open to the waist with a full collar. The man reclining, pointing to the future, wears a short sleeve button-to-the neck style. Bishop-Osborne was favoured for his portaits of actors and celebrities. His five models for this tableau may have been actors in a production at the Theatre Royal. Alfred Dampier’s stage adaptation of Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms played there on December 26, 1896, with Dampier in the lead as Captain Starlight. See Addendum below for another of his group photographs, this time of men in Crimean shirts actually working, taken at the Zeehan silvermines.



From © The Private Collection of John & Robyn McCullagh 2005-2007. ARR.
Link: https://johnmccullagh.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/bishop-osbornes-pipe-smokers/

1879: convicted and discharged



Frederick Albert Doran per Blenheim 3 [sic - 4], 50 yrs old, gardener, resident of Hobart, Free in Service (FS), two previous convictions, was convicted during the week ending 6 September 1879 of obtaining goods by false pretences.



Listed with Frederick - "Fredk" as first name, "A" for Albert as middle name, Albert Doran per Blenheim 4. tried Hobart 2 September 1879 for obtaining goods by false pretences was sentenced at Hobart for three months. Description: 51 yrs old, born Ireland, 5 ft 4 ins , light brown hair, speck left eye, scar centre forehead, mole left cheek, scar back of left arm. Discharged from H. M. Gaol week ending 3 December 1879.

Addenda
1. Supreme Court Records 1863-64



Discharged 1864 by proclamation
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-8/SC32-1-8_252

106780 ALBERT DORAN MALE LARCENY 1864-06-01 HOBART TOWN SMITH DISCHARGED BY PROCLAMATION Link 1 and Link 2



Larceny 1863 housebreaking with Bridget Doran
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-8/SC32-1-8_223

106576 ALBERT DORAN MALE HOUSEBREAKING AND STEALING 1863-07-29 HOBART TOWN SMITH NOT GUILTY Link 1 and Link 2

106780 ALBERT DORAN MALE LARCENY 1864-06-01 HOBART TOWN SMITH DISCHARGED BY PROCLAMATION Link 1 and Link 2

Source: The Prosecution Project, Griffith University from Archives Office of Tasmania records
Link: https://app.prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/web/public-search/search


2. Miners in Crimean work shirts



Source: https://findlotsonline.com/auction-lot-details/769346/

BISHOP-OSBORNE, John [1851-1934] - Silver Miners near Zeehan, northwest Tasmania, circa 1891-94
Silver albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 110 x 160mm; verso with photographer’s wet stamp.
Notes:A Hobart photographer, Bishop-Osborne was based at Zeehan between 1891 and 1894. Large deposits of silver-lead ore had been discovered in the area in 1882 and by 1893, 14,000 tonnes were being mined each year.

RELATED POSTS main weblog

The Poulter album: "Weekly Courier" reprints 1900s of 1870s photographs by T. J. Nevin

Reprints 1900s of 1870s Tasmanian photographs
R. C. Poulter's tourist's album 1900s
The Weekly Courier Tasmania's Premier Pictorial (1900-1907)



Page on left from an Album of photographs of Tasmania compiled by R. C. Poulter ca. 1901-1907
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania.
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/ILS/SD_ILS-1173205

On page at left, these five black and white reprints of original mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners (aka "convicts" in tourism discourse), taken by government contractor T. J. Nevin for police at the Hobart Gaol in the 1870s, are held in an album of photographs accessioned in the owner's name inscribed on verso of cover - "R. C. Poulter" - at the State Library of Tasmania.

Each of these items in Poulter's album is a cropped black & white copy of the full sepia photograph, some uncut but mostly set in a buff carte-de-visite mount, that were originally acquired by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston in the 1930s from collector John Watt Beattie's estate. Beattie had salvaged a bundle of the originals in the early 1900s from the Sheriff's Office and the old photographer's room at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street, Hobart. Together with another fifty or so similar cdvs of 1870s prisoners, these five cdvs were removed from the QVMAG for an exhibition at the Port Arthur Historic Site in 1983, at the conclusion of which they were not returned to the QVMAG, deposited instead at the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, where they remain today. Copies also held in Hobart were made at various points in the 20th century for book publications and exhibitions by the Tasmanian Archives Office.

Given that the owner and compiler of this album, R. C. Poulter, arrived in Tasmania ca. 1901 and died in 1908, he may have sourced these reprints from John Watt Beattie's "Port Arthur Museum" at 51 Murray Street, Hobart, in the first decade of the 20th century Hobart. Beattie's vast collection of convictaria which included two hundred and more of these 1870s police mugshots was acquired by the QVMAG on his death in 1930. The cdv's were numbered verso and inscribed with the name of the prisoner, the ship on which he arrived in Tasmania, and with the addition of the generic note -"Taken at Port Arthur, 1874" - in many cases, purely to attract intercolonial and interstate tourism to the ruins of the Port Arthur penitentiary on the Tasman Peninsula when neither the date - "1874" - nor location - "Port Arthur" - factually reflected the place, date and circumstances under which each prisoner was photographed. These prisoners were photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol and Mayor's Court, Hobart Town Hall, on incarceration and discharge for use in court, police and prison administration.

Numbers: each of these mugshots was missing from the list held in the Beattie Collection at the QVMAG when it was complied ca. 1990 and received here at this weblog in 2005. The full list is posted in this article about prisoner Cornelius Gleeson.

THE MUGSHOTS

1. Top line on right: No. 43. Jas Smith per "John Calvin"

James Smith was an alias used by Thomas Archer. After his arrival in Van Diemen's Land in September 1846, and at the termination of his initial sentence of ten years, Thomas Archer as Smith was regularly incarcerated for periods of eight or ten years for burglary and larceny. Police gazette records document his trials and sentences between 1855 and 1884.

