Tasmanian commercial and police photographer Thomas J. NEVIN
Tasmanian convictarian John Watt BEATTIE
The Special Case of Thomas Wilson's Mugshot
On Saturday 7 December 2024 at Leski's Auctions, Melbourne (Victoria) , seven copies of prisoner identification photographs in carte-de-visite format (mugshots) taken of Tasmanian prisoners in the 1870s were offered for sale (Lots 357-363, Catalogue #513 Convicts and Historical).
The original photographs were taken by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol in the 1870s on prisoners being received and discharged per regulations in force by 1873 in Victoria and NSW. There were more 19th century mugshots on offer at Leski's auction that day of Tasmanian and Victorian prisoners (e.g. Ned Kelly) but only those seven inscribed verso in an archivist's or collector's hand ca. 1890-1900 with the prisoner's name, ship, and the phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" attracted a starting bid of $850 each, with estimates between $1000-$1500. Every single one of these 1870s "TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPHS" was sold on or above the starting bid, with Lot 360 - prisoner Thomas Wilson - reaching an historic record at sale of $1500 or approx. $2000 with buyer's premium, a curious outcome that might be explained by its rarity: unaccounted for in public collections was reason enough for a public institution to initiate and step up the bidding regardless of cost.
Sold at Leski's auction for record prices
Auction #513 Convicts and Historical, streaming on 7 December 2024
Link: https://www.leski.com.au/auction/australian-historical-8/
The following photographs (recto and verso) and brief criminal histories for the seven prisoners whose cdv's were sold were sourced and cited directly from Leski's Auctions online, without modification, 7-8 December 2024.The eighth prisoner's photograph and history (Peter Westaway), taken in the last decade of the 19th century, was not sold.
Sales results, Leski's auction 7 December 2024
Lots 357-363 sold to Buyer No. 9190; Lot 364 unsold
Live sale: https://auctions.leski.com.au/auctions/live-sale/id/623
Lot 357:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "28. Alexander Woods, per London. Taken at Port Arthur 1874". Alexander Woods was one of 250 convicts transported onboard the "London", arriving in Van Diemen's Land on 9th July 1844. He had been convicted and court martialled at St. Johns, Newfoundland, and sentenced to 14 years transportation. The prison photograph was taken 30 years after his arrival.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $850 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219814/
Lot 358:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "36. Henry Williams per Gov'r Phillip. Taken at Port Arthur 1874". Henry Williams (transported as William Williams), was convicted of Housebreaking at the Supreme Court in Hobart Town and sentenced to 5 years in gaol. He had arrived in Van Dieman's Land aboard the "Governor Phillips". The prison record shows he was discharged in February 1876.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $1,300 Status Sold"
View:https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219815/
Lot 359:
TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "97. Robert West per "Gilmore". Taken at Port Arthur 1874". Robert West was convicted at Kent and sentenced to 7 years transportation. He had arrived in Van Diemen's Land aboard the "Gilmore" in March 1832, 42 years before this photograph was taken.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $850 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219816/
Lot 360:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "108. Thomas Wilson alias Murphy. per "Dd Clark". Taken at Port Arthur 1874." Thomas WILSON was convicted at Carnarvonshire on 1 Aug 1840 for breaking into a dwelling and stealing. Gaol Report: "vicious, desperate disposition, conduct disorderly & bad connections". 15 year transportation sentence. Sent to Van Diemen's Land per the ship "David Clarke" on it's [sic] only voyage carrying convicts, arriving 4 Oct 1841. He was still in gaol 33 years later. He died in 1893. As a result of his many interactions with the law, quite a lot is recorded about Wilson:
In Van Diemen's Land: Probation Period of 2½ yrs. First station - Flinders Bay. Numerous records of misconduct and punishments. 22 April 1851: Ticket of Leave granted. 27 Sept 1853: Ticket of Leave revoked as he was absent from Muster. 15 Nov 1853: Ticket of Leave restored. 14 Aug 1855: Certificate of Freedom issued. Further offences, in the Colony: 6 Dec 1855: Oatlands - Putting a person in bodily fear and stealing therefrom. 6 yrs penal servitude. Sent to Port Arthur Penal Settlement. 27 April 1860: Discharged. 23 Oct 1860: Hobart S.C. - Assault & robbery. Further 7 yrs penal servitude. Some time remitted. 1868: Launceston S.C. Disorderly conduct. 3 mths hard labour. 28 Sept 1869: Launceston S.C. - Housebreaking & robbery. 6 yrs penal servitude. Sent to Port Arthur Penal settlement. 23 July 1877: at Green Ponds - Larceny. 3 mths imprisonment. 11 Nov 1880: at Launceston S.C. - Burglary. 6 yrs imprisonment.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $1,500 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219817/
Lot 361:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "134. Thomas Wood or Key, native". Taken at Port Arthur 1874." Thomas Wood (transported as Thomas Key on the Lady Nugent) was sentenced to six years for housebreaking and larceny, at the Supreme Court, Hobart. Claiming to be native born, in fact he was originally found guilty at Nottingham Quarter Sessions in 1836 and transported for 7 years.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $850 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219818/
Lot 362:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "259. George Wilson, Ld Lyndock 3. Taken at Port Arthur 1874." George Wilson arrived in New South Wales on the 8th August 1838 aboard the Lord Lyndoch. He had been transported for life at the Glasgow Court of Justiciary.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $850 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219819/
Lot 363:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "312 + 313 Charles Ward or Hayes per Moffatt 2 . Taken at Port Arthur 1874." Ward (who called himself John) arrived aboard the Moffatt in May 1834, following his conviction at York. His sentence was transportation for 14 years.
