Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

To Adventure Bay, 31st January 1872
Between 31st January and 2nd February 1872, Hobart photographer Thomas J. Nevin accompanied two parties of VIPs on boat trips down the Derwent River: to Adventure Bay at Bruny Island, and to Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. On the 31st January he took a series of photographs of a party of "colonists" which included Sir John O'Shanassy, former Premier of Victoria, on their day trip to Adventure Bay on the eastern side of Bruny Island. They travelled on board The City of Hobart, commanded by Captain John Clinch.





Title: The Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company's Screw Steam Ship 'City of Hobart' 618 tons (Captain John Thom) Passing Gravesend on her trial trip Feb. 23rd 1854 / J.W. Deering Del et Lith. ; Day & Son Lithrs to the Queen
Creator: Deering, John W., 1838-1923
Publisher: [S.l. : s.n.], 1854
Description: 1 print : lithograph ; sheet 44 x 61 cm. within frame
Format: Print
ADRI: AUTAS001124068164
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

It was a busy week for Thomas J. Nevin and his camera. The colonists' trip to Adventure Bay took place on Wednesday 31st January 1872. It was initiated by townsman John Woodcock Graves (the younger) who chartered the steamer the City of Hobart with costs defrayed by subscription, and who requested Thomas Nevin's services as photographer of the official party among the 400 subscribers to the event. The VIP's on the trip included the Hon. Mr. James Wilson (Premier of Tasmania), Alfred Kennerley, (Mayor of Hobart and Police Magistrate), the manager of the Van Diemen's Land Bank (?), the Hon. John O'Shanassy (former Premier of Victoria), Mr John Miller (Cape of Good Hope), Father Sheehy, Mr. Tobin (Victoria), John Woodcock Graves jnr (barrister Tasmania), Captain Clinch (commander of the City of Hobart), the Hon. James Erskine Calder (Surveyor-General), Robert Byron Miller (barrister Tasmania), the band of the Workingmen's Club, not to mention the many women and children, notably teenager Jean Porthouse Graves, daughter of John Woodcock Graves jnr, who collected Nevin's photographs of the excursion in a family album.

On board the City of Hobart
Thomas Nevin photographed this group of dignitaries on board the City of Hobart early in the trip and took another on board when they returned (TMAG Collection). He printed this earlier stereograph on an arched buff mount which now bears the inscription recto in ink "My Father" referring to John Woodcock Graves jnr, added by his teenage daughter, Jean Porthouse Graves who joined him on the trip.


The Colonists' Trip to Adventure Bay
VIPs on board The City of Hobart, 31st January 1872
Stereograph in buff arched mount by Thomas J. Nevin
Private Collection KLW NFC Group copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2015

From left to right:
Sir John O'Shanassy (seated), John Woodcock Graves jnr, Captain John Clinch, the Hon. Alfred Kennerley and the Hon. James Erskine Calder (seated). Standing behind Captain Clinch and Alfred Kennerley is R. Byron Miller.



VERSO WITH RARE NEVIN LABEL
The square royal blue label with T. Nevin's modified design of Alfred Bock's stamp from the mid-1860s and the wording in gold lettering, framed within a gold curlicue badge motif, is unique to this item, not (yet) seen on the verso of any of his other photographs. Similar wording appeared on Nevin's most common commercial stamp from 1867 with and without Bock's name but always with the addition of a kangaroo sitting atop the Latin motto "Ad Altiora". Here, Bock's name is still included within the design although Nevin acquired Bock's studio five years earlier, in 1867:  "T. Nevin late A.Bock" encircled by a buckled belt stating the firm's name within the strap, "City Photographic Establishment". The address "140 Elizabeth Street Hobarton" appears below the belt buckle and inside the badge motif.

The name "Graves" with a half-scroll underneath in black ink was most likely written by Thomas Nevin himself as a reminder of the client's name for the order. The handwriting is similar to his signatures on the birth registrations of his children in the 1870s.

The pencilled inscription "On board City of Hobart, Cap Clinch, Visitors Trip Jay 1872" and the deduction of the years "1947-1872=75 ago" was written by a descendant of the Graves and Miller families, probably by daughter Jean Porthouse Graves who wrote "My Father" above the right hand frame on the front of the stereograph and a partial arrow pointing to John Woodcock Graves (jnr), She had pasted this photograph, and others taken by Thomas J. Nevin of the same group, into a family album (KLW NFC Private Collections 2015).





Another stereograph of the VIPS by Nevin on board the City of Hobart 31st January 1872
Stereograph with T. Nevin Photo blindstamp impress recto on right hand side
Verso with T. J. Nevin's government contractor's stamp with Royal Arms insignia.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection Ref: Q1994.56.2



State Library of Victoria
The Hon[oura]ble J. O'Shanassy Chief Secretary [ca. 1858]
Attributed to Antoine Fauchery.
Photoprints at LTA 355.
https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/294397

At Adventure Bay
Men of premier social status dressed in full Victorian attire from head to toe rarely allowed themselves to be photographed in reclining and recumbent poses, so these captures by Nevin of Sir John O'Shanassy and Sir James Erskine Calder lolling about in bush surroundings are quite remarkable. Their ease and familiarity with Thomas Nevin was in no small part due to his work already performed for surveyors James Calder and James and John Hurst on commission with the Lands and Survey Dept., for which he was issued with the Colonial Government's Royal Arms warrant by authority. The men in the foreground of this series taken on the Adventure Bay trip in January 1872 were the lawyers and the legislators who were Nevin's patrons and employers throughout his engagement as photographer in Hobart's prisons and courts from 1872 into the 1880s.





Group photograph of the colonists at Adventure Bay 31st January 1872
Figures on lower left, recumbent: John Woodcock Graves jnr and Sir John O'Shanassy
Between them: John Graves' teenage daughter, Jean Porthouse Graves
Above her in topper: Robert Byron Miller
On right: sitting with stick, Hon. Alfred Kennerley, Mayor of Hobart
Head in topper only on extreme right: Sir James Erskine Calder.