Convict James Smith photo by T J Nevin

Prisoner: Thomas ARCHER alias Thomas SMITH or James SMITH
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, July 1875
Location: Hobart House of Corrections (Hobart Gaol)
TMAG Ref: Q15583

The following information is from this record -
"Nominal Return of all Prisoners whether under Remand or Sentence, in the Gaol and House of Correction for Males at Hobart Town, on the 8th December 1874 (page 7) is from (No.49) 1875. TASMANIA. HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. PENAL DISCIPLINE. REPORT OF COMMISSION. Laid upon the Table by the Attorney-General, and ordered by the House to be printed, August 10, 1875. List of offences of male prisoners, Hobart Gaol, December 1874: Superior Courts."

Age: 70
Offence for which imprisoned: Perjury
Date of Sentence: 1.12.74
Extent of sentence: 12 months
How employed on 8th December 1874: Awaiting Sheriff's instructions as to disposal
Remarks as to Character: Good

No. 43 is missing from the QVMAG list posted here in 2005: QVMAG ref: no number
Held at the TMAG scanned for this weblog in 2015, TMAG ref: Q15583
Reprint held at the State Library of Tasmania, TAHO ref: 30/3256
Read more about Thomas Archer as James Smith in this post here


2. Middle line on left: No. 60. Wm Ryan per "City of Hobart"

William Ryan had not long arrived in Tasmania when he was tried for uttering a forged cheque at Launceston on 29th December 1868 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Within months of discharge, he was arrested and sentenced at the Hobart Supreme Court to ten years' imprisonment for uttering forged cheques. The newspapers of the day took pleasure in reporting the ingenuity of the police in catching him, and the antics of the prisoner in the dock at the Police Court before His Worship the Mayor.

Convict Wm Ryan photo by T J Nevin

Prisoner William Ryan
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 1874
TMAG Collection Ref: Q15576

No. 60 is missing from QVMAG list posted here in 2005: QVMAG no reference
Held at the TMAG scanned for this weblog in 2015, TMAG Ref: Q15576
Reprint held at the State Library of Tasmania, TAHO Ref: PH30_1_3262
NB: This photograph held at the TMAG is inscribed verso with the photographer's name " NEVIN, T. J. 1874, the number "60" which also appears on recto, and "248" William Ryan per City of Hobart...."
Read more about Wm Ryan here


3. Middle line on right: No. 27. Cornelius Hester per "Equestrian"

PRESS Report Cornwall Chronicle- 29 Oct 1870:
Cornelius Hester, who pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing goods in a dwelling house at Longford, called on Dr Lewis to speak for him.
Dr. Lewis said that Hester had been suffering from disease of the heart when at Port Arthur.
His Honor reviewed the past career of the prisoner and sentenced him to five years' imprisonment.

Convict Cornelius Hester photo by T J Nevin

Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius
Photographed on discharge at Hobart (not Port Arthur) October 1874
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, government contractor, Hobart, Tasmania
TMAG Ref: Q15581

Summary of trials after arrival in Tasmania:
Trial Id 582695
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 598135
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-03 DELORAINE 1 MTH
Trial Id 601137
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 605875
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-07 DELORAINE 1 MONTH
Trial Id 618722
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE ABSCONDING 1865-11-01 HOBART 5 YEARS
Trial Id 620427
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING 1870-10-20 S. C. LAUNCESTON 5 YEARS
Trial Id 99704
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1857-04-15 GUILTY 2 YEARS
Trial Id 112331
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING HOUSE 1870-09-29 GUILTY 5 YEARS
Source: The Prosecution Project Search Results (griffith.edu.au)

No. 27 is missing from QVMAG list posted here in 2005: QVMAG no reference
Held at the TMAG scanned for this weblog in 2015, TMAG Ref: Q15581
Reprint held at the State Library of Tasmania, TAHO Ref: ?
Read more about Cornelius Hester in this post here


4. Bottom line on left: No. 183. James Martin per "Ld. Ptre"

James Martin was convicted at the Barbados Court Martial, transported for 14 years, departing on the Lord Petre on 3 July 1843, arriving at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, on 15th October 1843 in the company of 237 other convicts.  A Catholic deserter from the army, he re-offended in every decade following, dying in 1892 while still under sentence at the Hobart Gaol.

Convict James Martin photo by T J Nevin

Prisoner James MARTIN
Photographed on 24th October 1874 at the H.M. Goal, Hobart
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Numbered "183" on recto in 1983
Numbered "224" on verso in 1915
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery:
TMAG Ref: Q15614

The following information is from this record -
"Nominal Return of all Prisoners whether under Remand or Sentence, in the Gaol and House of Correction for Males at Hobart Town, on the 8th December 1874 (page 7) is from (No.49) 1875. TASMANIA. HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. PENAL DISCIPLINE. REPORT OF COMMISSION. Laid upon the Table by the Attorney-General, and ordered by the House to be printed, August 10, 1875. List of offences of male prisoners, Hobart Gaol, December 1874: Superior Courts."