Estimate $1,000 - $1,500 Price Realized $1,100 Status Sold"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219820/
Lot 364 : unsold on the day and not included in the above group of seven:
"TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPH: A carte-de-visite, annotated verso: "Percy Westaway, Launceston." Westaway, a native born 28 year old engine driver and miner, was found guilty of larceny at the Supreme Court Launceston on 27th March 1890. He was imprisoned for 3 years. The record shows that he was imprisoned for larceny again in December 1916.
Estimate $300 - $500 Orig. Starting Price $240 Buy now! $240"
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219821/
Even though this mugshot (Lot 364, of Tasmanian prisoner Percy Westaway) is a finely executed well-made photograph produced as a carte-de-visite on an oval mount for police records within the conventions of 1870s commercial studio portraiture, it did not attract Buyer No. 9190 of the previous seven mugshots (Lots 357-363) for these reasons: Westaway was born in Tasmania, so he was not transported as a "convict" before 1856, and therefore not part of the island's early penal heritage; his photograph was taken at the Hobart Gaol in 1890-1893 at least fifteen years after the closure of the Port Arthur prison in 1877; the mugshot bears no inscription pertaining to the factually incorrect statement - "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - written on the versos of the other seven Tasmanian prisoner cdv's at auction. The same phrase was also written on the versos of at least three hundred more 1870s mugshots now extant in national institutions which were originally sourced and transcribed by John Watt Beattie in the early 1900s from non-active Tasmanian police records for his "Port Arthur Museum" in Hobart and in travelling exhibitions on the fake hulk Success. Clearly, it is the "Port Arthur" brand the buyer wanted above all other attributes and shortcomings presented by these 1870s Tasmanian prisoner mugshots, the originals correctly attributed to commercial photographer and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin from contemporary sources to present-day research.
Hammer prices for LOTS 357-363, Lot 364 unsold.
Link: https://auctions.leski.com.au/auctions/print-realized-prices/id/623
Prisoner Thomas Wilson, Hobart Gaol 1874
The police gazette noted in May 1874 on his discharge from the Hobart Gaol that Thomas Wilson was blind in his right eye, a fact no doubt which led to the rest of his life spent in welfare depots when not incarcerated in prison.
Subject: Tasmanian prisoner Thomas Wilson (ca. 1813-1893)
Location and date: Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street, Tasmania, May 1874
Photographer: commercial photographer, contractor Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Verso inscription: "108 Thomas Wilson alias Murphy per "Dd Clark" Taken at Port Arthur 1874"
Details: a copy of the original photograph taken by T. J. Nevin on Thomas Wilson's discharge 1874, reproduced and inscribed verso by Beattie & Searle for sale 1890s-1920s as a Port Arthur tourist souvenir, possibly removed from an album.
Condition: foxing, water damage and tears to print on right side, dirty mount, ink smudged verso, faded image, degraded copy reprinted in 1877 for Wilson's 3 months' sentence at Green Ponds (Tas) from Nevin's 1873-1874 original glass negative and reprinted again from the cdv, suggested by the dark ring around the image on recto, in November 1880 for pasting to Wilson's rap sheet when he was sentenced to six years for burglary at Launceston, transferred again to the Hobart Gaol and released in 1885 to a welfare depot where he died of senility in 1893, aged 81 years.
Sold at auction, Leski's, Melbourne, Vic. 7 Dec 2024, for $1,500, or approx. $2000 with BP.
Hobart Gaol and Police Records
Thomas Wilson was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on Wilson's transfer from the Port Arthur prison to the Hobart Gaol between his arrival there on 10 September 1873 and his discharge on 30 April 1874 (gazetted on 8 May 1874). His photograph was reprinted in 1877 and sent to Green Ponds where he was charged with larceny and sentenced to three months. It was reprinted again in 1880 when Wilson was sentenced to six years for burglary at Launceston and transferred to Hobart.