Stereograph in double oval buff  mount with T. Nevin blindstamp impress in centre
Verso is blank. Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR 
Taken at the TMAG November 2014 (TMAG Collection Ref:Q1994.56.5

This is the same image, printed by Nevin from his negative as a carte-de-viste, stamped verso with his most common commercial studio stamp. More of the figure of the Hon. James Erskine Calder leaning into the frame on lower right is visible. Jean Porthouse Graves is indicated by an ink mark, and so is the man in the white summer hat who is leaning on top of a man-made stone structure, perhaps Lukin Boyes, son of artist and administrator G.T.W. Boyes. Surname and initial appearing to be "L Boyes" is written on verso.




Verso inscriptions include these identifiable figures at the "Picnic":
Father = John Woodcock Graves jnr,
Sir John O'Shanassy = former Premier of Victoria,
Self = Jean Porthouse Graves, daughter of John W. Graves,
L. Boyes = Lukin Boyes (?), son of G.T. W. Boyes

From an album compiled by the families of John Woodcock Graves jnr and R. Byron Miller
Private Collection © KLW NFC Imprint 2015



Another configuration with more members of the VIP group at Adventure Bay, 31st January 1872. The man laughing, sitting between the Hon. Alfred Kennerley (lower left) and Sir John O'Shanassy, is Hugh Munro Hull, Parliamentary librarian. He seems to have appreciated comments coming from Nevin at the point of capture, while Sir John O'Shanassy (with stick), reads on, oblivious. The figure running into the scene at centre is John Woodcock Graves (the younger), organiser of the excursion.

Nevin's blindstamp impress is on the mount at centre.This stereo is badly water-damaged.
It is held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Ref: Q1994.56.24.
Photo taken at TMAG 10th November 2014
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR



Thomas Nevin took this photograph of the group as they emerged from the bush onto the sand at Adventure Bay,  31st January 1872,  He printed the image as a stereograph on yellow card, with his blindstamp impress "T. NEVIN PHOTO" on the right, which was applied somewhat hurriedly. The inscription and arrows in ink on the left - "Father" and "Me" and "?" point to John Woodcock Graves jnr and his daughter Jean Porthouse Graves.



Verso inscription: "Pleasure Trip to Adventure Bay when I was a girl."
From an album compiled by the families of John Woodcock Graves jnr and R. Byron Miller
Private Collection © KLW NFC Imprint 2015

A letter to the Mercury by "One of the Party" praised the trip as "the happiest marine pleasure excursion that has ever happened in Tasmania":

All went to bed, I guess, in good time, and slept and dreamt about nothing worse than

"Silvery fish for the foam-hunting falcon,
Sea-weed and pearls for my darling and me."

And thus ended the happiest marine pleasure excursion that has ever happened in Tasmania, and one that will leave a pleasant mark in the history of the colony....
ONE OF THE PARTY.

Source: WHAT STRANGERS THINK OF OUR RESOURCES. (1872, February 2). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8921623

Very well taken
Thomas Nevin advised readers of the Mercury, 2nd February 1872, that those group photographs taken on the trip to Adventure Bay were ready and for sale. The Mercury also reported that Nevin's photographs of the event were "very well taken" in the same edition. The day previously, Nevin's close friend Henry Hall Baily advised that prints of his "instantaneous photographs" taken of the Champion Gig Race at the Regatta on 30th January were ready.



Visitors' photographs on hand ready for sale
The Colonists' Trip to Adventure Bay
Thomas Nevin's  advertisement, Mercury 2nd February 1872
Henry Hall Baily's "Instantaneous Photographs", 1st Feb 1872

THE TRIP DOWN THE RIVER.- A photograph of the "Colonists' Trip" has been very well taken by Mr. Nevin, which will be of special interest to those who took part, and will probably like to secure this remembrance of so memorable event.

Both Baily and Nevin had forwarded copies of their photographs to the Mercury to merit these notices. Those copies would have been displayed in the newspaper window because printing them - as real photographs and not just as lithographs - was still beyond the technological means of newsprint reproduction.

To Port Arthur, 1st February 1872
Thomas Nevin printed the Adventure Bay trip photographs in different formats, some as plain single-image cartes-de-visite, others as stereographs in oval, arched or square mounts on buff or yellow card. He must have worked in situ and later all evening of the 31st January (1872) on returning to Hobart to have prepared prints from the Adventure Bay trip for sale by 2nd February, because one day later, on 1st February (1872), he attended British author Anthony Trollope's lecture on modern fiction at the Odd Fellows Hall before joining Trollope's party heading to Port Arthur with the Tasmanian Premier, the Hon. J. M. Wilson, Esq. Thomas Nevin was the official photographer of the Loyal United Brothers Lodge.  A. & I.O.O.F. at the inauguration and grande soiree of the new Odd Fellows' Hall on July 6, 1871,  attended by the Premier. His VIP commission was extended once again to join the Premier, members of the legal profession, and Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur.



Anthony Trollope, Melbourne 1871
Hibling & Fields Photographers
State Library of Victoria Ref: H96.160/1669

Anthony Trollope's party left late in the evening of 1st February (1872) on board the government schooner for the Port Arthur prison on the Tasman Peninsula. Accompanying Anthony Trollope and Premier J. M. Wilson were lawyers Howard Spensley, Solicitor-General of Victoria, and the Tasmanian Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, Nevin's family solicitor since 1868, who had requested Nevin join them to organise facilities on site and procedures for photographing prisoners in accordance with recent legislative provisions in Victoria and NSW (see newspaper report below). They stayed a few days while Trollope gathered information from interviewing prisoners, including Denis Dogherty, whom Nevin photographed among other recent absconders. He took photographs as well of the derelict state of the buildings, of costly but unfinished engineering works, and general vistas across the site.



Attorney-General W. R. Giblin ca. 1874
Photo by T. Nevin, stamp verso
TAHO Ref: NS1013-1-1971



Trollope's Port Arthur interviewee prisoner Denis Dogherty
Photo by T. Nevin, stamp and verso inscription "Calder".
Private collection KLW NFC Imprint.



Thomas J. Nevin’s mugshot of prisoner Denis Dogherty, 1870s, reprint held at the NLA
Surname is spelled Dougherty by Edwin Barnard in Exiled: The Port Arthur Convict Photographs NLA (2010).
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2011 ARR. Watermarked.