Age: 56
Offence for which imprisoned: breaking and entering
Date of Sentence: 24.10.6
Extent of sentence: 10 years
How employed on 8th December 1874: Whitewashing
Remarks as to Character: Very good

No. 183 is missing from QVMAG list posted here in 2005: QVMAG no reference
Held at the TMAG scanned for this weblog in 2015, TMAG Ref: Q15614
Reprint held at the State Library of Tasmania, TAHO Ref:PH30/1/2023
Read more about James Martin in this post here


5. Bottom line on right: No. 6. Wm Sewell per "Siam"

PRESS REPORT Mercury - 19 Sept 1867:
CHARGE OF BURGLARY AGAINST TWO SOLDIERS AND THREE YOUNG GIRLS.-William Sewell and Ralph Neill, private soldiers of H.M. 2-14th Regiment, and three young native girls, Emma Farrell, Margaret Graham, and Jane Manning, were placed in the dock on a charge of burglary at the licensed house of Sarah Harris, Watchorn-street, at two o'clock this morning, and stealing therein seven bottles of champagne cider, value 1s. a bottle, and two print dresses.
The female prisoners in this case also made light of their position; the soldiers are the same men who were charged at a recent session of the Supreme Court, and acquitted, on a charge of burglary at the Mr. Mattheson's public house, Old Wharf.
The Stipendiary Magistrate told the girls there was nothing to laugh at; they ought to be ashamed of themselves to be in such a position, and probably they would, some day, be made to laugh the other side of their mouths. At the instance of the detective the prisoners were remanded until Friday.
William Sewell and Ralph Neill were both sentenced to 10 years at the Criminal Court, Hobart, in November 1867 for the burglary of seven bottles of champagne cider and two print dresses from Sarah Harris, licensee of the Royal Oak Inn, Watchorn St. Hobart.

Convict Wm Sewell photo by T J Nevin

Prisoner William SEWELL photographed in October 1873 at the Hobart Gaol
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
TMAG Ref: Q15573

The following information is from this record -
"1870 Tasmania. Convicts. Paupers and Lunatics at Port Arthur. Return to an Order of the House dated 8th September 1870 (Mr. C. Meredith)Laid upon the Table by the Colonial Treasurer, and ordered by the House to be printed October 13, 1870."
Source: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/PPWeb/1870/HA1870pp128.pdf

CONVICTS - (Colonial Funds)
Name: Sewell, William
Ship: Siam
Age to 1870: 29
Sentence: 10 yrs. impt.

No. 6 is missing from QVMAG list posted here in 2005: QVMAG no reference?
Held at the TMAG scanned for this weblog in 2015, TMAG Ref: Q15573
Reprint held at the State Library of Tasmania, TAHO Ref: no reference?
Read more about William Sewell in this post here

Other photographs by T. J. Nevin in Poulter's album, ca. 1901- 1908
The photographs in this album certainly belonged to Reginald Clifford Poulter by the time he compiled the album in the early 1900s, but none were taken by him, none are personal portraits of him or his family, and none are attributed to the original photographers, with the exception of one featuring the government photographer John Watt Beattie.

Although several date from the early 1860s, very few are "real" photographs originating from the era in which they were produced. The majority are reprints which Poulter sourced from tourist destinations such as John Watt Beattie's shop, photographic studio and convictaria museum in Murray Street, Hobart (and not at Port Arthur). Poulter's other source was the Hobart Weekly Courier which published a Pictorial edition on Saturdays featuring beautifully reproduced photographs of contemporary events by living photographers. To save space, the Weekly Courier cropped each photograph to fit as many as possible on each page, only crediting their contracted studios, called their "Representatives" such as Beattie's, or Spurling's & Son, or Harvey and Sutcliffe's, at the bottom of each page.

Those photographs which Poulter cut from the Weekly Courier and pasted into his album were clearly already cropped of their cdv frame and mount and any accompanying photographer attribution. Instead, on each page of Poulter's album there are pencilled inscriptions next to each  item giving information about the content or subject of each photograph and no more, written by an anonymous hand.

Shortly before Poulter's death in England in 1908, perhaps even after his death, the album somehow arrived at the newspaper offices of the Examiner, publisher of the Weekly Courier (1901-1935) in Launceston, Tasmania. The album may well contain photographs collected on Poulter's travels but he was not the photographer. Nor, it would seem, did the Weekly Courier publish his photographs in this album after his death, or at all, which is inferred by the SLTAS catalogue note (see below) since the Weekly Courier had already published them. Poulter - or indeed his wife Evangeline Watson whom he married at Longford in Tasmania in February 1901 - had cut and pasted many of these photographs during the first decade of the 1900s from Weekly Courier Pictorial issues while visitingTasmania.

Poulter album Tas photos

Apart from the paper reprints pasted in this album of T. J. Nevin's prisoner mugshots taken for official police records in the 1870s, Poulter included several reprints of Thomas Nevin's commercially produced landscapes in stereograph and cdv format, all invariably without their original mounts which otherwise would show at the edges if printed from the originals, and all without a photographer attribution. Of interest on these  pages in the album are photographs taken of St. Mary's Cathedral before and after the tower was removed, (above) as well as reprints of Nevin's (and Clifford's) 1870s photographs taken from Lime Kiln Hill of panoramic views of Hobart from south to north (above and below).



Title: Album of photographs of Tasmania / [compiled by] R. C. Poulter.
Production: [Tasmania?] : R.C. Poulter, [between 1860 and 1920]
Physical description: Approximately 200 photographic prints in 1 album, with 68 unnumbered pages : black and white, chiefly silver albumen ; in album 375 x 290 mm, boards 364 x 263 mm.
Binding: Full leather binding, covers in brown, corners and spine in red, with gold stripe detail.
Medium: paper; silver albumen; positive
Format: album photograph image (online)
Source note: Title devised by cataloguer based on contents; 'R.C Poulter' inscribed inside front cover.
Accession number: FA1304
Notes: Title assigned by cataloguer.
History note: Reginald Clifford Poulter was born in Bath, Somerset, England, in 1847. By 1901, Poulter had found his way to Tasmania and married Evangeline Watson. The couple travelled to Melbourne on the Coogee on 25 March and departed Sydney for Honolulu on the Souoma via Auckland on 9 May 1901. They returned to Melbourne on 18 December 1905 per Grosser Kurfurst. Poulter sent photos of his travels to the Weekly Courier between 1904-1907, and his death at his home in Dorking, Surry (England) was reported in the Examiner on 2/9/1908.--Acquisition notes.
Link:https://stors.tas.gov.au/ILS/SD_ILS-1173205