The Archives Office of Tasmania has collated most of their original records pertaining to Thomas Wilson's criminal career and welfare at these URLs:
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1447843 [Employment and Prison - NB not all records at this URL belong to this convict]
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1604550 [Health and Welfare]
But what is missing from their collation is the police gazette record below showing Thomas Wilson was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in the week ending 6 May 1874 by which time Thomas J. Nevin's photograph of him would have been pasted to the rap sheet [Record of Arrest and Prosecution], and would have remained there to this day if that rap sheet had survived flood, fire, mould, theft and defacement. Unfortunately, the rap sheets from which the original 1870s mugshots were removed have not survived, mostly for reasons to do with sensitivities about the hated "convict stain" and promotion of tourism to the island (see note on Beattie below).
The seller who submitted Thomas Wilson's cdv at Leski's for auction on 7 December 2024 sourced a good deal of information about his prison and welfare history, but having missed the police gazette notice of 6 May 1874, assumed the prisoner spent his entire life in Tasmanian prisons. He certainly passed the majority of years from discharge in 1874 to his death in 1893 in and out of welfare depots (one reason being blindness), per this record at the Archives Office Tasmania:
Name: Wilson, Thomas
Record Type: Health & Welfare
Description: Pauper or invalid
Property: Cascades Invalid Depot
Brickfields Invalid Depot
Port Arthur
New Town Charitable Institute
Admission dates: 13 Apr 1874 to 07 Dec 1875, 22 Mar 1876 to 04 Jul 1876, 12 Jul 1876 to 14 Nov 1876, 05 Jul 1877 to 02 Jul 1878, 02 Dec 1885 to 20 Jul 1886, 18 Mar 1887 to 04 Oct 1887, 29 Dec 1887 to 08 Apr 1890
Ship to colony: David Clarke
Paupers & Invalids no. :pi1936100
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES: 1604550
Link; https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1604550
It is from this information that the seller of Thomas Wilson's cdv at Leski's auction on Saturday 7 December 2024 decided to accompany the cdv with an extra paragraph detailing Wilson's criminal and welfare history but not his employment history, the only cdv of the seven in the group in this auction of "TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPHS" catalogued with additional information.
Above: detail of record below: Thomas Wilson was transferred from the Port Arthur prison (PA) to the Hobart House of Corrections (HC) in Campbell Street, Hobart on 10 Sept 1873. Administered in Confidence on 27 April 1874 - the residue of his sentence was remitted. He was discharged on 30 April 1874 from the Hobart Gaol.
Wilson, Thomas
Record Type: Convicts
Employer: Garth, James: 1849
Departure date: 7 Jun 1841
Departure port: Plymouth
Ship: David Clarke
Place of origin: Sligo
Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON37-1-8/CON37-1-8P395
POLICE GAZETTE RECORDS
Source: Page 78, Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police 1874 (weekly police gazette)
Prisoner Thomas WILSON per ship David Clarke
Discharged from the H.M. Gaol week ending 6 May 1874
NOTES: WILSON, Thomas or Robert per ship D. Clarke, tried in the G.S. Launceston on 29 Sept 1869 for Housebreaking and robbery, sentenced to 6 years.
Native place: Ireland, age 59 yrs, height 5 ft 81/2 ins, dark brown hair. F.S. Blind right eye.
Source: Page 187, Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police 1880 (weekly police gazette)
Prisoner Thomas Wilson, 67 yrs old, transported on the ship David Clarke, Free in Servitude (FS) was sentenced to six years for burglary at the Supreme Court, Launceston on 11-12 November 1880. While the cdv sold at Leski's bears the inscription verso "Thomas Wilson alias Murphy" and the ship "D'd Clark", none of these records lists his alias as "Murphy". The only suggestion of an alias was an alternative first name "Robert" as in "Wilson, Thomas or Robert" gazetted on 8 May 1874 on his discharge from the Hobart Gaol. An altogether different and younger convict with the name "Thomas Murphy" was transported on the same ship the David Clarke in 1841, perhaps the source of the error of the late 19th century inscription on verso.
Provenance
No concrete information has surfaced to date as to the identities of either the vendor who put these seven Tasmanian carte-de-visite prisoner photographs to auction in December 2024, or indeed of the cashed-up buyer: comments therefore pertaining to either entity here are speculative and are not to be used in attributing provenance. Two questions naturally arise: were the cdv's from a private collection, or were they de-accessioned from a public institution? A third question will also arise, going back over their history, are they or were they ever stolen government property?
Absent from the verso or recto of Thomas Wilson's cdv and absent as well from the versos of the other six copies of these prisoners' photographs taken in the 1870s are any mid-to-late 20th century accession numbers, stamps or markings used by libraries and museums, which suggests strongly these six particular copies of the other identical copies already extant in public collections have survived in the private collectables market for 120 years - or hidden somewhere in a public institution. Even if the prisoner's image in these seven rather well-worn cdv's is blurred and degraded from repeated copying, poor storage and handling, it survives as an historical fact attesting to his status at that time as prisoner, information useful not just to past generations and those now, but to future generations who will pause over them with new questions pertinent to their own specific circumstances.
