Tin Mines 1890s

Inscription on recto:
“New Australian tin mine, aeriel [sic] tramway no.?1B?
Tasma Studio Hobart” .
Large format (glass plate?), sepia tinted, water-damaged (?)
Ref: 30-1885c (AOT).

The name “Tasma Studio” was popular with photographers in several Australian states. For example, these three were in operation at the turn of the 20th century, and are listed in Alan Davies & Peter Stanbury’s fairly standard reference, The Mechanical Eye in Australia (1988):

TASMA at 176 King St, Newtown, NSW 1896
TASMA Art Photo Studio at Brodie St, Hughenden, QLD 1900
TASMA Co. at Bendigo, VIC Early 1900s

The prolific Sam Hood in NSW also worked with Tasma Studios during the 1920s. (see the PICMAN database, State Library of NSW).

In Tasmania, Ernest A. Winter worked with Tasma Studios in Burnie in the 1910s. An extensive collection of his photographs of ships is held at the Launceston branch of the State Library of Tasmania (lists only online)

For example:
Oonah [S.S.] Winter, Ernest A.
1 photograph ; sepia ; mount 24.5 x 30.2 cm, image 12.7 x 20.2 cm.
Winter, Ernest A., Tasma Studios, Burnie.
Crew and Captain Evans during seamen’s strike 1917.

Despite the popularity, familiarity and associations of the name “Tasma” with photographic studios, the Tasma Studio, Hobart, has slipped from view. No references appear extant apart from this series of mining views at the Archives Office of Tasmania (below) of the tin mining operations around Lottah and Mt Bischoff in the 1890s. In effect, they function as early industrial photography, with views of the engineering equipment both inside and outside the plant. Chinese immigration history in Tasmania is closely associated with the working of these mines.

Tasma Studios Mining Series: AOT Refs: 30-1883 to 30-1891

Women behind the camera before 1900

Women Photographers in Nineteenth Century Tasmania

The wife of R. J. Nicholas, photographer – listed by Davies & Stanbury in The Mechanical Eye (1985:206) as Mrs R. J. Nicholas – was also a photographer, working concurrently from rooms at 69 Brisbane Street, Launceston between 1896 and 1897, known as “Elite Studio.”

The only other woman to attract the professional title of “photographer” by Davies & Stanbury is Mrs Letitia Davidson, working from Murray Street, Hobart between 1862and 1866, and then in Melbourne 1869-1870. They note that no extant item of her work has been found by photohistorians.

Davies & Stanbury do not include Louisa Anne Meredith in their lists, despite her individual efforts and those in collaboration with Bishop F.R. Nixon.

State Library of Tasmania entry:

Title: Rolling wool bale away from the press at Twamley, Tasmania
Creator(s):Meredith, Louisa Anne, 1812-1895
Date: Between 1858 to 1863
Description: 1 photographic print : albumen, sepia toned ; 67 x 75 mm
Notes: Photograph believed to have been taken during the period that Charles and Louisa Meredith lived at Twamley, Buckland.
Related to:In: Louisa Anne Meredith album no. [4]
Subjects:Twamley (Buckland, Tas.)
Format: photograph
Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001126186519