RELATED POSTS main weblog

Calling the shots in colour 1864-1879



Understandable, it seems, that a commercially produced photograph in 1860s-1870s Tasmania would show some sort of colouring to enhance its decorative or sentimental appeal, especially if the narrative suggested by the photograph was the civilizing of Tasmanian Aborigines who were thought to be near extinction by the last few decades of the 19th century, and that the photographic studio renowned for bold artistic experimentations with colouring was Friths on Murray Street, Hobart. Less understandable is the hand-tinting of photographs of prisoners - or "Convict Portraits" as they became known - taken expressly for police use as gaol records, unless, of course, the photographic studio engaged for the purpose of providing those mugshots was operated by Thomas J. Nevin, on Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

While civil servant and police photographer Thomas Nevin was so well-known for his hand-tinted photographs that he was taunted with derogatory remarks about his "ornaments of colour" when questioned by the Mayor in a police committee meeting in December 1880, the hand-tinting of these two extant prints of Tasmanian Aborigines (below) of photographs attributed to Henry Frith taken in 1864 is unlikely to be the work of his colleague Letitia Davidson, described in the press as a "portrait painter" who departed Tasmania in 1867. The hand-tinting on these two examples was applied by later copyists at Hobart studios in the 1870s.

Friths' Studio 1864
The original session in which these two photographs were taken of the same four sitters, Tasmanian Aboriginal people identified by Julie Gough (see below, 2014) as William Lanne (male, seated), Mary Ann (standing), Trucanini (on viewer's right) and Pangernowidedic (on viewer's left) is dated 1864 and widely credited to the studio of Henry Albert Frith of 19 Murray Street, Hobart. The original photographs were mass produced over the next 40 years in various formats, as a large albumen silver photograph (NGA), as a sennotype, as a lantern slide, and as a plain mounted rectangular carte-de-visite. The originals were taken separately at Government House on the same day with minor changes in seating arrangements. Both of these reproductions were hand-tinted after printing at dates later than the 1864 original sitting, These two images were not processed as sennotypes of the 1860s for which both Henry Frith and Alfred Bock were renowned exponents, nor were they reproduced in the genre of photographic portraits painted over in oils which were much sought after in the 1890s. These reproductions were delicately tinted by studio colourists in the 1870s, using three colours: powder blue, yellow, and rose, typically applied to some feature of apparel and to some facial features. This palette and application to prints is typically found on Nevin's portraiture of family, clients, and convicts.



Henry Frith's advertisement:
Photographs of the Last of the Aborigines of Tasmania.
Copies of the Original Picture Photographed for the Government
Source: Advertising. (1865, October 7). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8835349

This first reproduction was obtained by Sir George Grey (1812-1898), Governor of New Zealand, probably ca. 1882 through requests in letters (Auckland PL manuscripts) made to the former Tasmanian Surveyor-General James Erskine Calder for long-neglected Tasmaniana. Calder sourced books mainly from bookseller William Legrand and photographs from John Watt Beattie whose major source of early Tasmanian photographers' work for his own commercial reproduction from the 1890s onwards was the Royal Society's Museum. This one sent to Grey was not a late Beattie reproduction; it was an older reproduction, a hand-tinted copy from the 1870s already held by the Museum when it was sourced and sent to Grey in New Zealand, and which he shortly afterwards donated to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1893. The second hand-tinted cdv reproduction (below) is dated ca. 1875 by (Prof) Jane Lennon, antiques dealer.



Auckland Art Gallery
Title: The Last of the Native Race of Tasmania
Production Date:
Medium: black and white photograph, hand coloured
Size (hxw): 200 x 170 mm
Inscription:
THE LAST OF THE NATIVE RACE OF TASMANIA / ALL DEAD / THE ORIGINAL PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT AND PLACED IN THE MUSEUM, HOBART, 1865. PHOTOGRAPHY BY H.A. FRITH. PUBLISHED IN THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON JOURNAL , 7TH JANUARY 1865 (PAGE 13). A LARGE COPY, TAKEN FROM THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE, HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY SIR GEORGE GREY, TO BE PLACED IN THE ART GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
Credit Line: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Sir George Grey,1893
Accession No: 1893/2 Other ID: 1893/2/A
http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artists/723/henry-albert-frith

This second hand-tinted reproduction (below) was dated ca. 1875 by Jane Lennon when John Hawkins published it in 2008. Hawkins notes the seating re-arrangement but not the fact that the balustrades on the upper internal balcony on either side of the sitters are more visible, while the tops of the columns are not. This may be another photographer's negative, perhaps one taken by someone working with Frith, Letitia Davidson, for example, who may have been present on the occasion, which was the annual Ball held at Government House in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday (May 27th). The print is not as carefully reproduced as the one above, and the hand-tinting differs slightly as well. Any number of studios in the 1870s might have reproduced this less formally represented photograph.