Regardless of its condition, each of these prisoners' photographs - from the first sitting to the artefact it has become today - has passed through at least five significant stages, fulfilling a set of different purposes at every stage. Perhaps each transition is best demonstrated by using one prisoner's image as an example from the group of the seven Lots sold as cdv's at Leski's auction, 7 Dec. 2024, that of Lot 361, Thomas Wood or Key:
Stage 1: the one and only real photograph, 1873
The prisoner Thomas Wood, transported as Key for 7 years from London on the Lady Nugent, departing 12 July 1836, sat for his mugshot taken by Thomas J. Nevin, the contracted photographer, on Wood's arraignment at the Supreme Court Hobart and incarceration next door in the Hobart Gaol between 15-18 July 1873. He was 60 years old, sentenced to six years' imprisonment for housebreaking and larceny.
This photograph was one of four prints made by Nevin, either as an uncut group of four captured on the one negative using a four tube camera, or duplicated separately as one image using a single lens. In NSW the police photographer was required under regulations introduced in 1873 to print 15 photographs. The four required by Tasmanian authorities would first be framed in an oval mount and printed in carte-de-visite format. One was then pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet and held at the Hobart Gaol, one was placed in the Municipal Police Office's Photo Books at the Hobart Town Hall, and the others would be sent to suburban, regional and rural police stations wherever the prisoner was assigned to work on discharge (FS - free in servitude).
Forty prints of Tasmania prisoners from negatives by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916 at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray Street, Hobart (Tas)
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176
This is an uncut print from the glass negative of Thomas Wood, transported per Lady Nugent as Key. Photograph taken by T. J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol 15-18 July, 1873. The scratchings indicate damage from broken glass, ink spillage and multiple printings over several years to the 1900s. The number "134" is visible (when flipped) at lower right.
Thomas Wood's print is second from left, bottom row. The original glass negatives were used to print these, 40 in all, by John Watt Beattie and his assistant Edward Searle in the early 1900s. The prints were pasted onto green carboard in one of three panels displaying similar prints of prisoners: 14 on the first, 14 on the second, and 12 on third, totalling 40 prints. Each panel was headed in Searle's handwriting with the claim that these were Imperial prisoners funded by the British government and that they were photographed at Port Arthur: “Types of Imperial Convicts - Photographed at Port Arthur" though neither claim was correct. The three panels were catalogued for sale from John Watt Beattie's collection in 1916 and remained there unsold. Where had he found the negatives? In government records held at the Hobart Gaol, to which he had ready access as a commissioned photographer promoting tourism of Tasmania's landscapes and penal heritage to intercolonial/interstate visitors.
POLICE GAZETTE NOTICE 1873
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J, Barnard, Gov't printer.
Stage 2: the carte-de-visite prison reprints 1873-1882
Thomas Wood or Key was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in January 1878. His photograph may have been taken again on discharge but more likely it was reprinted from Nevin's original glass negative held at the Hobart Gaol in the photographer's room. He was soon back in court a year later,
Carte-de-visite photograph of prisoner Thomas Wood or Key
Printed from T. J. Nevin's negative, Hobart Gaol, 1873
NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
Title from verso: "Thomas Wood or Key, native, taken at Port Arthur, Tasmania, 1874"
Extent: 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.3 x 5.6 cm.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142915467
POLICE GAZETTE NOTICES 1878 -1882
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J, Barnard, Gov't printer.
Thomas Wood+s or Key per Lady Nugent was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in the week ending 30 January 1878. He may have been photographed again on discharge, or more likely, a new print from the photographer's original negative was produced. One of those new cdv's may be the very clean one of two held at the TMAG.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J, Barnard, Gov't printer.
Thomas Woods, per Lady Nugent, 63 years old, was convicted at Bothwell (Tas) and sentenced to 12 months for larceny from a dwelling during the week ending 28 December 1878. Because his sentence was longer than 3 months, he was transferred back to the Hobart Gaol where this offence would have been added to his old rap sheet with his cdv already pasted to it.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J, Barnard, Gov't printer.
Here is Thomas Wood, now gazetted by police as Wood+s or Key+s per Lady Nugent, 66 years old, 5ft 7½ins tall, discharged from Oatlands (Tas) where he was tried on 8 June 1882, sentenced to 3 months for being idle and disorderly. Remarks show he was lame and disfigured, with scars and a broken nose.
Stage 3: Beattie and the tourists, 1900s-1930s
A visitor to Tasmania in 1916 with the South Australian Commission was so affronted by John Watt Beattie's commercialism when he "wandered into the Port Arthur Museum" in Hobart, he sent a letter to the Mercury.
