Commandant James Boyd documents now at Port Arthur

James Boyd was the Port Arthur prison’s longest serving commandant.

Title: James Boyd, Commandant P. Arthur
Creator(s):Bock, Alfred, 1835-1920
Date: 186-?
Description: 1 photograph : sepia ; 10 x 6 cm.
Notes: Exact measurements : 93 x 58 mm, Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand., Full length photograph of James Boyd standing beside his horse.
Format: photograph
Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125882134

Century-old Port Arthur prison diary found
By Selina Bryan
Sat Jun 4, 2011 10:18am AES
Source: ABC News Online

Video: Former Port Arthur boss’ items surface (7pm TV News TAS)

A snapshot of life at the Port Arthur convict prison during the 1800s has been uncovered in a Victorian estate.

Photos, letters and a pocket watch belonging to James Boyd, the longest-serving commandant, have been donated to the former Tasmanian penal settlement.

Boyd was the commandant from 1853 to 1871 and was behind the development of Port Arthur’s notorious separate prison, which sent many convicts insane.

Jody Steele of the site’s management authority says the collection of more than 250 items includes Boyd’s diary.

“All of the information that we get is very government document oriented, so it’s a very formal understanding of the man,” she said.

“Whereas this is a really personal side with photographs that he may have collected and things that belonged to him.

“So it gives us sort of the complete opposite version of James Boyd to what we’ve got in the official documents.”

The collection is one of the most significant donations given to Port Arthur management in recent years.

“It’s just very rare that we get access to primary documents like this and being able to see a man’s handwriting, hold his own pocket watch gives you that real personal connection,” Ms Steele said.

“There’s nothing better than that.”

‘Mover and shaker’

The official documents include testimonials from Tasmanian governors and prison directors across Australia and Britain supporting Boyd’s pension claims.

Ms Steele says Boyd considered himself a very experienced prison reformer.

“Looking back at that period of time, he was doing everything that was at the forefront of prison reform so he was definitely a mover and shaker for his time,” she said.

“The separate prison was I guess one of his baby projects, having come from Pentonville Prison in England, which is a very similar structured prison which was all about separation and reform through silence and reflection and he implemented a lot of that here.”

It is believed the items were passed from Boyd’s grandson to a fellow priest, who was the grandfather of Melbourne man David Thomas.

Mr Thomas contacted Port Arthur when he uncovered the collection, but did not realise its significance until he returned it.

“I met up with some staff over here and it’s when we were sitting in the room and they looked at these bits of paper and they just looked stunned,” he said.

Historians will transcribe the diary, letters and other documents and have them published.

Parts of the collection are on display in the commandant’s cottage at Port Arthur.

Russell Sandeman in Tasmania 1945

Russell Sandeman was a photographer with a studio at 84 Le Hunte Street, Wayville, Adelaide. Phone: U5716, according to the studio stamp on the verso of the three portraits of himself (on viewer’s left in two) and an unknown travelling companion/photographer.

Provenance: purchased from a stall at the Kingston Markets, Canberra.
Copyright Text and Images © KLW NFC Imprint 2011

VERSO Transcript:

“On the road to Scottsdale (TAS) at this point approx. 15-20 miles from Launceston. Country like this abounds on this glorious scenic trip. This very scene would remind one of a forest taken from “Alice in Wonderland”, or perhaps a scene that could come out of “A Midsummer’s Night ‘s Dream”. On both occasions, of course, the modern car would have to be removed! For many miles the road winds back and forth with little time to “straighten up”, which,  of course, gives the route greater scenic value.  1945

PRINTED from VERICHROME”.

The verso of this photograph bears a comment about the route, handwritten in pencil. The two literary allusions intend to convey to the recipient (if there was one) that the writer is educated and profoudly so in matters of English literature. The car – a Vauxhall perhaps – appears in several of these scenes, photographed by either Sandeman or his friend driving it.

The two men handling cameras in the three other photographs (below) are assumed to be Russell Sandeman (taller man) and his unknown travelling companion/photographer. A third person was present, the person taking their photograph. All three appear to be engaged in a conversation about the merits of the cameras in their hands. One of the objects may even be binoculars, if this man on the left is assumed to be at once the (press) photographer Russell Sandeman AND the racing commentator (see newpaper clips below)..

Russell Sandeman (on left) with unknown companion ca. 1945. All three portraits bear Sandeman’s blind stamp on recto.

Provenance: purchased from a stall at the Kingston Markets, Canberra.
Copyright Text and Images © KLW NFC Imprint 2011

RUSSELL SANDEMAN: Other Works

A person called Russell Sandeman appears in various newspaper reports of the 1930s-1940s as a racing commentator in Perth, W.A., who moved to Adelaide to become the editor of the salacious tabloid called TRUTH. He may be the same individual who became the photographer with the Adelaide studio at Le Hunte St. Adelaide. Sandeman the photographer appears to have taken photographs on commission for various businesses such as Harris Scarfe and Myer, both department stores and of local theatres and cinemas.

The State Library of NSW holds a few examples of Sandeman’s work, per these catalogue entries:

1. Title: Sandeman, Russell

Linked Records : 2
Photographer, 34 Le Hunte Street, Wayville, Adelaide (ca. 1945)
Title John Fraser – film and theatre photographs, 1935-1985
Level of Description Series
Date of Work 1935-1985
Type of Material Graphic Materials
Call Number PXA 1112 Box 21
Physical Description Photographs : 72 silver gelatin photoprints ; 25.7 x 30.5 cm. or smaller
INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES ARE:
4. Harris Scarfe window advertisement for Cover girl at Wests Theatre, Adelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

18-20. Myer shop windows for film Love at first flight, and novel Ring twice for Laura, Adlelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

21. Harris Scarfe window advertisement for Cover girl at Wests Theatre, Adelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

*****************

2. Title  Roberts and Hall (Architects): photographs of Adelaide and South Australian city and suburban theatre and cinema interiors and exteriors, ca. 1935-1962
Level of Description Item
Date of Work ca. 1935-1962
Type of Material Graphic Materials
Call Number PXA 764 / 681-747
INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES by RUSSELL SANDEMAN

697-706. Plaza Theatre, Adelaide (interior, previously Empress Ballroom) / Russell Sandeman

745-747. Unidentified South Australian small theatre or theatrette (interior) / Russell Sandeman

RUSSELL SANDEMAN: Possibly Related BIOGRAPHICA

“Miss Doreen Andrews of Nedlands, whose marriage to Mr. Russell Sandeman, of Perth, will be solemnised in the Wesley Church on Tuesday, June 7, [1932] at 5.30pm, prior to their departure for Adelaide where Mr. Sandeman will take up a position with the Press of that city.

“WITH JOHN JAMES AT THE RACES

Russell Sandeman

One of the most interesting of Australia’s one-time radio sporting commentators is Russell Sandeman, who is spending his annual leave from Adelaide in Perth where he spent his boyhood. Before going to Adelaide to take up the management of Adelaide “Truth”, Mr. Sandeman broadcast the running of the local trots. His services were secured by the National station in Adelaide when he transferrred to South Australia and for years he regularly broadcast the Adealide trots. During the last few years, however, his managerial activities have increased to such an extant that he retired from actual broadcasting.”

There is no mention of photography in either newspaper clip. However, if it is the same Sandeman as the photographer, perhaps photography was part of his journalistic and managerial activities at the TRUTH, or even a business he set up on retirement from broadcasting.