The note to this print dates it as ca. 1875 (Plate 13: Hawkins 2008)





[Source]: John Hawkins, A Suggested History of Tasmanian Aboriginal Kangaroo Skin or Sinew, Human Bone, Shell, Feather, Apple Seed & Wombat Necklaces
Published Australiana, November 2008 Vol. 30 No. 4
Note to this photograph (Plate 13: Hawkins 2008)
"Courtesy Jane Lennon Antiques, Hobart,"
http://www.jbhawkinsantiques.com/uploads/articles/TasmanianAppleseedNecklacesAustraliana-PDF.pdf

Another photograph (below, and its negative) taken minutes apart from the tinted one above shows slight changes to the poses of the two sitters on the left, William Lanne and Pangernowidedic. Both face the front to look directly at the camera and photographer in this capture, whereas their heads in the tinted photograph (above) are orientated towards the viewer's right. Another change is the placement of William Lanne's right hand on his knee, which in the tinted photograph is in his pocket. Pangernowidedic's hand too is extended, whereas in the tinted photograph she held it clenched. The other two sitters, Mary Ann (standing) and Trucanini (on viewer's right) show barely any variation at all in their poses for each of the two captures.



Title: The last of the Tasmanian natives, 1864 / photographer Mr. Henry Albert Frith, Hobart Town
Item identifier: 93QVxNQ1
Permalink: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/93QVxNQ1
State Library of NSW

The plate from which prints were obtained for this photograph was offered at auction recently by Gowans, Moonah, Tasmania, 19th June 2015. The first is the negative of the SLNSW copy, digitally flipped to show the composition as it appears on the positive print; the second is the negative of the SLNSW copy.



Above: this is the negative, digitally flipped to show the composition as it appears on the positive print of the SLNSW copy
Below: this is the negative of the SLNSW copy as it appeared when offered for sale.



The plate's provenance or previous ownership is unknown after its first use. The colonial government issued the commission first in 1864 to underscore the official narrative that the civilizing of Tasmanian Aborigines had been a successful endeavour, hence the dressing up of the sitters in elaborate European clothing and their presence at official events commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday. The plate may have arrived at Thomas Nevin's studio for reproduction in the early 1870s through requests for further prints by the colonial government as the belief that Tasmanian Aborigines were near extinction was becoming more widespread. Once Thomas Nevin ceased contractual work in 1888, his commercial and government stock was passed on to photographer and collector John Watt Beattie whose government commission from the 1890s was the promotion of Tasmania's heritage in intercolonial markets. The stock phrase to tout this and many more images of Tasmanian Aborigines in the name of tourism at the turn of the 20th century was "Last of Tasmanian Aborigines".



"Last of Tasmanian Aborigines".
Printing Plate 7 x 10cm
Gowans auction, Moonah, Tasmania, 19th June 2015

The 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition
Julie Gough on pages 45 and 46 of of her chapter titled "The First Photographs of Tasmanian Aboriginal People" in Calling the shots: Indigenous photographies edited by Jane Lydon (2014), suggests that Henry Frith's assistant, Letitia Davidson took this photograph of two women (below) at Oyster Cove, one of a collection held at the State library of NSW with attribution to Francis Russell Nixon, dated 1858 (reproduced by Beattie 1890, 1899).




Above: Julie Gough's attribution of this photograph to Letitia Davidson (2014:46).

Several factors work against this re-attribution to Letitia Davidson. Firstly, although the photograph was reprinted by Beattie in the 1890s, only minor changes to the mount were made from the original which was likely to have belonged to the series published by Bishop Francis Russell Nixon in the 1854 copy of his book, The Cruise of the Beacon, which gives an account of his trip around the islands of Bass Strait (digitised at http://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001131821795.) None of the photographs in Nixon's 1854 edition nor identical images from that edition which Beattie reproduced in the 1890s were hand-tinted, yet Letitia Davidson's tender for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition specified her intentions to provide five "large colored pictures" -
Miss Davidson (Frith and Co.), 5 large colored
pictures, £8 each, and to pay her own expenses
to Oyster Cove.



Source: INTERCOLONIAL EXHIBITION. (1866, June 6). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8839726



These are Beattie's reproductions (above) from the 1890s (SLNSW) of the originals (below) which were published in Nixon's Cruise of the Beacon in 1854 (TAHO) and not in 1858, nor indeed for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition. None is hand-tinted. Furthermore, the way Nixon has contextualised these originals in the Cruise of the Beacon, which is by way of a subjoined lengthy quotation from the Oyster Cove superintendent, Dr. Milligan, might suggest that Nixon was not even the original photographer, since he does not openly claim to be so anywhere in the text. Another photographer of the 1850s cohort may well have taken these originals for Dr Milligan prior to their publication in London by Nixon in 1854. The watercolour and pen illustrations are by Nixon, as the handwritten dedication to his wife A.M. states, and those illustrations are indexed with page numbers in the frontispiece, but the photographs have no page listings or indexed titles.





[Above]: The originals, published in the 1854 edition of Francis Russell Nixon's Cruise of the Beacon, London: printed by Richard Clay, Bread Street Hill. 1854.




Letitia Davidson's portraits
Julie Gough has chosen this photograph of two Aboriginal women sitting together, held at the State Library of NSW, conventionally attributed to Bishop Nixon (dated 1858, reproduced by J. W. Beattie (1890s), as Mrs Davidson's work, which is catalogued as "2. ... Wapperty, Bessy Clarke" at PXD 571 - Digital Order Number: a1897002. She presumes Mrs Davidson visited Oyster Cove to take the photograph:
"Mrs Davidson was the sister of Henry Albert Frith, and his photographic hand colourist. One of Frith's last Hobart commissions was his famous August 1864 sennotype of William Lanne, Mary Ann, Trucanini and Pangernowidedic at Government House, which was mass produced and also popular as a glass lantern slide. When Frith departed Hobart soon after, it was his sister, Letitia Davidson, who applied to the Royal Society, along with with Samuel Clifford, Charles Woolley and Alfred Bock, to be commissioned to make photographs of the Tasmanian Aborigines (by which was meant those living at Oyster Cove) for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne. Charles Woolley was awarded the commission, given his influential connections [footnote 74]. The other applicants planned to visit Oyster Cove to take their photographs, whereas Woolley's resultant early examples of anthropological photography were indoor studio works [footnote75]. Davidson, it is presumed, not to be deterred, did visit Oyster Cove and made photographs that were exhibited along with Woolley's in Melbourne [footnote 76]."
Source: Calling the Shots at Google books



