George Ernest Nevin (1880-1957) was born at the Hobart Town Hall during his father Thomas Nevin’s occupancy as Keeper. Thanks to George’s prescience in keeping photographs taken by his father of the previous generation, images have survived in a scrapbook as reproductions of the 1870s originals of his grandparents, parents, uncles, and their friends, but they are in poor condition. He has cut and pasted the originals, and some seem to have been reprinted on thin paper, cut out of a weekly such as The Tasmanian Mail perhaps, which published a sizeable photographic supplement in the early 1900s.
This “collage” is one of George’s scrapbook items. Beneath Elizabeth Nevin he has written “MAR” and beneath Thomas Nevin is written “PAR”, a phonetic reflection of an Irish brogue which might have characterised his grandparents’ speech.
Scrapbook collage by George Nevin of his father’s photography
From © The Denis Shelverton Collection 2006-2009 ARR
The scrapbook itself, now in the possession of Denis Shelverton, a great grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin, was originally a ledger book used by George at the Henry Jones IXL fruit export factory in 1920s. George also collected and pasted photographs of in-laws, and pink pages from the Trotting Globe detailing the racing results of his younger brother Albert with pacers on the Tasmanian tracks.
George worked on whaling ships, in factories, and shared a carrier business with his older brother Thomas “Sonny” Nevin. One source of income during the depression times of the 1890s was rabbit shooting. The photograph below of a group of rabbiteers with hunting dogs, a bounty of rabbits, and draught horse and cart, shows George, centre, with a woolly (Portuguese water?) dog, taken in the Tasmanian countryside ca. 1910. His father Thomas might have been the photographer, since it was taken by someone with expertise travelling with them.
Below: the photograph in its original tattered cardboard frame.
The verso is signed “George Nevn” [sic].
Click on images for large version
From © The Nevin Family Collection 2009 ARR.
In later years, between the 1920s and the 1950s, when five of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin’s adult children lived on the property at 23 Newdegate St. North Hobart, George maintained vegetable gardens between the stables.
The b&w photograph below was taken at Newdegate Street with Jack Davis, left, pointing at George, ca. 1938. Jack Davis was the father of Emily Maud Davis, who married Albert Nevin, George’s younger brother. The poverty of these men during the 1930s Depression is evident in their clothing.
Kodak print (verso). Taken by a family member ca 1938, 23 Newdegate St North Hobart.
From © The Eva Nevin Family Collection 2009. ARR.
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| From Nevin Public Records |
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