He wrote:
"There are three rooms literally crammed with exhibits ... The question which pressed itself on my mind time and again was, how comes it that these old-time relics which formerly were Government property, are now in private hands? Did the Government sell them or give them away? The same query applies to the small collection in a curiosity shop at Brown's River. Whatever the answer may be, I hold the opinion that the Government would be amply justified in taking prompt steps to repossess them, even though some duplicates may be in the State Museum. Today the collection is valuable and extremely interesting. A century hence it will be priceless. It would surely be unpardonable to allow it to pass into the hands of some wealthy globe-trotter which is the fate awaiting it, unless action be taken to secure it to the State."
Mercury 3rd February 1916, letter to the editor
Edward Lucas, MLC, Legislative Council, Adelaide.
Advertisement for Beattie's Port Arthur Museum, 51 Murray St. Hobart
QVMAG Ref: 1986_P_1223
Photo at bottom left: prisoner photographs arranged on cardboard on wall in Room 1.
See section below, "John Watt Beattie's commercial imperatives".
Stage 4: the TMAG deposit from the QVMAG 1983
A crisp and clean copy, 150 years old?
This cdv was originally held at the QVMAG. The number "164" was written on the front under the image in 1983 for an exhibition at the Port Arthur Historic site. The cdv was thereafter deposited at the TMAG.
Prisoner Thomas Wood or Key: cdv held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.
Verso inscribed with the same information as the Leski auction item, minus the number "134"
Two identical clean copies are held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection in addition to the copy at the NLA. This copy was most likely sourced from the QVMAG in July 1983 along with 50 or more prisoner cdv's for display at an exhibition at the Port Arthur historic site, after which it was not returned to Beattie's collection at the QVMAG, it was deposited instead at the TMAG. The recto was pencilled underneath the image with the number "164" - the new number used to catalogue it at the QVMAG in the removal. It is listed it as missing in the 2005 inventory (see section below, The Messy 1980s, last paragraph).
The number "134" on the other copies verso is missing or has been rubbed out on this verso which looks so clean, it may even be a reprint from the 1980s.
Collections: TMAG Q15608.1 & TMAG Q15608.2; QVMAG QVM: 1985_P_0145; NLA obj-142915467
Stage 5: auctioned at Leski's Melbourne, 7.12.2024
When will we see you again?
View: https://auctions.leski.com.au/lot-details/index/catalog/623/lot/219818/
An official record listing the error that Thomas Wood or Key was "native" - i.e. born in Tasmania - must have been held somewhere when all these copies in cdv format were transcribed verso by the collector/archivist in the 1890s with the same number "134" and the phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - with one exception. The TMAG copy (above) has no number verso; a new number instead has been pencilled under the image on the front. The Hobart Gaol and MPO, Town Hall, however, had their facts straight about Thomas Wood, transported as Thomas Key. Perhaps relatives or descendants of Thomas Key from Nottinghampshire (UK) were hoping to suppress his criminal history prior to transportation. Or, the error was simply the result of his alias "Thomas Wood" used after arrival not appearing on early records. The other cdv copies all bear verso the number "134" used by the photographer: it appears on the 1873 uncut print from the negative on lower right (see above).
John Watt Beattie's commercial imperatives
Copies of all six cdv's bearing the 1890s-1900s inscription "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" written for the tourists are already extant in public collections. For example, five copies are held at the NLA (Henry Williams, George Wilson, Thomas Wood or Key, Robert West, Charles Ward), two are held at the TMAG (Thomas Wood and Robert West) and one is held at the QVMAG (Alexander Woods). Black and white paper copies of the whole collection held at the QVMAG were made in the 1970s for the State Library of Tasmania's collection in Hobart.
Only the seventh in the Leski's auction group, the cdv of Thomas Wilson, Lot 360 is unaccounted for in public collections, which would suggest it has come from a private collection and because of its rarity realized the highest hammer price by the bidder (on behalf of a public collection) at the auction's conclusion.
The verso inscriptions on all of these seven prisoner cdv's (and on the versos of three hundred or more extant in national collections) were added by convictarian, photographer and government contractor John Watt Beattie with his assistant Edward Searle. He salvaged a handful of Nevin's original glass negatives (which seem to have disappeared) and a large number printed in cdv mounts from the photographers' room above the women's laundry at the Hobart Gaol before it was demolished in 1915. He removed just about all of them from the prisoners' rap sheets and presented them as tourist souvenirs, even reproducing both uncut and cdv items for sale at exhibitions. At his "Port Arthur Museum" in Hobart some were displayed in small groups on the walls pasted to carboard, others were arranged in alphabetical order by surname in albums.
Beattie's "Port Arthur Museum" 51 Murray St. Hobart
Room 1: the red arrow points to prisoner photographs arranged on cardboard.
