Studio photograph of a collaged diorama featuring a figure labelled 'Wolseley'

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Albumen prints
Date: 1888
Place: Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Materials: Cardboard, Photographic emulsion
Collection: Thomas Hinton collection
Accession number: 2012.0015.0001

Description

A black and white photograph mounted on cardboard labelled 'Duval & Co., QUADRANT, LAUNCESTON / COPIES ON APPLICATION'. The photograph depicts a collaged diorama with a large silhouette of a figure labelled 'Wolseley'. There is a round ink stamp on the reverse that reads 'A.E.BURROWS / QUADRANT / LAUNCESTON'.

About the collection

This collection contains 15 studio photographs attached to 11 pieces of cardboard, dating from 1900. A remarkable set of images, they utilise the late nineteenth century conventions of photographic studio portraiture to present a unique response to Australia at the dawn of the twentieth century. We cannot know what meaning they were intended to have by Thomas Hinton (b. 1857 – d. after 1924), who commissioned and featured in the photographs. Hinton worked as an engine driver in the Tasmanian midlands. Shortly after the photographs were taken he was admitted to an insane asylum primarily because of 'a mania for having his photograph taken.' This collection has strong bearing on a number aspects of Australian cultural history, including the treatment and experience of mental illness; Federation and the choosing of the flag; the Advance Australia coat of arms; the history of photography and of the understanding, collection and appreciation of 'outsider art'.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:58:54 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-09-30. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.