More Newspaper Reports
The colony of New South Wales had already introduced the practice of photographing prisoners twice, firstly on entry to prison and secondly near the end of their term of incarceration by January 1872 when this report was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. The purpose of the visit to the Port Arthur prison by the former Premier and Solicitor-general from the colony of Victoria with photographer, Thomas Nevin and the Tasmanian Attorney-General the Hon. W. R. Giblin in the company of Anthony Trollope, was to establish a similar system for the relocation and processing prisoners through the central Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall from the Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol in Campbell St.


Photography and Prisons
The Sydney Morning Herald 10 January 1872

TRANSCRIPT

PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRISONS.-We understand that, at the instance of Inspector-General McLerie, Mr. Harold McLean, the Sheriff, has recently introduced into Darlinghurst gaol the English practice of photographing all criminals in that establishment whose antecedents or whose prospective power of doing mischief make them, in the judgment of the police authorities, eligible for that distinction. It is an honour, however, which has to be " thrust " upon some men, for they shrink before the lens of the photographer more than they would quail before the eye of a living detective. The reluctance of such worthies in many cases can only be conquered by the deprivation of the ordinary gaol indulgencies; and even then they submit with so bad a grace that their acquiescence is feigned rather than real. The facial contortions to which the more knowing ones resort are said to be truly ingenious. One scoundrel will assume a smug and sanctimonious aspect, while another will chastise his features into an expression of injured innocence or blank stupidity which would almost defy recognition. They are pursued, however, through all disguises, and when a satisfactory portrait is obtained copies are transferred to the black books of the Inspector-General. The prisoners are first " taken" in their own clothes on entering the gaol, and the second portrait is produced near the expiration of their sentence. When mounted in the police album, the cartes-de-visite, if we may so style them, are placed between two columns, one containing a personal description of the offender, and the other a record of his criminal history. Briefer or more comprehensive biographies have probably never been framed. Copies of these photographs are sent to the superintendents of police in the country districts, and also to the adjoining colonies. To a certain extent photography has proved in England an effective check upon crime, and it is obviously calculated to render most valuable aid in the detection of notorious criminals. New South Wales is, we understand, the only Australian colony which has yet adopted this system ; but the practice is likely soon to become general.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald. (1872, January 10). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13250452



Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur
Mercury, 2 February 1872

TRANSCRIPT

VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR.- Mr. Trollope and the Hon. Howard Spensley, Esq., Solicitor-General of Victoria, accompaniedby the Hon. the Premier , J. M. Wilson Esq., and the Hon. the Attoney-General, W. R. Giblin Esq., embarked in the Government schooner late last night, some time after Mr. Trollope had concluded his lecture on "Modern Fiction as a recreation for young people," and left for Port Arthur. Their visit to the Peninsula will be a very hurried one, and will afford them only scant opportunity of inspecting the penal establishment, it being the intention of Messrs. Trollope and Spensley to leave Hobart Town for the North, en route for Victoria, in a few days.

THE MERCURY. (1872, February 2). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved April 3, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8921624

JAMES ERSKINE CALDER wrote a lengthy piece on the history of Adventure Bay in the days preceding the actual trip to acquaint those with subscriptions to the trip of its significance.

OUR VISITORS' TRIP.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MERCURY.
Sir,-It was s good idea, whoever originated it, to have pitched on Adventure Bay for the scene of the pleasure trip and picnic, which the inhabitants of Hobart Town have got up as a fitting and kindly compliment to the many visitors now amongst them from Continental Australia, who have chosen this place for their summer residence.
I know quite enough of Adventure Bay to be able to assure you that the selection is a happy one ; and though a long list of pleasant places offer themselves to choose from, none could be better for a day's enjoyment in the land of the beautiful, than this retired inlet of Storm Bay .....
It was in this very Adventure Bay to which our citizens are about to escort their friends, that the quarrel between the rudely imperious Bligh and his lieutenant, grew into irreconcilable hatred of each other. According to a most unwilling participator in the meeting that followed, and who became its historian, " the seeds of eternal discord were sown between Lieutenant Bligh and some of his officers, while in Adventure Bay, Van Diemen's Land." etc etc

OUR VISITORS' TRIP. (1872, January 26). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8923452



HOBART TOWN. (1872, February 8). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 3. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39686009

TRANSCRIPT

Mr Anthony Trollope's lecture at 'the Odd-Fellows' Hall, last week, was attractive, and the object in aid of which it was given, the Cathedral Building Fund, did not render it less so. If the question were asked whether Mr Trollope be a better lecturer than novelist, it would not be difficult to answer in the negative, and probably some of the delighted readers of "Dr. Thorne," "The 'MacDermotts," "Barchester Towers," etc experienced a shade of disappointtmont at the lecture. IIowever, Mr Trollope was greeted with a hearty welcome, and his lecture was "vociferously" (that's the word, I think) applauded from begining to end. The subject " Works of Fiction as a means of recreation for young people," was appropriately chosen, and ably treated ; and I presume the northerners will have an opportunity of testing for themselves the respectable lecturing powers of the "great novelist."
Mr Graves's design of a pleasure excursion to Adventure Bay, last Wednesday, succeeded admirably. About 400 visitors from the other colonies and citizens well freighted the good steam-ship City of Hobart, and a most agreeable trip was enjoyed. There was abundant fishing in the bay and adjacent waters, and black perch, white perch, and bream were caught by the lady and gentlemen anglers. Bags and baskets were filled with the finny treasures, and it was quite curious to see the excursionists landing and trudging homewards with their burdens. It is, of course, understood that it was a subscription afiair, the charge for chartering the vessel having been more than met by the contributions of the citizens, who cheerfully supported the project. I should not be surprised if the visitors proposed to return the compliment by giving a trip to the citizens. People are begining, though late, to devise means for the amusement of visitors, for we have a great many visitors left in Hobart Town, notwithstanding the numbers who have gone to take part in the Launceston Carnival. There is to be an afternoon steam excursion tomorrow, got up by the Foresters; a quiet excursion on Thursday, to and from New Norfolk; an organ recital at the Town Hall to-morrow evening, when professionals from the different colonies are expected to perform on the grand organ. This evening, the sixteenth concert of the Orchestral Union is to come off, when Bellini's Sonnambula is to be a performed, Mr Tapfield conductor. Then there is the Japanese troupe at the Theatre Royal, which is being well patronised; and several other entertainments are on the tapis; so that by hook or by crook, a tidy programme of amuseuments has been arranged for a week to come, at least.