Source: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
A very telling aspect of the provenance of the seven cdv's in Leski's auction is the fact that all seven prisoners' surnames begin with "W": Ward, Wilson x 2, Wood, Woods, Williams, and West. It seems likely therefore that these seven cdv's were taken from the tail-end of a collection arranged alphabetically when each mugshot was inserted (a long time ago) into leaves of a 19th century leatherbound album, the type commonly used for family collections.
One such album holding convict mugshots is on display in this photograph (lower left) taken in the 1930s at Radcliffe's Port Arthur museum of convict curiosities called The Old Curiosity Shop. Radcliffe acquired his stock from John Beattie shortly before Beattie died in 1930 or soon after probate before several tons from his estate were consigned to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston.
Caption: The Port Arthur Museum was cluttered with exotic and convict-era items (Supplied: PAHSMA).
Source: ABC online: Port Arthur tourism legacy is proud product of Radcliffe family collection
Propped up next to the album in this photograph is a cardboard display of 14 cdv mugshots of the same prisoners whose cdv's were pasted to a new display and framed under glass by the TMAG in the late 1990s. These and another three frames displaying 23 prisoner cdv's were incorrectly attributed as photographs of "Port Arthur convicts" taken by the Port Arthur prison commandant A. H. Boyd and sent to Canberra in 2000 for the exhibition titled Mirror with a Memory at the National Portrait Gallery.
The album at lower left in this photograph taken at Radcliffe's museum was probably from Beattie collections and would have been on display in Beattie's "Port Arthur Museum" 51 Murray Street Hobart where the visitor would be encouraged to browse them for their criminal ancestor's name, or their own family names, so of course the "W"s would appear at the back of each volume. The visitor might even want to purchase one, which is why Beattie et al wrote the name of the prisoner, the ship on which he was transported and "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" on the back of every cdv, providing visitors with the perfect souvenir at small cost - but they would not be allowed access to the criminal records - the rap sheets from which he had removed many originals - because that information might be too shocking.
John Watt Beattie's copies of 1870s "convict" photographs taken from Tasmanian government property and presented to the Edwardian tourist ca.1890s-1930s are commercial artefacts inscribed with patently incorrect information on versos. They are not "real" in the same sense as the originals produced for police and prison administration by T. J. Nevin in situ with the prisoner at the Hobart Gaol 30 years earlier.
Visitors to the ruins of the Port Arthur Penitentiary 1930
Photographer: James Chandler (1877-1945)
Source: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NS1231-1-88J2K$init=NS1231-1-88
James Chandler was Thomas J. Nevin's successor to professional photography, his young "cousin-in-law". He was the son of shoe maker William Chandler and Mary Chandler nee Genge, William's second wife. He was the nephew of Mary Genge's sister Martha Nevin formerly Salter nee Genge, who became the second wife of Thomas Nevin's father, John Nevin snr (1808-1887) in 1879.
Current research
No known works or collections list prisoner Thomas Wilson's cdv. Catalogued copies of the other six prisoner cdv's are extant in collections at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Launceston Tasmania (QVMAG), the National Library of Australia, Canberra (NLA) and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart Tasmania (TMAG). Another group of twelve prisoner photographs, concurrent with these six cdv's, is held in T. J. Nevin's name at the State Library of NSW, Sydney.
Research about these six mugshots posted to this site is available at the following URLs and at https://thomasnevin.com :
Henry Williams, ship Governor Phillip; Collection: NLA P1029/48
Number on verso: 36 Henry WILLIAMS per Gov Phillip
Read more here: https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2009/01/williams-henry.html
Alexander Woods, ship London; Collections: QVMAG 1985:P:97 & QVMAG 1985:P:160
Number on verso: 28 Alexander WOODS per London
Read more here: https://prisonerpics.blogspot.com/2015/06/rogues-gallery-qvmag-prisoner_22.html
Thomas Wood or Key, native : Collection: TMAG Q15608.1 & TMAG Q15608.2; QVMAG QVM: 1985_P_0145; NLA obj-142915467
Number on verso: 134 Thomas WOOD or KEY Native
Read more here: https://prisonerpics.blogspot.com/2009/01/prisoner-thomas-wood-as-key_19.html
Thomas Wilson alias Murphy, ship David Clark; No collection record
Number on verso: 108 Thomas WILSON or MURPHY per "Dd Clark"
No known public or published resource
George Wilson, ship Lord Lyndoch 3; Collection: NLA P1029/50
Number on verso: 269 George WILSON per Ld Lyndoch 3
Read more here: https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2009/01/wilson-george-aka-white.html
Robert West, ship Gilmore; Collections: TMAG Q15591 & NLA P1029/69
Number on verso: 97 Robert WEST per Gilmore
Read more here: https://prisonerpics.blogspot.com/2015/08/rogues-gallery-tasmanian-museum-and-art_23.html
Charles Ward, ship Moffat 2; Collection: NLA P1029/46
Numbers on verso: 312 & 313 Charles WARD or HAY per Moffat 2
HEYS Charles, or Hayes or Ward Moffat 2 NLA P1029/74 NLA P1029/46
Read more here: https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2009/01/hayes-charles.html
The cdv of Thomas Wilson (alias Murphy?), ship David Clark is unaccounted for in any public collection. It may have been kept on a leaf inside a thick oval frame in a typical 19th century family album after acquisition from Beattie's estate. The QVMAG had a similar album housing 1870s mugshots which were sighted there by descendants of Thomas Nevin in the mid 1980s. Also sighted at the National Library of Australia by Nevin descendants was the same or a very similar album of Tasmanian mugshots which was possibly sourced from the QVMAG and donated (or loaned) in the mid 1980s by John McPhee, the curator of the 1977 exhibition there featuring 70 mugshots from the same Beattie collection, all correctly attributed to photographer, government contractor and civil servant Thomas J. Nevin.
