Poster boys 1870s

Who were they? They were photographer T.J. Nevin’s sitters for police records.

Above: Wall chart or poster of Tasmanian convicts produced by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority ca. 1991 with photographs by Thomas Nevin from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection.

This poster or wall chart is for sale at the National Trust’s Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, adjacent to the site of the former Hobart Gaol. Its montage of Thomas Nevin’s portraits of Tasmanian convicts (1870s) was compiled from John Watt Beattie’s donated collection (ca. 1927) at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority is credited with its production, according to the caption on lower border, left, and presumably for its large titles: “WHO WERE THEY?” and “THE CONVICTS OF PORT ARTHUR”. The poster or wall chart was published as a booklet ca. 1991, according to Libraries Australia catalogue notes:

Several of these convicts were indeed incarcerated as transportees at Port Arthur at some time during their criminal careers, and some were local offenders or “native”. But they were not photographed because they had been transported convicts per se (transportation ended in 1853), but because they were habitual offenders, escapees and recidivists. Their photographs were commissioned and used by the Town Hall Police Office and Prisons Department in the course of daily detection and surveillance. All of these photographs were taken by Thomas and Jack Nevin at the Hobart Goal where the Port Arthur inmates were relocated from as early as 1871 through to the Port Arthur closure in 1877. All prisoners by 1874 with sentences longer than 3 months were being received at the prison in Hobart Town from regional lock-ups. The Nevin brothers held exclusive rights to the commission.

Now a tourist item for sale at the National Trust’s

Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, Hobart ($14.85 AUD)

Photos © KLW NFC 2008 Arr

PAHSMA accreditation on lower left border reads:

Produced by Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority,

with photographs (circa 1870) from the

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Beattie Collection

John Watt Beattie’s collection of Thomas Nevin’s original identification photographs or mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners taken between 1872 and 1884 came into Beattie’s possession in the late 1890s. Beattie acquired many of these original mugshots from the police registers at the Sheriff’s Office ca. 1895 and reprinted them in the 1900s for sale in his convictaria museum as tourist tokens of Tasmania’s penal history. They were resurrected as an exhibition at the QVMAG in 1977. This notice appeared in The Mercury, 10th March, 1977:

The Mercury, March 3rd, 1977

Contributory researchers included the curator John McPhee, State Librarian Special Collections Geoffrey T. Stilwell, and Professor Joan Kerr (University of Sydney). In her massive publication, The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870, (1992, Melbourne: OUP), Professor Joan Kerr included on page 568 in the entry for Thomas Nevin one of these photographs, a “booking photograph” of Thomas Harrison (middle row, centre):

Caption: Thomas Harrison – 3 months for being idle and disorderly

Stilwell & Kerr’s inclusion of Nevin’s vignette of Thomas Harrison

in their entry for Thomas J. Nevin, p. 568, The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters,

sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870

During preparations for the 1977 exhibition at the QVMAG, researchers reported that several of these vignette cartes carried on verso Thomas Nevin’s official studio stamp displaying the government’s Royal Arms, the lion and unicorn insignia. In addition, researcher Chris Long noted that several convict cartes, which he maintained he had examined at the QVMAG, the TMAG and the State Archives Office in 1984, carried Nevin’s studio stamp (1984, NLA file on Nevin, and 1995, TMAG publication, Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940, page 36).

This photograph of convict William Smith (centre) is one of the several cited which Nevin stamped with the Royal Arms insignia signifying his contract as prisons photographer for the Municipal Police Office and Prisons Department:

Vignette of convict “William Smith – 6 years for burglary”

and its verso with Nevin’s government stamp.

Recto and verso of convict Smith carte with Nevin’s studio stamp
Carte numbered “199″ on recto QVMAG & AOT Ref: 30-3244

Why does this carte of Smith bear Nevin’s studio stamp? The question has been asked by photo historians with little consideration to the realities of government tender. It was one of several chosen by Nevin to access his commission, register copyright with the police office, and renew his contract under the terms of the tender. Only one photograph was required per batch under the terms of the Patents Act (Victoria). There is nothing out of ordinary about this carte which would set it apart from more than 200 extant mugshots taken by Nevin in the 1870s – its framing, processing and pose are consistent with Nevin’s commercial portraiture of the period, the verso stamp being used to identify the photographer’s joint copyright with the government.

Verso of convict carte of William Smith per Gilmore (3)
with T. J. Nevin’s stamp printed with the government insignia, the Royal Arms.

POLICE RECORDS for William Smith per Gilmore 3:

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, James Barnard Government Printer.

William Smith per Gilmore 3, discharged with TOL 10 September 1873, received from Port Arthur. Note that his age and physical measurements are not recorded at the Police Office because no photograph existed prior to his release. When Nevin photographed him on arrest in April 1874, Smith was wearing a combination of prisoner and civilian clothing. He was also unshaved. The photograph exhibits a degree of liminality of the prisoner’s state: free on a ticket of leave but contained as a criminal in the open prison that was the island of Tasmania.

Click on images for readable version

Smith reoffended again in April 1874, sentenced to 12 months and photographed by Nevin on incarceration at the Hobart Gaol.

Wm Smith discharged 1st April, 1875.

Suspicion attaches to William Smith per Gilmore 3, 23rd April, 1875

Wm Smith per Gilmore 3 Warrant for arrest 23 April 1875.

Thomas Nevin’s knowledge of Smith from face-to-face contact while photographing him in 1874 was used as an adjunct in the written description issued by police of Smith’s coming under suspicion for theft just three weeks after his release on 1st April, 1875. Smith was arrested 3 months later in July 1875.

William Smith arrested, notice of 9th July, 1875.

Thomas Nevin photographed William Smith again wearing a hat. This is another “booking photograph” taken on the prisoner’s arrest on 9th July 1875. His dress here signifies again a liminal state between TOL freedom and prison.

William Smith per Gilmore 3.
Photo by Thomas Nevin, July 1875
Stamped verso with Nevin’s government stamp
Mitchell Library NSW PXB 274 No.1

The first carte is numbered “199″. This, the second of William Smith is numbered “200″ and it is another original photograph by Thomas Nevin which bears Nevin’s stamp with the Royal Arms on verso. It is held at the Mitchell Library, NSW, among others by Nevin acquired by David Scott Mitchell prior to 1907. The sequence of numbers is insignificant, whether transcribed from a police register, or whether devised by archivists in the 20th century. There is no real-time-based relationship between the photographs: in one William Smith is bewhiskered and wearing a patterned scarf (April 1874); in the other he is clean shaven and wearing a plain neckerchief and hat (July 1875). They were clearly taken at different times during Smith’s well-documented criminal career.

Verso of photograph of William Smith per Gilmore 3.
Photo by Thomas Nevin, July 1875
Stamped verso with Nevin’s studio stamp and Royal Arms
Mitchell Library NSW PXB 274
Photography © KLW NFC The Nevin Family Collection 2008-2009 ARR