State Library of Tasmania
Stereographs of Port Arthur, T. Nevin 1872
Ref:AUTAS001124851726
Ref:AUTAS001124851759

RELATED POSTS main weblog

• The Colonists' Trip to Adventure Bay 1872
• The Odd Fellows Hall photographs 1871
• Blame it on Beattie: the Parliamentarians' photographs
• Anthony Trollope's Port Arthur interviewee 1872
• Thomas Nevin and H. H. Baily at the Regatta 1872

Marcus Clarke and Thomas Nevin at the Old Bell Hotel 1870

MARCUS CLARKE in Hobart, Tasmania 1874
THE OLD BELL HOTEL Elizabeth St. Hobart
THOMAS NEVIN's STUDIO 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart



State Library of Victoria
Title: Portrait photograph of Marcus Clarke in riding gear [picture].
Date(s): ca. 1866 [unattributed]
Description: 1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen silver ; 10.3 x 6.3 cm.
Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H2011.89

Marcus Clarke at the Old Bell Hotel
In January 1920, the Old Bell Hotel in Elizabeth St. Hobart closed its doors for the last time. This notice repeated the story that Marcus Clarke had written parts of his famous novel For The Term of His Natural Life (1874) while imbibing in the parlour.



TRANSCRIPT

HOBART HOTELS CLOSED
HAUNT OF MARCUS CLARKE
Eight hotels delicensed recently by the Hobart Licensing Court closed their doors last night. One is the Old Bell, where Marcus Clarke is supposed to have written a portion of his famous novel, "For the Term of His Natural Life."

Source: HOBART HOTELS CLOSED. (1920, January 2). Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), p. 4. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106495811.

By November 1921, plans were in place to demolish the hotel and in its place erect a two storey building renamed Old Bell Chambers housing a suite of shops and offices and a motor garage at rear, according to this report:

TRANSCRIPT

THE "OLD BELL" INN.
The demolition of another of the oldest public-houses in Hobart, known as the Old Bell Inn from the very early days of Hobart Town (as the city used to be called until comparatively recent years) is in progress, to make wav for new business premises, which will be styled "Old Bell Chambers". The most historic, and probably most interesting, reminiscence associated with the old building is the fact that Marcus Clarke is believed to have written his famous story, "For the Term of His Natural Life," in the main parlour of the inn. Though doubt is often cast on the possibility of this being actually true, owing to the author's reputedly short sojourn in Australia, it is more than probable that the original notes on which his narrative was framed at leisure were penned in the inn parlour on his return from a visit to the penal settlement at Eaglehawk Neck and Port Arthur. The site has a frontage on Elizabeth Street of 50 feet, widening to 70 feet at a depth of about 150 feet. The ground floor of the front portion will be occupied by shops, with suites of offices on the first floor, approached  by a stair-way leading direct from Elizabeth-street, and isolated from the shops by means of a reinforced concrete wall. The rear portion of the site will be occupied by a spacious motor garage, accessible by a right-of-way from Elizabeth-street The tender of Mr. A P McElwee has been accepted for the erection of the building, which will be carried out from the design prepared bv the architect, Mr R W Koch, who will supervise the construction.

Source: THE "OLD BELL" INN. (1921, November 4). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23473314

As it seems that Thomas Nevin was partial to a drink, inebriation being the chief reason he was dismissed by the Police Committee from his position of Town Hall keeper in December 1880, the Old Bell Hotel would have been one of his preferred watering holes. The closest, however, was The Royal Standard Hotel located right next door to his studio, situated at 142 Elizabeth St on the corner of Patrick St, owned and operated by James Spence from 1862 to 1874.

Thomas Nevin was still alive in 1920 (d. 1923) when the hotel, known as the Old Bell, was delicensed, so he may have contributed to this story that Marcus Clarke drank there while writing his famous novel, published in installments from 1870 after a visit to the derelict prison at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. Marcus Clarke was a heavy drinker, a sufferer of dyspepsia and a disordered liver, dying at just 35 years old (1846-1881), whereas Thomas Nevin (1842-1923) was a Wesleyan who not only proved immune to the illnesses which beset his other family members on the voyage out on the Fairlie (1852), he lived to the distinguished age of 81 yrs, his beard still red and his eyes still clear. according to his grand children Eva and Hilda - children of his youngest son Albert and wife Emily Nevin - who were five and three yr olds, born 1917 and 1919 respectively, and who were still alive when this weblog went online in 2003.

Views of the Old Bell Hotel
The Old Bell Hotel (or Inn) was located at 132 Elizabeth Street, in one photograph, a streetscape ca. 1890, and at 146 Elizabeth St. in another photograph of the facade. In either case, it was just three doors from Thomas Nevin's studio, The City Photographic Establishment, his glass house and residence at 138-140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, and on the same side of the street. Thomas Nevin acquired the business and premises from Alfred Bock in 1865, operating in the name of Nevin & Smith until 1868 with Robert Smith's departure for NSW and continued as a commercial photographer at the same premises until late 1875 when he was appointed to the civil service at the Hobart Town Hall with residency.

NEVIN's STEREOGRAPHS late 1860s
When Thomas Nevin took these two stereographs of his studio and shop front at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, shown at extreme right of the frame, the Old Bell Hotel would have been located at 132 Elizabeth St, just at the crest as the street dipped towards the River Derwent and visible at the distant perspectival centre in each frame. According to Alfred Bock's advertisement for an apprentice in 1863, the address of the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. was "Three doors from Patrick-street, Hobart Town ..." .



Source: The Mercury, 7 July 1863.
The City Photographic Establishment at 140 Elizabeth St "Three doors from Patrick-street"
Alfred Bock’s new gallery was actually a glass house.



A view of Thomas Nevin's studio and shop, extreme right of frame, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin ca. 1867-70 of the City Photographic Establishment
The dark building next door at 138 Elizabeth St, Nevin's residence, was leased from A. E. Biggs
T. Nevin impress on lower centre of mount.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.12



Another view of Thomas Nevin's studio and shop, extreme right of frame, at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
The dark building next door at 138 Elizabeth St, Nevin's residence, was leased from A. E. Biggs
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin ca. 1867-1870 of the City Photographic Establishment, three doors from Patrick St,
TMAG Ref: Q1994-56-33 Verso blank

1890s-1920
This photograph (below, right click for large view) distinctly shows The Old Bell Hotel on the right hand side of Elizabeth St. if one is looking towards the wharves, with the address as No.132 Elizabeth St.



