Studio portrait of Pangernowidedic (Bessy Clarke), William Lanne, Trugernanner (Truganini), and Wapperty. Hobart Town, 1864.

[Copy print of a photograph taken in the studio of Henry Albert Frith in 1864]. Hobart : Samuel Clifford, [circa 1867]. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image 74 x 70 mm (arched-top format), on yellow card mount 84 x 175 mm; verso has printed label ‘Views in Tasmania. / S. Clifford, Photographer, Hobart Town’, with contemporary manuscript caption at centre ‘Last of the Aborigines of Tasmania’; the albumen prints are in good condition; both sides of the mount have light foxing.

An important studio portrait photograph of four Palawa people from the Oyster Bay settlement – clockwise, from left: Pangernowidedic (Bessy Clarke), William Lanne, Trugernanner (Truganini), and Wapperty.

Although this stereoscopic photograph has Tasmanian photographer Samuel Clifford’s captioned label on the reverse, it appears certain that Clifford himself was not the photographer. It seems that Clifford published the image in stereoscopic format, probably in 1867, but that the original image was taken in Hobart in 1864, most likely by Henry Albert Frith in the Murray Street studio he operated with his assistant Letitia Davidson (widely believed to be the sister of Henry and his photographer brother, Frederick Frith).

We have been able to trace only two other examples of this image in Australian public collections: one is held in the Allport Library, Hobart (Self Album, no. 74. SD_ILS:635759), and the other in the SLNSW (Stereographs of Tasmania, Sydney and Scone, N.S.W., collected by George Wigram Allen, 1852-1870; Call number PXB 199).

The Libraries Tasmania catalogue entry dates the Allport Library copy print to 1878, and describes it thus:

‘Formal studio portrait of four Aboriginal Tasmanians, copy of original photograph taken by Henry Frith at his studio in Hobart. The Tasmanian government commissioned Henry Frith in September 1864 to photograph the indigenous Palawa people from the Oyster Cove settlement in his Hobart studio.‘

The SLNSW catalogue entry dates the image to around 1864, but attributes it instead to Samuel Clifford, noting that it had been ‘previously attributed to Henry Albert Frith’.

The Archives Office of Tasmania holds another image which was clearly taken during the same studio sitting, but which has only three of the four sitters: Trugernanner, William Lanne and Pangernowidedic, with Wapperty absent (Miscellaneous Collection of Photographs 1860-1992; PH30).

On 27 May 1864, Henry Frith photographed William Lanne, Pangernowidedic, Mary Ann, and Trugernanner (but not, take note, Wapperty) in the drawing room at Government House, Hobart, on the occasion of a ball to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. His commissioned portrait became famous: it was a popular commercial image that was reproduced in various formats across the ensuing decades, including, in September 1864, as a large sennotype hand coloured by Letitia Davidson. It is an image that has been widely published and discussed.

From The Advertiser, Hobart, 23 September 1864:

‘An interesting photographic picture is now on sale by Mr Frith, of Murray-street, viz, a group of the four Aborigines lately in Hobart Town, from Oyster Cove, consisting of the three well known females and one male. The cards can be obtained in small album size, and are well worthy of being prized by our citizens. They will be undoubtedly a curiosity in England, We may mention that a large sennotype picture of the group has been painted by Mr Frith for His Excellency, the Governor, who is to present it to the Museum.The pictures are exceedingly well done.‘

As in the Government House photograph – taken at the end of May 1864, but advertised for sale in September that year – the sitters in our much less well-known stereoview are dressed in fine European attire, although the women’s dresses and headwear are different from those worn in the Government House sitting, as is William Lanne’s coat. It is evident from the physical appearance and demeanour of Trugernanner, William Lanne and Pangernowidedic that this studio sitting could not have taken place much later than the Government House one – indeed, it may well have been conducted in Frith’s Murray Street studio before September 1864 – the date suggested by Libraries Tasmania for our stereoview image. However, the reason for Mary Ann’s presence at one sitting and Wapperty’s, in her stead, at the other, requires further investigation.

Assuming, though, that the original image in our stereoview was taken by Henry Frith at some point between May and September 1864, the crucial question remains: how and when did Samuel Clifford acquire a copy of the image, and how was he able to publish it without fear of any infringement of copyright, and without feeling the need to acknowledge its authorship? We suggest the most plausible explanation is linked to the closure of Frith & Co. at the beginning of 1867, which saw a selling-off of its studio equipment and remaining prints, just prior to the permanent departures of Henry and Letitia from the colony.

From The Mercury, Hobart, 30 January 1867:

‘FOR SALE. FRITH & CO’s. PHOTOGRAPHIC ESTABLISHMENT. The goodwill with photographic fixtures, &c, on moderate terms. Apply to MR. MAYNARD, agent, 144 Collins-street. NB-It is requested that any pictures now on hand may be called for at once. Those requiring extra copies should make early application at the establishment, 19 Murray-street.’

In the same newspaper, on 16 April 1867, the following notice appeared:

‘WEDNESDAY, April 17th, 1867, At 12 o’clock. Superior Household Furniture, Picture Frames, Tasmanian Views and many requisites of a Photographic Establishment, WORLEY & CO. Are instructed by Miss Davidson to sell by auction, without reserve, on the premises Murray street, known as Frith’s, VARIOUS ARTISTIC indispensables, and frames, views, likenesses, show boards, counter, shelves, &c.; surplus household furniture, matting, cane bottom chairs, oil cloth, pedestal, and many sundries. Terms Cash.‘

It is also possible that the present image may have come into Clifford’s possession by a more indirect route, via the Hobart photographer George Cherry. In May 1867 a notice was placed in five issues of The Mercury advising that George Cherry had purchased Frith’s negatives:

‘PHOTOGRAPHY. MESSRS. FRITH AND CO., Having before leaving Tasmania sold their Portrait negatives to Mr. Cherry, parties requiring extra prints can obtain them by applying to Mr.CHERRY’S Photographic Establishment, 80, Liverpool-street.‘

Some time later, Samuel Clifford acted as George Cherry’s assignee when he was facing insolvency in 1870; it can only be a matter of speculation, but it is conceivable that Clifford obtained the portrait image of Pangernowidedic, William Lanne, Trugernanner and Wapperty from Cherry around this time, when the latter was under immense financial pressure.