Site Map: Professional work

Last update:  September 2009

Biographers Professor Joan Kerr & G. T. Stilwell(1992)

Curator John McPhee (ABC TV 2009) of Nevin exhibition 1977.

Thomas Nevin was known by a number of variations of his name, and several of these are now used in public catalogues and holdings. His signature on official documents and name on his studio stamps include: Thomas Nevin, Thomas Nevin Senior, Thomas J. Nevin, Thos Nevin, T. Nevin, T. Nevin late A. Bock, T. J. Nevin, Nevin & Smith, and Clifford & Nevin.

Thomas Nevin produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes within his commercial practice, and prisoner ID photographs on government contract. He was one of the earliest photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Fraser Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner ID photographs are the earliest to survive in public collections.

Career Biographica

• Partnerships & Studios
  • With Alfred Bock at The City Photographic Establishment
  • Alfred Bock & Thomas Nevin at Port Arthur
  • Alfred Bock’s stock in trade
  • Apprentices: the Good, the Bad and the Careless
  • Samuel Clifford and dry plate photography
  • Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town: tinted cartes
  • On the road with Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin 1874
  • The firm of Nevin & Smith
  • Rare Nevin & Smith portrait
  • Another rare Nevin & Smith studio stamp 1868
  • Nevin & Smith’s stock photography
  • Thomas (T. J.)  Nevin’s Christmas cards 1874
  • Studio decor: table with griffin-shaped legs
  • Studio decor: The pauper on Thos Nevin’s carpet and Brother Payne
  • Hugh Munro Hull and the wall-hanging
  • The lion and unicorn studio stamp
  • Signatures & handwriting
  • Kangaroo Valley & the New Town Studio
  • Trademarks copyrighted for 14 years
• The Hobart Town Hall years 1876-1880
  • The Chiniquy Riots 1879
  • A Zoological Curiosity at the Hobart Town Hall 1877
  • An Ornithological Disaster: Thomas Nevin’s Emu 1878
  • Thomas Nevin arrested for acting in concert with the “GHOST”
  • Appearing late at night as a ghost
  • Thomas Nevin’s GHOST incident makes news in Maitland NSW
  • Tasmanian Papers Stilwell Index

Stereographs

• Public Collections
  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery databases
  • Ferns, convicts and Charles Darwin
  • Fraudulent pretensions: the Boyd misattribution at SLNSW
  • Thomas Nevin’s stereography
  • Red and violet: the impact of Brewster stereoscopy
  • Six of Nevin’s salt paper stereos at TMAG
  • Nevin & Smith stereo of Elizabeth St studio
  • T. Nevin & Samuel Clifford identical views
  • Rocking Stone party, Mt Wellington
  • At the Salmon Ponds and Plenty
  • Hobart Town from Lime Kiln Hill
  • At Lady Franklin’s Museum, Ancanthe
  • The New Town studio stamp & stereograph
  • Stereographs by Clifford and Nevin at ‘Narryna’

Prison photographer, Port Arthur and Hobart Gaol

• Vignettes of convicts
  • Thomas Nevin’s hand-coloured cartes of convicts
  • 19th century prison photography: Tasmania 1872
  • T.J. Nevin’s prisoner mugshots, Mitchell Library NSW
  • The case of Francis Shearan
  • Nevin’s photos of prisoners Sutherland and Stock with death warrant
  • Nevin’s mugshots: the transitional pose and frame
  • Two significant prisoner cartes by T.J. Nevin
  • About those photographic glasses 1873 …
  • From glass negative to printed  carte
  • The first Rogues’ Galleries
  • Nettleton and Nevin patents registration
  • Nevin’s convict portraits at the National Library
  • Convict cartes by Thomas Nevin at the new National Portrait Gallery
  • The lion and unicorn studio stamp
  • Two histories, two inscriptions
  • Convicts Blore & Harrison at the TMAG
  • Rare document with prisoner carte at the PCHS
  • Port Arthur convict with headrest
  • Bewley Tuck can speak for himself
  • More about the versos of some convict cartes …
  • Recto & verso of a “Port Arthur convict” carte
  • Convict carte No. 1: George White aka Nutt
  • Well-groomed prisoners Morris and Evans
  • The case of Leonard Hand
  • Anthony Trollope’s Port Arthur interviewee
  • Archives Office of Tasmania records of Nevin’s convict portraits
  • Execution of Sutherland and Ogden
  • National Library of Australia’s holdings of Nevin’s convict portraits
  • NLA’s ‘native’ convict portrait with no attribution
  • George Leathley, No. 226
  • Prisoner portraits taken before release by Nettleton and Nevin
  • Laterality: poses in Nevin’s portraits
  • The trial of Joshua Anson
• Prison sites & views
  • Hobart Gaol stereos 1860s
  • The Journey from Hobart to Port Arthur 1873-4
  • Superintendent Richard Propsting & the Police Office, Port Arthur
  • Melville Street from the Hobart Gaol 140 years ago
• Governors & government
  • James Boyd, Commandant, Port Arthur 1860s
  • Nepotism, corruption and Port Arthur 1873
  • Working with police and prisoners
  • W.R. Giblin, Judge, Attorney-General and Premier
  • Younger brother Jack Nevin salaried at H.M. Gaol
  • Brothers Thomas & Jack Nevin with W.R. Giblin
  • Sir Francis Smith and the photographer
  • Authorship of Tasmanian Premiers cartes 1870s