Title: Photograph - Elizabeth Street looking south (Brisbane Street) - Bridges Bros and The Bell Hotel at number 132
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS1013-1-820
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

But this photograph shows the Old Bell at 146 Elizabeth St, Hobart:



Source: TAHO Ref:PH40-1-93c



Title: Photograph - "Old Bell Hotel", Hobart - interior of bar [n.d.]
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH40-1-94
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

When the photograph (below, top left) was taken of three boys standing outside the Old Bell Hotel, the authors of this article published in the Mercury Supplement series Cheers! on Hobart's hotels in 2005 stated that the hotel's address by then was 146 to 150 Elizabeth St. Hobart.



The Old Bell Hotel at what is now 146-150 Elizabeth t. Hobart
J. V. Peck licensee; the property at Nos 136-140 in his wife's name Catherine Peck by 1886
Source: Mercury Supplement Cheers, Friday August 26, 2005
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2019 Private Collection

Marcus Clarke's sources
If the story about the Old Bell is factual, propinquity alone would have brought Thomas Nevin and Marcus Clarke together, and to their mutual satisfaction, given the journalistic background of John Nevin snr, Thomas' father, and Thomas Nevin's involvement with photographing the prisoner and ex-prisoner population. The Nevins would have given Marcus Clarke a ready source of information regarding police and prisoners at the Hobart Gaol one street away from the Old Bell Hotel. Thomas Nevin may have introduced Marcus Clarke to William Robert Giblin, Thomas Nevin's family solicitor, who was the Attorney-General and later, Premier, and he may have also introduced Marcus Clarke to Maria Nairn, the widow of William Edward Nairn, sheriff of Hobart from 1857 until his death in 1868. Maria Nairn had leased an acre of land to John Nevin, next to the Franklin Museum at Kangaroo Valley, not far from Clarke's lodgings. These prototypes served Marcus Clarke's fiction, along with the officials "of position" who allowed him to view prison records at Hobart, Town on his request:

When at Hobart Town I had asked an official of position to allow me to see the records, and – in consideration of the Peacock – he was obliging enough to do so. There I found set down, in various handwritings, the history of some strange lives… and glancing down the list, spotted with red ink for floggings, like a well printed prayer-book …

Source: Marcus Clarke, THE SKETCHER. (1873, August 2). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), p. 5. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137581230



THE LAST HOPE.Book III, Chapter XIII (page 290)
Image taken from Marcus Clarke, For the Term of his Natural Life
WL Crowther Library,
State Library of Tasmania
Source: Colonialism and its Aftermath

The Preface
Marcus Clarke's Preface to His Natural Life,
First Published: 1870. Source: http://adc.library.usyd.edu.au/data-2/p00023.pdf

PREFACE
The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career. Either his exile has been the mysterious end to his misdeeds, or he has appeared upon the scene to claim interest by reason of an equally unintelligible love of crime acquired during his experience in a penal settlement.
Charles Reade has drawn the interior of a house of correction in England, and Victor Hugo has shown how a French convict fares after the fulfilment of his sentence. But no writer — so far as I am aware — has attempted to depict the dismal condition of a felon during his term of transportation.
I have endeavoured in “His Natural Life” to set forth the working and results of an English system of transportation carefully considered and carried out under official supervision; and to illustrate in the manner best calculated, as I think, to attract general attention, the inexpediency of again allowing offenders against the law to be herded together in places remote from the wholesome influence of public opinion, and to be submitted to a discipline which must necessarily depend for its just administration upon the personal character and temper of their gaolers.
Some of the events narrated are doubtless tragic and terrible; but I hold it needful to my purpose to record them, for they are events which have actually occurred, and which, if the blunders which produce them be repeated, must infallibly occur again. It is true that the British Government have ceased to deport the criminals of England, but the method of punishment, of which that deportation was a part, is still in existence. Port Blair is a Port Arthur filled with Indian-men instead of Englishmen; and, within the last year, France has established, at New Caledonia, a penal settlement which will, in the natural course of things, repeat in its annals the history of Macquarie Harbour and of Norfolk Island.
M.C.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

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"Securing a proper likeness": Tasmania, NSW and Victoria from 1871

Extant examples of Thomas J. Nevin's photographs taken in the 1870s of Tasmanian prisoners - or "convicts" which is the archaic term used in Tasmanian tourism discourse up to the present - number more than 300 in Australian public collections. These two different photographs of prisoner George Leathley are typical of his application of commercial studio portraiture. They were taken by Thomas J. Nevin between Leathley's conviction for murder in 1866 and Leathley's discharge with a ticket of leave in 1876.



Prisoner George Leathley No. 89
Photographer; T. J. Nevin
Carte-de-visite originally held at the QVMAG
Now held at the TMAG,  Ref: Q15588



Prisoner George Leathley
Thomas Nevin's original print from his glass negative
Reprinted by John Watt Beattie on a panel for sale, 1916
Held at the QVMAG Ref: 1983_p_0163-0176



Prisoner George Leathley No's. 14 and 226
National Library of Australia collection
Title: George Leathley, per ship Blundell, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]
Creator: T. J. Nevin
Date: 1874.
Extent: 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm., on mount 10.4 x 6.4 cm.
Context: Part of Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]
Series: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Title from inscription on reverse.
Inscription: “nos. 14 & 226”–On reverse.

Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin was commissioned by his family solicitor, the Hon. Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, to photograph prisoners for the Colonial Government of Tasmania as early as 1871, the year the government of NSW authorised the Inspector of Prisons, Harold McLean, to commence the photographing of all prisoners convicted in the NSW Superior Courts.

