Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

These cartes-de-visite of Tasmanian prisoners printed in an oval mount are held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), Hobart. They were originally held in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), Launceston, together with another three hundred or more 1870s mugshots taken at the Hobart Gaol by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin which were acquired by the QVMAG as part of the bequest from the estate of John Watt Beattie in the 1930s. When they were removed from Beattie's collection and taken down to the Port Arthur prison heritage site for an exhibition as part of the Port Arthur Conservation Project in 1983, they were not returned to the QVMAG. They were deposited instead at the TMAG .

The QVMAG list (acquired here in 2005) showed a total of 199 mugshots, but only 72 were physically held at the QVMAG when the list was devised. A total of 127 mugshots were missing by 2005. Two mugshots in this sequence - numbers 198 and 200 of prisoners James Mullens and William Smith, each bearing verso Nevin's government contractor Royal insignia studio stamp - were deposited at the State Library of NSW, Mitchell collection (SLNSW PBX 6274) ca. 1907, among a dozen more which do not bear the numbering on recto.

The Port Arthur Conservation Project 1983, Elspeth Wishart
Notes from the QVMAG catalogue Q1985: P: 0068
Cdv and uncut print of prisoner Bewley Tuck.See this post.

Fifty-six (56) cdvs of Tasmanian prisoners arraigned at the Supreme Court Hobart and photographed at the Hobart Gaol on incarceration and discharge in the 1870s, now held in the TMAG collection, are displayed here. For more information about each prisoner's photograph, and for the prisoner's police records on this site, search by his name.

See these articles:

Prisoner CHARLTON, George
TMAG Ref: Q15571
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner SMITH, Job alias CAMPBELL alias BRODIE
TMAG Ref: Q15572
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner SEWELL, William
TMAG Ref: Q15573
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner GLENN, James
TMAG Ref: Q15574
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner OWENS, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15575
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner RYAN, William
TMAG Ref: Q15576
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner GREGSON, John
TMAG Ref: Q15577
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner CAMPBELL, William as SMITH, Job
TMAG Ref: Q15578 see also TMAG Ref: Q15572
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner HARRISON, William
TMAG Ref: Q15579
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner DORAN, Alfred
TMAG Ref: Q15580
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius
TMAG Ref: Q15581
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MORAN, John
TMAG Ref: Q15582
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner SMITH, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15583
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner DAWSON, William
TMAG Ref: Q15584
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner DUNN, John alias DEMPSEY
TMAG Ref: Q15585
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner DOWLING, John
TMAG Ref: Q15586
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MERCHANT, James
TMAG Ref: Q15587
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner LEATHLEY, George
TMAG Ref: Q15588
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner BOOTH, Ephraim
TMAG Ref: Q15589
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner PRICE, William
TMAG Ref: Q15590
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WEST, Robert
TMAG Ref: Q15591
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WYNNE, James
TMAG Ref: Q15592
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner RYAN, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15593
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner SMITH, Henry
TMAG Ref: Q15594
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner BURTON, Phillip
TMAG Ref: Q15595
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner BLORE, Samuel
TMAG Ref: Q15596
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner ROGERS, James
TMAG Ref: Q15597
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WALMSLEY, Joseph
TMAG Ref: Q15598
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MAYNE, John
TMAG Ref: Q15599
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner CLABBY, Henry
TMAG Ref: Q15600
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner KELLOW, William
TMAG Ref: Q15601
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner GLEESON, Cornelius
TMAG Ref: Q15602
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner HARRISON, James
TMAG Ref: Q15603
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner BRADY, James
TMAG Ref: Q15604
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel
TMAG Ref: Q15605
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner KELLY, Stephen
TMAG Ref: Q15606
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner HICKS, Richard
TMAG Ref: Q15607
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WOOD, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15608
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner McCULLUM, Hugh [sic -McCallum]
TMAG Ref: Q15609
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner NESTOR, John
TMAG Ref: Q15610
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner GROWSETT, George
TMAG Ref: Q15611
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WHITE, John
TMAG Ref: Q15612
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner FITZPATRICK, John
TMAG Ref: Q15613
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MARTIN, James
TMAG Ref: Q15614
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner SAYER or SAWYER, William
TMAG Ref: Q15615
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner FISHER, George
TMAG Ref: Q15616
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WILLIS, George
TMAG Ref: Q15617
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner PHILLIPS, Richard
TMAG Ref: Q15618
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner MALDEN, Samuel
TMAG Ref: Q15619
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner BRITTON or BRITTAIN, John
TMAG Ref: Q15620
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner CLARK, David
TMAG Ref: Q15621
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner WILLIAMS, John
TMAG Ref: Q15622
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner RUSSELL, William
TMAG Ref: Q15623
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner POPE, John per Flinders
TMAG Ref: Q15624
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner DAVIS, Daniel
TMAG Ref: Q15625
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Prisoner GLASSFORD, George or WHITE
TMAG Ref: Q15626
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