The messy 1980s
Each of these cdv's taken in the 1870s was numbered verso in the same hand that wrote a sequence number above the prisoner's name, name of the ship on which he arrived in Van Diemen's Land (before 1856 when transportation ceased - VDL was named Tasmania on 1 January 1856) and the phrase - "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" - purely in the name of 1900s dark tourism. John Watt Beattie exhibited and offered them for sale at his "Port Arthur Museum" in Hobart to tempt the Edwardian tourist to visit the ruins of the Port Arthur prison 60 kms south of Hobart, renamed Carnarvon on the Tasman Peninsula. His exhibitions coincided in the first decades of the 20th century with the release of two film adaptations in 1908 and 1927 of Marcus Clarke's 1870/1874 novel For The Term of His Natural Life. The visitor might even be offered a part as an extra at locations around Port Arthur while the films were in production.
Neither the date 1874 nor the location, Port Arthur written on the versos of these cdv's reflects the actual occasion, circumstance, offence, prison, court or date of each of these prisoner's one and only sitting with photographer T. J. Nevin for police and prison records in the years 1872-1876 (his contracts of 14 years ended in 1886). The inscriptions were written by John Watt Beattie and his assistant Edward Searle on more than 300 similar mugshots which they "salvaged" from the Hobart Gaol; most but not all were acquired by the QVMAG soon after on Beattie's death in 1930. A dozen or more were acquired ca. 1907 on the death of private collector David Scott Mitchell which are now held in the Mitchell Collection, State Library of NSW, Sydney (SLNSW PXB 274). Every one of the 12 (plus two more identifiable as prisoner cdv's taken by Nevin at the Hobart Gaol) luckily escaped the wording on verso "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" which may help in dating the event which inspired that inscriber's mistaken diligence.
Private collectors have expanded the national collections with donations. For example, the late Dr Niel Gunson (1930-2023) contributed at least 13 Tasmanian prisoner cdv's to the National Library of Australia (NLA) from "archival estrays" (pers. corr.) in the 1960s and 1980s. The current seven cdv's sold at Leski's auction (7 December 2024) may have been submitted from Dr Niel Gunson's private collection by his executors.
Most of the NLA holdings of Tasmanian prisoner photographs in T. J. Nevin's name were received ca. 1982 in an album from the 1977 QVMAG exhibition, although photographs ostensibly from that album were not accessioned until 1995, by which time the provenance was supposedly forgotten. John McPhee, curator of the QVMAG 1977 exhibition indicated that this album was offered first to the National Gallery of Victoria ca. 1982 and then forwarded to the NLA a year or so later (pers. comm, NGA 1984). That album was still intact in 2000: the cdv's were still positioned in mounts on album leaves and was not dismantled until entered into two more Canberra exhibitions that year: In a New Light and Heads of the People.
Many of these Tasmanian prisoner mugshots (styled "convict portraits" in tourism discourse as the 20th century progressed) which are held at the National Library of Australia are copies of the same prisoner photographs held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston (QVMAG); the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), and the Archives Office of Tasmania (AOT) in Hobart. This simple fact underscores the extensive catalogue revisions since the mid 20th century from the first of these copies made by Beattie ca. 1890- 1900 which the QVMAG acquired in 1930. Their copies bear the catalogue dates of 1958, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 2005 for a digital database.
Another private collector, photo-historian Chris Long spent a few weeks at the QVMAG, Launceston in July 1983 on a short research grant while preparing entries for the TMAG's Directory of Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940 with editor Gillian Winter (1995). Chris Long re-photographed as black & white prints every one of the 40 uncut cdvs of prisoners which were pasted to those same three panels offered for sale by Beattie from his catalogue in 1916 (see the panel with Thomas Wood or Key's mugshot above).