New South Wales
The colony of New South Wales had already introduced the practice of photographing prisoners twice, firstly on entry to prison and secondly near the end of their term of incarceration by January 1872 when this report was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. The purpose of the visit to the Port Arthur prison by the former Premier and Solicitor-general from the colony of Victoria with photographer, Thomas Nevin and the Tasmanian Attorney-General the Hon. W. R. Giblin on 1st February 1872 in the company of visiting British author Anthony Trollope, was to establish a similar system for processing prisoners through the central Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall on their relocation from the dilapidated and dysfunctional Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol in Campbell St. The few remaining prisoners at Port Arthur were returned to Hobart from mid-1873 to early 1874. Some were photographed by Nevin at Port Arthur, but the majority were photographed by Nevin on arrival in Hobart.


Photography and Prisons
The Sydney Morning Herald 10 January 1872

TRANSCRIPT

PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRISONS.-We understand that, at the instance of Inspector-General McLerie, Mr. Harold McLean, the Sheriff, has recently introduced into Darlinghurst gaol the English practice of photographing all criminals in that establishment whose antecedents or whose prospective power of doing mischief make them, in the judgment of the police authorities, eligible for that distinction. It is an honour, however, which has to be " thrust " upon some men, for they shrink before the lens of the photographer more than they would quail before the eye of a living detective. The reluctance of such worthies in many cases can only be conquered by the deprivation of the ordinary gaol indulgencies; and even then they submit with so bad a grace that their acquiescence is feigned rather than real. The facial contortions to which the more knowing ones resort are said to be truly ingenious. One scoundrel will assume a smug and sanctimonious aspect, while another will chastise his features into an expression of injured innocence or blank stupidity which would almost defy recognition. They are pursued, however, through all disguises, and when a satisfactory portrait is obtained copies are transferred to the black books of the Inspector-General. The prisoners are first " taken" in their own clothes on entering the gaol, and the second portrait is produced near the expiration of their sentence. When mounted in the police album, the cartes-de-visite, if we may so style them, are placed between two columns, one containing a personal description of the offender, and the other a record of his criminal history. Briefer or more comprehensive biographies have probably never been framed. Copies of these photographs are sent to the superintendents of police in the country districts, and also to the adjoining colonies. To a certain extent photography has proved in England an effective check upon crime, and it is obviously calculated to render most valuable aid in the detection of notorious criminals. New South Wales is, we understand, the only Australian colony which has yet adopted this system ; but the practice is likely soon to become general.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald. (1872, January 10). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13250452

Following the NSW government example, Thomas Nevin photographed men convicted in the Hobart Supreme Court who were housed in the adjoining Hobart Gaol. Those men who were convicted in regional courts with sentences longer than three months were transferred to Hobart. He took at least two original photographs of the prisoner, on different occasions: the first, the booking shot, was taken on entry into the prison, sometimes when the prisoner was unshaved and in ordinary or street clothing as soon as convicted; the second was taken fourteen days prior to the prisoner's discharge. Additional prisoner photographs were taken by T. J. Nevin at the Port Arthur penitentiary between 1872 and 1874, and at the Cascades Prison for Males with the assistance of his younger brother Constable John Nevin in the unusual circumstance of the transfer of 103 prisoners from the Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol at the request of the Parliament in 1873. Up to six duplicates were produced from each negative.



Above: One of earliest tenders taken up by Nevin at the Office of the Superintendent of Police
for provision of police and gaol registers photographs, The Mercury 23 December 1872.

The photographs (there are 300+ extant of Tasmanian "convicts") were printed first on paper and mounted in oval frames as cartes-de-visite, both as loose duplicates and as cdvs pasted in the Hobart Gaol Photo Books containing summaries of the prisoner's criminal record.The loose duplicates were made for circulation to local and intercolonial authorities. Forty (40) or so unmounted prints from Nevin's original glass negatives survive from his government contract in the 1870s, and are held at the QVMAG. These forty sepia prints were collated on three panels in 1916 by John Watt Beattie and offered for sale from his museum and shop in Hobart. The majority, however, survive as cartes-de-visite in oval mounts, typical of Nevin's commercial studio portraiture in the decade 1870-1880 (examples are held at the NLA, QVMAG, TMAG, SLNSW Mitchell Library, PCHS and in private collections). The cdv's were formatted to fit onto the prisoner's record sheet, a blue form, held at the Hobart Gaol. The original negatives were held at the Mayor's Court and the Office of Inspector of Police at the Hobart Town Hall where Thomas Nevin held the government contract which became a full-time position with residency in late 1875.

Darlinghurst Gaol (NSW) 1871
This selection (below) of mugshots was made from searching the NSW State Records Office Prisoners Photos Index to the photographic books for the earliest date recorded for a mugshot. It appears to have been September 1871 at the Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, although the months of April and May 1871 appear in the search totalling approx. 165 prisoners in the index for 1871. These are among the earliest, all taken with the male prisoner seated in an office chair, in no particular pose apart from directing his gaze slightly to the viewer's left of frame, and with hands folded in his lap.





William McGrath, sentenced to two years for receiving stolen cattle.
Photographed on 16th September, 1871



RAP SHEET NOTES for James Peake
James Peake alias Pake alias Moocher
PEAKE James 1806 Staffordshire Darlinghurst 16/09/1871 44 43 NRS2138 [11/17378] 5133 Alias: PAKE, James Alias: MOOCHER, James 2138_a006_a00611_1737800043r
Record No. 44
Date when portrait was taken 16th September 1871
Tried at Bathurst QS 6th September 1871. Offence was stealing in a dwelling, sentenced to 2 years hard labour, It was his 3rd conviction, served a sentence on Cockatoo [Island], supposed to be a Vandemonian
Born 1806, Staffordshire, arrived on the Red Jacket in 1856, C of E, no education, 5 feet 4 half inches. weight 124 lbs, brown and grey hair, grey eyes, scar on under lip, a woman and three fishes on right forearm



NB: Dictionary meaning of "moocher" at www.dictionary.com/browse/moocher

Sense of "sponge off others" first recorded 1857. Whatever the distant origin of mooch, the verb *mycan and its cognates have been part of European slang for at least two millennia. [ Liberman] Related: Mooched; mooching. As a noun meaning "a moocher," from 1914.

William Richards was sentenced to 2 years for horse stealing. He was discharged from Darlinghurst Gaol on 10th September 1871.



Joseph McGrath #1 and Jospeh McGrath alias Lee #2: stealing from the person, discharged from Darlinghurst Gaol on 4th October, 1871.