Australia's FIRST MUGSHOTS

PLEASE NOTE: Below each image held at the National Library of Australia is their catalogue batch edit which gives the false impression that all these "convict portraits" were taken solely because these men were transported convicts per se (i.e before cessation in 1853), and that they might have been photographed as a one-off amateur portfolio by a prison official at the Port Arthur prison in 1874, which they were not. Any reference to the Port Arthur prison official A. H. Boyd on the NLA catalogue records is an error, a PARASITIC ATTRIBUTION with no basis in fact. The men in these images were photographed in the 1870s-1880s because they were repeatedly sentenced as habitual offenders whose mugshots were taken on arrest, trial, arraignment, incarceration and/or discharge by government contractor, police and prisons photographer T. J. Nevin at the Supreme Court and adjoining Hobart Gaol with his brother Constable John Nevin, and at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall when appearing at The Mayor's Court. The Nevin brothers produced over a thousand originals and duplicates of Tasmanian prisoners, the bulk now lost or destroyed. The three hundred extant mugshots were the random estrays salvaged - and reproduced in many instances- for sale at Beattie's local convictaria museum in Hobart and at interstate exhibitions associated with the fake convict ship Success in the early 1900s. The mugshots were selected on the basis of the prisoner's notoriety from the Supreme Court trial registers (Rough Calendar), the Habitual Criminals Registers (Gaol Photo Books), warrant forms, and police gazettes records of the 1870s-1880s. The earliest taken on government contract by T. J. Nevin date from 1872. The police records sourced here are from the weekly police gazettes which were called (until 1884) Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police 1871-1885. J. Barnard, Gov't Printer.

BIOGRAPHY: Professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

Click here for KEY DATES 1842-1923

Try thumbnail SEARCHING here

THE MUGSHOTS:Thomas Nevin's extant prisoner identification prints and cartes-de-visite in oval mounts - "mugshots" - were taken between 1871 and 1888. The public collections consists of 350+ estrays from more than 2000 photographs taken of prisoners in Tasmania by Thomas Nevin and his brother Constable John Nevin. The National Library of Australia currently holds 87 photographs, the State Library of NSW holds 13 photographs, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery holds 112 photographs, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds more than 50, and the Archives Office of Tasmania holds 10 originals and 100 or so paper copies of the QVMAG collections. A dozen or so are held in Private Collections.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of Nevin’s prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A.H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Nevin weblogs to apply the misattribution.

INDIGENOUS NOTICE: lutruwita/Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (loo-tru-wee-ta) always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This weblog pays respect to the ancestors and elders past, present, and emerging of the first Australian peoples and acknowledges their continued connection to land, sea and culture as the traditional custodians of this country.

Irish-born Thomas J. Nevin would have been keenly aware that the residence and photographic studio he occupied at No's 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart in the 1870s was built on the traditional lands, nipaluna/Hobart, of the palawa people. It is no small irony that today, the very same property, which is renumbered as No. 198 Elizabeth St. Hobart and is occupied by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, has returned to its traditional owners.

Looking east from the corner of Patrick St., the Royal Standard Hotel, 142 Elizabeth St. then T. J. Nevin’s studio and residence, 140-138 Elizabeth St. Hobart, 1870s

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the City of Sydney, and the Ngunawal people of the Australian Capital Territory on whose lands this site is maintained.

PLEASE NOTE: images on this weblog represent deceased people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Viewing such images may cause sadness and distress.

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Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

Australia's FIRST MUGSHOTS

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Hobart Gaol camera and mugshot books 1891-1901

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