The basis for Julie Gough's attribution of this photograph of two Aboriginal women to Mrs Davidson, Murray Street, Hobart is this entry on the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition Catalogue (above, image 84, State Library of Victoria which lists Mrs Davidson's exhibit as:
714~Davidson, Mrs., Murray-st., Hobart Town.—Photographs of two Aboriginal women
Yet this entry in the 1866 Exhibition catalogue is somewhat ambiguous: it implies that Mrs Davidson exhibited not one but several photographs of two women, and does not state whether the two women were photographed as a couple in a single portrait, or whether there were several versions of this couple photographed together, or whether these two women were each photographed individually. More importantly, it does not state whether the photographs were hand-coloured, as was her intention when she submitted her tender, published in the Mercury on June 6th, 1866. Did she exhibit the five photographs she had planned? Apart from these vagaries, there is the question too about Letitia Davidson's identity. Twice in the press she was referred to as "Miss Davidson", as in the notice above of June 6th 1866, and again in April 1867 when she advertised the sale of photographica and furniture at the shop, 19 Murray St. prior to departure from Tasmania in May 1867. "Davidson" may have been her maiden name. Those who referred to her as "Mrs Davidson" may have extended her a simple courtesy shown to unmarried older women. On the other hand, some photo historians assumed she was the sister of the brothers Frederick and Henry Firth, repeated here by Julie Gough. If so, who and where was Mr Davidson? Was Was he James William Davidson who married a Letitia Frith at Edinburgh on 11th February 1845? Was he the surveyor working in Hobart in the 1860s?

A collection of Letitia Davidson's daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and cartes-de-visite, including a portrait of herself, have recently surfaced in a publication by descendants of the Frith family, viz: .

Tozer 2018 p 281

From Tozer (2108) p. 281, featuring the two ambrotoypes of Elizabeth and Stephen Grueber by Letitia Davidson minus the wooden frames, held at the TMAG (see scans below)
Author and date:TOZER, Noel 2018, Snips & snaps : the Friths : a nineteenth century family of portraitists, miniaturists, caricaturists and photographic artistsEdmund & Alexander, Dangar, NSW

Mrs Davidson was a "portrait painter" at Murray St Hobart by 1861, according to the newspaper report of a theft from her shop of a daguerreotype by a woman called Mary Hughes (Mercury, 9 April 1861). Julie Gough has designated Mrs Davidson's role that of a "colourist" and not a "portrait painter" . The latter occupation involved a good deal more than the hand-tinting of facial features and items of clothing on prints in the years when the sennotype was a patented and complex format much sought out by the clients at Mrs Davidson's studio, 1864-65, established with the Frith brothers. However, the portrait of two Aboriginal women chosen for re-attribution to Mrs Davidson is not hand-coloured, so the occupational term "colourist" applied to this appellate case contradicts or undermines an otherwise sincere attempt at re-attribution in our era when so few photographs taken by women in the mid 19th century have survived or been identified as such.

So, what did the Jurors of the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne think of photographs "touched" with colour, and who won medals? They ranked tinted and coloured photographs as second class. It might well have been the case that Letitia Davidson's photographs of two Aboriginal women were tinted or colored as she had stated in her tender but are not known to exist or identified at this point in time, and she forfeited consideration as a result. The usual Tasmanian photographers of the mid 1860s won medals: Morton Allport, William Cawston, Henry Hall Bailey [sic], Samuel Clifford, Stephen Spurling, and Charles A. Woolley for his Aboriginal portraits.

p.350
"The Jurors regret that so large a proportion of the exhibits are 'touched', the merit being divided between the photographer and the artist. Admitting that many of the tinted and coloured photographs are entitled to much commendation, the Jurors are of the opinion that the purely untouched specimens should stand first in the order of desert."





The catalogue on pps 350-351.

Researchers Davies & Stanbury listed Mrs Davidson as a photographer in Hobart 1862-1867 and Melbourne 1869-1870. The general consensus in the 1990s from photohistorians was that none of Mrs Davidson's works are extant. In 2018, Frith descendants published a book featuring key works by Letitia Davidson from their family collections.



Portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Grueber ca. 1865
Photographer: Letitia Davidson, Murray St. Hobart, Tasmania
Verso is blank
Provenance: Gift of Jonathan Dickson, Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne
Copyright: KLW NFC Group Private Collection 2025

This unattributed lightly tinted carte-de-visite of a woman in a black dress and white head scarf, posed in front of a painted backsheet featuring a river, trees and twin peaks (above) is a studio portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Grueber (1812-1891), taken by Letitia Davidson in the mid 1860s. Letitia Davidson produced a matching pair of portraits of Elizabeth Grueber and her husband Stephen Grueber as ambrotypes in the early 1860s. Her death notice was published in the Hobart Mercury, 9 May 1891:
GRUEBER.—On April 28, at her son's residence, Ormley, Elizabeth, wife of Stephen Henry Grueber, sen., aged 78.
Source: Family Notices (1891, May 9). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 4.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12718398

The two ambrotypes (below) of the Gruebers by Letitia Davidson were purchased by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2013-2014, listed in the TMAG Annual Report as -
Two framed half plate hand coloured ambrotypes of Mr and Mrs S.H Greuber by Letita Davidson, Frith & Co –Photographers Hobart 1862-7 were purchased.
These are society portraits of the landed gentry, what might be expected from the Friths' Studio. They are wholly dissimilar to the Aboriginal portrait above which Julie Gough has chosen for re-attribution from Bishop Nixon to Letitia Davidson. The colouring on these two examples of portraits of Mr and Mrs Greuber is minimal, not exactly congruent with Letitia Davidson's reputation as a "portrait painter" but certainly consistent with the technique of hand-colouring evident in the two group portraits taken by Frith of Tasmanian Aborigines (above) at Government House in 1864.