Source: Photographic Description Books [Darlinghurst Gaol] NRS 2138

Margaret Greenwood, NSW 1875



Margaret Greenwood, 1875, photographed at the Darlinghurst Gaol NSW
NSW State Records Archives



Booking photo, cdv in oval mount, of George Miller 1881, 
Gaol Photograph of George Miller [NRS 2138 Vol. 3/6044 Photo No. 2688 p. 219]
Unattributed photo:State Archives NSW


NSW State Records Archives Investigator - Series Detail
Series number: 2138
Title: Photographic Description Books [Darlinghurst Gaol]
Start date: by 12 Aug 1871
End date: by 13 Jul 1914
Contents start date:  12 Aug 1871
Contents end date:  13 Jul 1914
Descriptive note:

Authorisation
The taking of prisoner 'portraits' was formally authorised to be carried out at Darlinghurst Gaol by a memo from Harold Maclean (Inspector of Prisons) to the Principal Gaoler on 5 August 1871 (1). This document noted:

Authority to introduce Photography
Portraits will be taken of all prisoners convicted at the Superior Courts, except those convicted of trifling misdemeanours and who do not belong to the Criminal Class.

Portraits will also be taken of prisoners summarily convicted where the Police require it, or the Principal Gaoler thinks it desirable to secure a perfect description.

These portraits will be photographed after conviction and fourteen (or more) days prior to discharge, in private clothing where practicable.

Any prisoner refusing or by his or her behaviour putting obstacles in the way of securing a proper likeness will be brought before the Visiting Justice for disobedience and the case reported to the Inspector of Prisons with a view to the stoppage of remission indulgences and gratuities. .

The figures are to be taken ¾ size unless in exceptional cases where there may be reason for taking them in full. The negatives will be numbered to correspond with the Photographic Register, and carefully packed away under lock and key.

Twenty five copies of each portrait are to be printed and furnished to the Inspector General of Police through this Office.

Harold Maclean
Inspector of Prisons
BC 5:8:71

The Principal Gaoler
A slightly earlier general order from the Acting Inspector of Prisons on 27 July 1871 (2) dealt with some of the practical aspects of implementing photography of prisoners:

Prisoners to be photographed
Prisoners convicted at the Superior Courts and being forwarded to serve their Sentences in Darlinghurst Gaol, or to Darlinghurst Gaol en route to Berrima or other prisons, will not be shaved and their private clothing will be sent with them in order that they might be photographed as nearly as practicable in their ordinary appearance.
Harold Maclean
Actg Inspr of Prisons
The Gaolers
Parramatta
Mudgee
Windsor

The photographing of prisoners appears to have been confined to Darlinghurst Gaol (the principal prison in the Colony) until the mid-1870s, after which it began to be introduced at the major country gaols. On 15 February 1877, a general order was sent to Berrima and Goulburn Gaols advising that when a prisoner who had been photographed was transferred to another gaol, a copy of his photograph, mounted on the usual form, was to be attached to his papers. (3)

Description
In addition to at least one photograph of each prisoner, this series contains the following information: number, prisoners’ name, aliases, date when portrait was taken, native place, year of birth, details of arrival in the colony - ship and year of arrival, trade or occupation, religion, degree of education, height, weight (on committal, on discharge), colour of hair, colour of eyes, marks or special features, number of previous portrait, where and when tried, offence, sentence, remarks, and details of previous convictions (where and when, offence and sentence).

There appears to have been one face-on photograph per individual until about June 1894 when there was both a face-on and a side-on photograph per individual.

Format
While the information recorded varied little over time, there was some variation in the format of the records, particularly in the first eight years (August 1871 to April/May 1879). For this period, the primary and more complete sequence of records was kept in a double-page format, with the descriptive information recorded (with photographs) on the left hand page, and criminal history/previous convictions on the right-hand side. The original intention appears to have been to have two photographs of each prisoner, on arrival and discharge. This seems to have been done only occasionally (mainly in the first few years of the system).

An incomplete sequence of records in a single-page format has also survived as part of this series, covering the period August 1871 to March 1875. This is particularly important, as it includes some records for periods where there are gaps in the surviving primary sequence of records (particularly for the period August 1871 to February 1872, and November 1872 to October 1873).

From April/May 1879 onwards, the single page format became the standard for these records.
For the period July 1904 to July 1914, there is a parallel set of records for Darlinghurst at NRS 1942 (this series also contains records for the other NSW gaols).

Custody History
[11/2205] was an archival estray received from Mr F. Rogers of the Hastings District Historical Society.
Endnotes
1. NRS 1824, 4/6478, p.496, no.71/2676.
2. NRS 1834, 5/1826, p.144, no.71/31.
3. NRS 2179, 5/1823, p.334.
Home location: These records are held at Western Sydney Records Centre

Victoria
Victoria had yet to adopt the NSW system by September 1872, according to this anecdotal report which appeared in the Melbourne Argus and the Empire, NSW:



Prison Photography
Empire, NSW, 19 September 1872

TRANSCRIPT

PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY
A VERY good plan for assisting the police to recognise criminals is adopted in New South Wales, and might well be followed by the prison authorities in this colony. Every prisoner before he leaves the prison at the expiration of his sentence is photographed, and the likeness gives the police all over the colony the best possible description of every bad character who is at large. Copies of some of these photographs are sent to the detectives here, and one was used at the City Court on Monday. On Saturday evening a man, who gave the name of Wm. Phillips, was caught upstairs in the private bedroom of the landlord of the Dover Hotel, corner of Victoria and Lygon streets. He was wearing over his boots a pair of felt slippers, which enabled him to walk noiselessly, and on the ground which he had passed over a skeleton key was found. He was recognised as an old offender, known as Isaac Williams, with half a dozen aliases, who had been convicted repeatedly in Victoria and New South Wales. A book containing his photograph, taken just before he left the gaol in New South Wales, was produced, and placed his identity beyond doubt. His defence was that he had been doing a job at "shingling," though he was a tailor, and had put on the felt slippers to prevent him slipping off the roof he was working upon. When he went into the hotel he got past the bar and into the bedroom upstairs by mistake. He was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour, and feeling agrieved gave notice of appeal. The photographer sometimes has difficulty when "taking off" a prisoner. One man whose portrait was in the book produced was represented in the act of executing a most comical wink, and a marginal note intimated that he had tried to spoil the likeness by contorting his features at the moment the picture was being taken. - Melbourne Argus.