The 1870s originals of those 40 uncut cdv's were reprinted in sepia by John Watt Beattie, reassuringly titled "Photographed at Port Arthur" for the tourist, and pasted on three panels for exhibition and sale in 1916. Chris Long fogged out the cracks and scratches on the sepia originals in the process of making black and white copies for reasons only known to himself, since they serve no purpose. Also for reasons known only to himself, he sought to muddy their provenance as the work of T. J. Nevin's and their primary function as police mugshots by suddenly proclaiming, without proof of any kind, that the Commandant at Port Arthur, A. H. Boyd, had taken those very same photographs, contradicting historical evidence and experts in the field. No photograph of prisoners or of any other subject in any genre was ever attributed to the non-photographer A. H. Boyd prior to Chris Long's long game of gambling his reputation on this fanciful "belief." He was deliberately misinformed by the exhibitors of the 70 or so "convict" photographs they sourced from the QVMAG (Wishart) and the TMAG (Clark) in February 1983 for a "gallery" display during the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP). Hoping to talk up the importance of Port Arthur, especially for a World Heritage nomination, they faked a photographic attribution of those Hobart Gaol mugshots taken by T. J. Nevin to assert the Port Arthur commandant A. H. Boyd photographed prisoners (as some sort of Sunday hobbyist, apparently), a fanciful notion without proof or substance or any kind but which sadly persists as touristic spin for visitors to Port Arthur to this day.
Source: QVMAG ref: QVM: 1985_P_0145
Above: The original sepia uncut photograph taken in 1873 by T. J. Nevin of prisoner Thomas Wood or Key (see Stage 1 above), now cleaned of scratches and damages, reproduced in b&w by Chris Long at the QVMAG in 1983.
Just possibly, Chris Long "borrowed" three cdv's from an album at the QVMAG of the seven "TASMANIAN CONVICT PHOTOGRAPHS" offered at Leski's auction on 7 December 2024 purely for reference while preparing his TMAG publications and forgot about them, although he did admit to having a few items by Nevin in a box in his garage (pers. corr. 1984), so three or more known to be in a private collection (Clark 2010: 79) may well have been offered at Leski's auction from the "private collection" of Chris Long.
A selection of the QVMAG collection of these mugshots was exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1976 and at the QVMAG in 1977 as the work of Thomas J. Nevin . All of the prisoners in the photographs mounted as cdv's had been named by that date - some incorrectly - by archivists either for the 1934 exhibition in memory of John Watt Beattie and his convictaria collection, or by the curatorial staff there in 1958, in 1977, in 1983-5, and 1991 - dates which appear either on the versos or in the accession sheets of public institutions which received Nevin's originals produced for police or Beattie's copies. The Archives Office of Tasmania holds similar images, both originals and copies, and some are of unidentified prisoners, although the same man in the same print is identified in the QVMAG collection. All men pictured in the mugshots held at the National Library of Australia in Canberra - and many picture the same men as those listed in the QVMAG and TMAG collections - were identified on accession in 1962, 1982 and 1985, including the identity of the photographer T. J. Nevin, indicating clearly that the NLA received its collection from Tasmania.
Between February and April 1983, a selection of 70 cdv's from Beattie's collection of mugshots held at the QVMAG 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, 50 or so of those cdv's exhibited at Port Arthur in 1983 were not returned to Beattie's collection at the QVMAG, they were deposited instead at the TMAG in Hobart. The list of 200 cdv's drawn up in the 1980s with these new numbers recto as QVMAG property shows 127 were missing, dispersed to state libraries and museums etc, and 72 were remaining. The list can be viewed here.
The final question remains unanswered: who owned one or all of these cdv's to have them submitted to auction at Leski's in December 2024? Were they held by descent from a family collection? In plain speaking, we have to ask - from whose (deceased) estate has this "private collection" of seven 1870s Tasmanian mugshots surfaced? From collectors such as Geoffrey Stilwell, John McPhee, Chris Long, Marcel Safier? Who died? As it happens there is quite a group of people both living or recently deceased (2023-2024) who had their hands on these 1870s prisoner mugshots for many years in public collections: at the TMAG (Farmery, Winter), at the QVMAG (Simpson, Long, McPhee ), and at the NLA (Gunson, Barnard). Take your pick. Our collective guess is the A. H. Boyd descendant Kim Simpson (Tasmanian Heritage Council, QVMAG), and their apologist Vicki Farmery (TMAG) because of this encounter at the TMAG in November 2014 - read the section "Obstructive Museum Workers". RIP.
RELATED POSTS main weblog
- Prisoners Hugh McCALLUM and George WILSON aka White, 1872
- Prisoner Henry CLABBY and the TMAG frame-up
- T. J. Nevin's prisoner photograph of William RYAN at 1983 exhibitions
- Archives Office of Tasmania convict photographs by T. J. Nevin
- Prisoner Charles HEYS or Hayes as WARD
- John Watt Beattie's Museum ca. 1916