Ambrotype collodian [sic] ½ plate negative hand coloured
Letitia Davidson-Frith & Co [photographer]
Studio portrait of Mrs Steven Henry Grueber 1858-1862s
TMAG Ref: Q2014.13



Ambrotype collodian [sic] ½ plate negative hand coloured
Letitia Davidson-Frith & Co [photographer]
Studio portrait of Mr Steven Henry Grueber 1858-1867
TMAG Ref: Q2014.12

This third portrait (below), a daguerreotype, is of Jane Kennerley nee Rouse, wife of Hobart Mayor Alfred Kennerley. Although unattributed where it is displayed minus the wooden frame at the Sydney Museums Exhibition page titled THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, when viewed with the wooden frame here at a separate MHNSW page, its similarity because of the frame suggests it may have been one of Letitia Davidson's daguerreotypes produced while working at Frith & Co studios in Murray St. Hobart ca. 1865; the frame for this portrait, including damage, is very similar to the two Davidson ambrotypes of the Gruebers acquired by the TMAG in 2014.



These notes are from the Museums of History Sydney NSW website page:

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

Mrs Jane Kennerley 1809-1877

Jane Kennerley, nee Rouse, was the second daughter of Richard Rouse (1774-1852), early Hawkesbury settler and colonial government employee, and his wife Elizabeth Adams (1772-1849). Her earliest years were spent at Parramatta where her father was an auctioneer and Superintendent of Government Works but she grew up at Rouse Hill, a house her father began building in 1813. This house became the centre of the Rouse family estates. In February 1834 Jane married Alfred Kennerley, a recently-arrived English settler who had bought a property called ‘The Retreat Farm’ at Bringelly, near Camden. Kennerley owned The Retreat Farm (later called Kelvin) for more than twenty years but he and Jane spent some of that time in England and when they returned to Australia in 1857 they settled in Hobart, Tasmania. Kennerley became a magistrate, was elected to the city council and served as Mayor of Hobart. He was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1865 and served as Premier from 1873 to 1876. Jane maintained frequent contact with her family at Rouse Hill and members of the extended Rouse family sometimes holidayed in Hobart. Jane Kennerley died in Hobart in May 1877.

R90/81
Rouse Hill House & Farm
Photograph: Jenni Carter, 2007

Letitia Davidson, the daguerreotype and Mary Hughes
Prosecutrix Letitia Davidson, portrait painter, Murray St. Hobart, had not even noticed a daguerreotype was missing from the counter in the shop and studio she operated with brothers Frederick and Henry Frith until it was brought back to her for identification by Detective Macguire. Despite the return of the daguerreotype, hardly missed in any event, and despite knowing that the offender Mary Hughes was an elderly beggar from an earlier encounter at her house, Mrs Davidson somewhat heartlessly prosecuted the case, resulting in a three month sentence with hard labour for Mary Hughes.


Mary Hughes remanded on a charge of stealing a daguerreotype portrait, the property of Letitia Davidson.
The Mercury 9 April 1861



Mary Hughes had tried pawning the daguerreotype but the pawnbroker Mrs S. W. Roberts retained it and notified police, resulting in three months' imprisonment with hard labor for this theft from Mrs Davidson (The Mercury 10 April 1861). Mary Hughes was repeatedly imprisoned for begging, the last recorded sentence being 1868.



Mary Hughes, transported on the convict ship Westmoreland, tried in the Supreme Court Hobart on 31st January 1868, born in England, aged 70 yrs old, height 4'10". grey hair, Free in Servitude, was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 29th April 1868, having served a three month sentence for begging.

Thomas Nevin's coloured convict portraits
Vignetted portraits of Tasmanian convicts from the 1870s-1880s are relatively rare, and hand-tinted portraits even more remarkable, given the photographs were taken for daily use by police in the course of surveillance, detection and arrest.



Prisoners John Britton or Brittain (No. 417) and David Clark (No. 421)
Absconders detained as "paupers" at the Invalid Depots, Hobart, Tasmania
Hand-tinted photographs by Thomas J. Nevin 1874-1879.
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

CAUTION: These photographs are all WATERMARKED



Verso: Prisoners John Britton or Brittain (No. 417) and David Clark (No. 421)
Absconders detained as "paupers" at the Invalid Depots, Hobart, Tasmania
Hand-tinted photographs by Thomas J. Nevin 1874-1879.
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

These two carte-de-visite prisoner identification photographs (portraits or mugshots) were taken and printed by commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1874 for the Municipal Police Office registry, Hobart Town Hall, while he was still operating from his studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart. Nevin and his assistants took some time over these two prisoner photographs, printing them as vignettes (cloudy background) and hand-tinting the prison-issue, check-patterned scarf in light blue to better identify the sitter as a prisoner. At least five more of these hand-tinted prisoner photographs by Nevin are held in public institutions (see more below from the NLA, TMAG, and SLNSW).