Exhibitions and Publications

• Exhibitions
  • The Wellington Park Exhibition 1868
  • Convict cartes by Thomas Nevin at the new National Portrait Gallery
  • “In a New Light”: NLA exhibition with Boyd misattribution
  • The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery Convicts 1977
  • G. T. Stilwell’s letter to Mrs Shelverton
  • Heads of the People NPG 2000
  • Mirror with a Memory National Portrait Gallery 2000
  • Courtesy of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
  • Melville Street from the Hobart Gaol 140 years ago
• Publications
  • The Bulletin, May 16, 1978
  • Thomas Nevin and H. H. Baily at the Regatta 1872
  • About those photographic glasses 1873 …
  • Margaret Glover and the fabrication of photohistory
  • John McPhee on Nevin in 1977 & 2007 at the QVMAG
  • Poster for sale of Nevin’s convict portraits at the PCHS
  • Robert Hughes, ‘The Fatal Shore’ 1987
  • Professor Joan Kerr (DAA ed. 1992)
  • Prison photographers Nevin, Nettleton & Crawford
  • ‘Tasmanian Photographers 1840-1940: A Directory’ (TMAG 1995)
  • Two histories, two inscriptions (TMAG 1995)
  • ‘The Australian People’, J. Jupp (ed) 2001
  • Anne-Marie Willis & Richard Neville on the A.H. Boyd misattribution
  • The QVMAG, Chris Long and the A.H. Boyd misattribution
  • Helen Ennis’ NLA publication ‘Intersections’ 2004
  • Isobel Crombie and Helen Ennis: how misattribution can persist
  • Laterality: Helen Ennis & the poses in Nevin’s prisoner portraits
  • The A. H. Boyd misattribution at DAAO
  • The PARKHURST prisoners & anthropometry
  • The first Rogues’ Galleries: overview
  • Babette Smith on Australia’s Birthstain
• John Watt Beattie studios, museum & reprints
  • W. Radcliffe’s The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Beattie’s Port Arthur Museum Catalogue 1916
  • Beattie & Searle reprints of convict portraits

Private Collections

• Marcel Safier Collection
  • Woman with an umbrella
• G. C. Harrisson Collection
  • Teenager with tinted sprig
  • Three of Nevin’s studio stamps
  • The lion and unicorn stamp
  • Woman at table: Nevin’s studio decor and tinting
• John & Robyn McCullagh Collection
  • Man with stereoscope
  • Hand-tinted carte by ‘Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town’
• The Lucy Batchelor Collection
  • Nevin’s big tabletop stereo viewer and the Freemason
  • Portraits by T.J. Nevin in The Lucy Batchelor Collection
  • T. J. Nevin’s Christmas cards 1874
• Nevin Family and Denis Shelverton collections: see the site map: Nevin Family

Ω Navigation: SITE INDICES

Two Site Maps: Nevin Family & Professional Work

See also: Key Chronology 1842-1923

See also: Photographic Studios to 1900s

See all posts in the Archives

Main Categories:

Ω 19th Century Prison Photography

Ω Attribution Issues

Ω Biographica

Ω Descendants and In-Laws

Ω Exhibitions and Publications

Ω Police Records

Ω Private Collections

Ω Stereographs

Ω The Port Arthur Convicts Commission

Ω Thomas Nevins Family Portraits