Source: PRISON PHOTOGRAPHY. (1872, September 19). Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), p. 4. Retrieved from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60865786

Pentridge Prison (Vic) 1874



Launceston Examiner 22 Aug 1874

TRANSCRIPT

VICTORIA. The system of taking photographic likenesses of prisoners at the Pentridge Stockade is stated to have proved of great assistance to the police department in detecting crime. The system was commenced at Pentridge about two years ago, and since then one of the officials who had a slight knowledge of the art, with the assistance of a prisoner has taken nearly 7000 pictures, duplicates of which have been sent to all parts of this and the adjacent colonies. But it has been considered rather too expensive, to employ an official entirely for the purpose, and as constant employment could not be provided in the future, a photographer has lately been appointed, who will visit the stockade twice in the week, and the hulks at Williamstown once. -- Argus. Launceston Examiner 22 Aug 1874

The Victorian government employed a commercial photographer to visit the Pentridge prison twice weekly, and to visit the hulks moored at Williamstown once a week. The photographer conventionally accredited as the Pentridge photographer for more than twenty years is Charles Nettleton (1826-1902) - for example, this statement which appears in an online biography at the ADB:

He was police photographer for over twenty-five years and his portrait of Ned Kelly, of which one print is still extant, is claimed to be the only genuine photograph of the outlaw.

Yet Nettleton's name does not appear in the Victorian Gazette as a photographic contractor to any  government department during the entire period of the 1870s and 1880s. His name only appears on these dates:

1863: Partnership dissolved with John Calder



Victorian Government Gazette 16 June 1863

1879: Patent for photogravure



Victorian Government Gazette 10 April 1879

1886: Insolvency again



Victorian Government Gazette 9 April 1886

This omission was not unusual when commercial photographers operated on commission. The only photographers listed in the Victorian Gazette up until 1875 were Batchelder and O'Neill, who supplied the Department of Lands and Survey with photographic chemicals and materials. The contract dated 17th March, 1865, does not indicate they these two photographers were the ones who would eventually use the  chemicals in government service.

1865: Batchelder and O'Neill contract



Victorian Government Gazette 17 March 1865

1875: Felton, Grimawade, and Co.
This large concern supplied not just photographic materials to the General Stores of the Victorian government; they also supplied medicines etc, all of which were gazetted simply as "Contingencies 1875-76". Likewise, photographic chemicals and materials supplied by tender and used by Thomas Nevin in Tasmania from 1872 onwards were listed in Government stores simply as Supplies, Hobart City Corporation and Office of the Inspector of Police.





Victorian Government Gazette 23 April 1875

The list of chemicals here shows the extent to which the Victorian Government was using documentary photography by 1875. But again, no photographer's contract to the Prisons Department or Office of Inspector of Police was gazetted until John Noone's name was gazetted in August 1881.



Victorian Government Gazette 23 April 1875



Victorian Gazette 6 August 1881

Nettleton's Patent Registrations (Victoria) 1870s





National Archives of Australia Ref: A2388
Registers of Proprietors of Paintings, Photographs, Works of Art and Sculpture
Charles Nettleton’s government commission to take photographs of the Benevolent Asylum, National Museum, the Royal Mint (1873) etc
Photography © KLW NFC 2008 ARR

PATENTS REGISTRATION
The stamps appearing on the photographs (below) of Lowry, taken by photographer Charles Nettleton (Victoria), were inscribed with the numbers "189" and "190" when registered as commercial photographs with the Victorian Patents Office in 1870. The use of this stamp continued in Victoria until 1873. The inscription - "The convict 'Lowry' " - on the verso of the mounted cdv suggests it was taken of a prisoner for police and gaol records, because Nettleton was known to have worked for police over a period of twenty years to the 1880s (Kerr, 1992).



State Library of Victoria Catalogue
Creator: Nettleton, Charles, 1826-1902, photographer.
Title: The convict ’Lowry’ [picture] / Charles Nettleton.
Accession number(s): H96.160/1583 H96.160/1584
Date(s) of creation: 1870.
Medium: 2 photographs : albumen silver ;
Dimensions: 10 x 6 cm. each.
Collection: Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection
Contents/Summary: Two portrait photographs of the convict, Lowry. H96.160/1583 shows him full-length, outdoors and leaning on a steel fence. H96.160/1584, a vignette bust portrait. He wears a shirt and unbuttoned jacket, and has a moustache.
Notes:Title inscribed on verso.
Date of copyright registration ascertained from Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection (VPOCC) Index: Aug. 6 1870.
VPOCC registration number inscribed on item l.c. & l.r.: 189 & 190.
Registered by Frederick Secretair, Russell Street, Melbourne.
Original Picture Collection location number: Env. 24, no. 39 & 40.
Subject(s): Male prisoners -- Victoria -- 1870.
Portrait photographs
Albumen prints.
Vignettes.Source/Donor:
Transferred from The Victorian Patents Office to the Melbourne Public Library 1908.
The files which now comprise the Victorian Patents Office Copyright Collection were begun by the Victorian Patents Office in 1870. In order to register copyright, a copy of the photograph, print or illustration was lodged with the Victorian Patents Office at the Melbourne Town Hall. A number was assigned and the photographs were mounted in scrapbooks. The photographs were stamped with the date of registration but this ceased in 1873. The original registers are now in the National Archives of Australia. The Picture Collection holds photocopies of these registers. The registers or indexes contain the following information: Date of registration, name and address of proprietor or author, description of the work and date of first publication. Images were registered from 1870 until 1906. The collection was transferred to the Melbourne Public Library in 1908.
Call number: PIC LTAF 980

Tasmanian Patents 1860s-1880s
In Tasmania, Thomas J. Nevin designed seven studio stamps for commercial use, plus one which appears on the versos of prisoners' identification photographs bearing the Royal Arms government insignia. This was for use on commission with the Hobart Municipal Police Office, and Hobart City Council and registered at the Office of the Registrar of Patents, Customs House, Hobart. These registers are now held at the Archives Office of Tasmania Series RGD9/1/1, RGD12, from 1859-1904.



Webshot: Office of the Registrar of Patents (Archives Office Tasmania)