Someone removed these two originals from the prisoner's criminal record sheet at an unknown date. The versos show a strong fabric weave, suggesting the photographs were originally pasted to parchment, as some were. For example, Nevin's photograph of prisoner Allan Williamson on display at the Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, was attached to Williamson's original parchment rap sheet. Hundreds of these 1870s mugshots in national collections were removed in similar manner and for at least three reasons: an attempt to destroy any association with convict ancestry by the living, especially photographic records; salvage for commercial exploitation to encourage tourism by selling or displaying single items in private and public museums (1890s and 1930s ); or simply because of deterioration in poor storage conditions (1950s, Hobart Gaol.)

Parchment rots and stinks when damp and poorly stored. The Sheriff's Office at the Hobart Gaol handed over bundles of rotting prison records to the Archives Office of Tasmania in 1955, some from the Benevolent society. Estrays which had been salvaged by government photographer John Beattie from the Hobart Gaol photographer's room above the laundry before it was demolished in 1915, were displayed in his "Port Arthur" convictaria museum in Hobart, and bequeathed to the Launceston City and QVMAG on his death in 1930. Others were privately collected by David Scott Mitchell at the State Library of NSW (1907), and Dr Neil Gunson, National Library, Canberra (1964). or auctioned off, at least from the late 1890s to the 1960s. A selection of the extant 300 or so at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston were exhibited as Thomas J. Nevin's prison photography in 1977. A hundred or more prisoner photographs from Beattie's collection were thereafter dispersed piecemeal to national and state libraries and museums.

A significant number of Nevin's duplicates of his originals, and there were at least four made from every negative, were stand-alone cartes-de-visite, often the result of producing more from the same negative when the offender committed or was suspected of further crimes. Despite their long journey from Nevin's hand in the 1870s to the present day, these two prisoner photographs representing John Britton and David Clark have retained a certain delicacy and freshness which must have stirred an aesthetic appreciation in the depositor at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. But are they objets-d'art or are they vernacular records? Thomas J. Nevin was mocked for his photographic "ornaments of colour" by the representative defending two police constables at the Mayor's Court meeting of the Police Committee. That meeting effected his removal from full-time civil service with the Hobart City Corporation on a trumped-up charge on December 3rd, 1880. His detractors had these two and the other tinted prisoner mugshots in mind: ornaments such as these were judged all too inappropriate for representing the likeness of common criminals.

Prisoner John Britton or Brittain
This vignetted carte-de-visite prisoner identification photograph of a "pauper" was taken of John Britton, as he was known to the police in 1879, but he was transported to VDL (Tasmania) in 1842 as John Brittain on board the Candahar. He was 26 yrs old when he arrived in VDL 1842, born ca.1816 and by 1874 when this photograph was taken, he was ca. 58 yrs old.



Prisoner John Britton, transported per the Candahar (1842)
Detained at the Brickfields Depot for Paupers for 4 yrs (1874-1879)
Prisoner number 26 (1874) and number 417 (1879), Absconded in government clothing
Discharged from the Brickfields Depot for Paupers 25 November 1879

Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

POLICE GAZETTE RECORDS





TRANSPORTATION RECORDS
Archives Office Tasmania
Name: Brittain, John
Record Type: Convicts
Arrival date: 21 Jul 1842
Departure date: 2 Apr 1842
Departure port: Spithead
Ship: Candahar
Voyage number: 194
Index number: 7367
Document ID:
NAME_INDEXES:1375518
Conduct Record CON33/1/23
Description List CON18/1/31 Page 163
Indent CON14/1/14
Muster RollCON 28/1/1

Prisoner David Clark



Absconder from Brickfields
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

The Returns of Paupers in the Police Gazettes assign a number to the Brickfields Depot and to the Cascades Depot inmates, and some but not others to the inmates at the Invalid Depot, New Town which was close by to Nevin's photographic studio established by 1864 at New Town and maintained until 1888 concurrently with his City studio. This inmate was not to be found in the Police Gazette records with the number assigned by Authority (No. 421) written on the back of his photograph, so he may have been photographed by Nevin at the New Town depot. The similarities between the two photographs, however, suggest a common place of capture and the same photographer and colourist, so Britain's mugshot taken at Brickfields (North Hobart depot) seems to be the common place for both photographic captures.

The second problem - apart from not locating his name in the Police Gazettes with his number 421 - nor identifying him from Returns of convictions and discharges recorded in the police gazettes 1866-1885, is the possibility that he was transported on the ship David Clarke, rather than being a man called David Clark, although there are many convicts called David Clark(e) who might fit his description.



Absconders from Invalid Depot, Cascades 1879



More examples by Thomas J. Nevin
These are more examples of hand-tinted photographs of Tasmanian prisoners 1870s-1880s by T. J. Nevin held at the National Library of Australia and the State Library of NSW:



Detail of the tinted photograph (below on right) of prisoner Walter Johnstone aka Henry Bramall
NLA Catalogue nla.pic-vn4270027.
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



Johnstone aka Bramall or Taylor absconded, reported February 6, 1874
Source: Tasmania Reports on Crime for Police Information





Walter Johnstone aka Henry Bramall aka Taylor
NLA Collection nla.pic-vn4270027
Vignette on left, not tinted but mounted, and hand-tinted mounted cdv
Original prisoner mugshots by T. J. Nevin 1874
Photos recto and verso taken at the National Library of Australia, 7th Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



William Campbell, hanged as Job Smith 1875
NLA Collection nla.pic-vn4270353
Hand-tinted vignetted and mounted prisoner portrait by T.J. Nevin 1874
Photos taken at the National Library of Australia, 7th Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



The Death Warrant for James Sutherland, 23rd May 1883
Hand-tinted mounted cdv by Thomas J. Nevin 1880s
Mitchell Library SLNSW
Tasmania. Supreme Court - Death warrants and related papers, 1818-1884
Mitchell Bequest, 1907
Call Number C 202 - C 203
Taken at the State Library NSW
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2009 ARR

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