The QVMAG convict photos exhibition 1977

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Most of these prisoner ID photographs were acquired by the QVMAG in 1927, as part of photographer John Watt Beattie’s (1859-1930) collection from his estate and convictaria museum in Hobart. Beattie’s sources in turn were the police gazettes and prisoner registers held at the Town Hall Municipal Police Office, where Nevin worked full-time 1876-1880, and from the Sheriff’s Office and Supreme Court at the Hobart Gaol where his brother Constable John Nevin was his assistant. Beattie had ready access as official government photographer ca. 1900s to these documents. Continue reading →

The pauper on Thomas Nevin’s carpet and Brother Payne

This gallery contains 16 photos.

It is likely that the man photographed here standing on Thomas Nevin’s carpet was William Graves, and that Nevin photographed him in May 1875. This may not be the only photograph of William Graves taken by Nevin. There may have been a standard half-body vignette printed as well to attach to Grave’s crime sheet. But such a standard carte is not extant, and there may be a reason why none ever existed. Continue reading →

“In a New Light”: NLA Exhibition with Boyd misattribution

This gallery contains 16 photos.

In November 2000,the National Library of Australia reproduced 22 carte-de-visite vignettes from their holdings of 78 [84] of Thomas Nevin’s Tasmanian prisoner ID photographs, for the purpose of mounting an exhibition called IN A NEW LIGHT: A Love of Order. … Continue reading →

Key dates in Thomas Nevin’s life

This gallery contains 8 photos.

KEY CHRONOLOGY 1842-1923 SUMMARY Thomas J. Nevin produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner ID photographs on government contract and in civil service. He was one of the first photographers to work with the … Continue reading →