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Douglas Thomas Kilburn was an English-born watercolour painter and professional daguerreotypist who operated in Melbourne 1847–49, producing some of the earliest portrait photographs of indigenous Australians

Early life

Douglas was born in London, the son of Catherine (née Ward) and Thomas Kilburn. His brother William was working as a professional photographer prior to 1846[1] and Prince Albert saw his photographs of a Chartist Rally in London made in 1848 and commissioned him for more. Thenceforth William promoted himself at his studio at 234 Regent Street London as ‘Photographist to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert’. He exhibited daguerreotypes at the 1851 Great Exhibition, but from 1856 used only collodion.

Douglas Kilburn meanwhile emigrated to Australia before 1847, where brother William supplied him with equipment and materials shipped from England. It is likely that they were supplying others also; the brothers set up a partnership as Custom House and Commission Agents which was dissolved by mutual consent in August 1848 after Douglas' establishment of a studio.[2]

In Australia

Douglas T. Kilburn (c. 1847) No title (Group of Koori men), daguerreotype in leather, wood, velvet, brass case (7.5 × 6.5 cm) (image) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Melbourne

In 1847 Kilburn advertised his services in Melbourne as preparing to; "take Likenesses by the Daguerreotype process as soon as the fine weather sets in. A room in a central part of the town will be fitted so as to soften the day-light, and thus protect sitters from the painful glare of the sunshine, and the publicity of an open courtyard."

Early photographs of indigenous people

Creating an indispensable historical record, around 1947-8 Kilburn, on his own undertaking made the first daguerreotypes of "the curious race of Aborigines," as he was reported calling them;[3] likely Boon Wurrung people of the Yalukit clan from around the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay, and the site of Melbourne. William Westgarth made engravings from them for his Australia Felix (Edinburgh 1848);[4][5] Eugene von Guérard and John Skinner Prout also used the photographs, or engravings from them, as reference for paintings; and the Illustrated London News published engravings of them in the 26 January 1850 issue accompanied by this account:

"It appears that Mr Kilburn, the brother of the eminent Photographer, of Regent-street, has long resided in Australia, and felt anxious to portray the curious race of Aborigines by aid of the Daguerreotype. Mr. Kilburn had much difficulty in prevailing upon any individual to sit, from some superstitious fear that they possess, imagining that it would subject them to some misfortune.He lost no opportunity in persuading them, by small bribes, when they wandered into Port Phillip, usually for the purposes of begging: but, in return, they appeared always willing to render any assistance in chop ping wood, &c. At length, Mr. Kilburn succeeded, and the result is here presented to the reader."[6]

. In the preface of his book Westgarth remarks on these images:

“The drawings of the aborigines are copied from some excellent daguerreotyped likenesses brought home by Mr. Robert Cunningham, late of Port Phillip, now of Glasgow, and kindly lent to me for the purpose. They are, I believe, the only productions of the sort as yet in this country, and afford of course a very accurate picture of the Australian natives”.[4]

Four of the original daguerreotype plates from Kilburn’s series are known to have survived, three of them housed in the National Gallery of Victoria; they depict separate groups of men and women as well as man with two children, presumed to be a family group. Though Kilburn had to bribe and coerce them to pose in traditional possum-skin cloaks he kept of the purpose rather than the European clothes they were adopting, and though he reported that they refuse to pose again on seeing their images, they appear in most cases proud and strong, natural and less fearful than the indigenous in others' later photographs elsewhere.[7]

Melbourne and Sydney studios

From May 1848 Douglas Kilburn established Melbourne's first (according to Willis) or second daguerreotype studio after George Barron Goodman's, in Little Collins Street.[8] The Argus newspaper in July urged its

"readers to pay visit to the studio of Mr. Kilburn, in Little Collins-street, in order to witness the wonder working powers of his daguerreotype. Acting on the instructions received from his brother, the most distinguished photograptic artist of the day, Mr. Kilburn has carried she art to a perfection hitherto known here–the likenesses he produces being speakingly true, and quite devoid of that dull leaden aspect which seemed formerly to be inseparable from likenesses obtained by this process.[9]

In 1849, having relocated to Sydney, Kilburn made hand-coloured portraits of European settlers which were hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 September 1849 as superior to any previously in Australia, particularly the application of colour bestowing "a verisimilitude and beauty which are quite delightful".[8] Merchant Alexander Brodie Spark, had his step-daughter Alicia Radford portrayed by his studio in January 1850 to celebrate her 21st birthday.

Tasmania

Kilburn paid a brief visit to Britain on HMS Waterloo in February 1850 to visit his brother,[10] advertising his purpose to study new developments in photography. There also he was married and the couple settled in Hobart, Tasmania where he was the first to demonstrate stereoscopy to the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land in 1853,[11] [12][13][14] and calotype photography in 1855,[15][16] and donated antique and foreign coins to the Society.[17]

Prosperous from his photography businesses, Kilburn purchased several properties in Hobart paying £3500 (worth A$452,800.00 in 2021) for the Bowling Green Hotel,[18] a warehouse on the Old Wharf and shops in Elizabieth St for £1800,[19] a £500 unfinished two-storey freestone building on New Wharf,[20] bid for the Royal Victoria Theatre,[21] and raced his yacht Phantom.[22]

Kilburn was a jury foreman in cases of murder, rape of a child[23] and burglary,[24] became a Justice of the Peace and Magistrate in 1854,[25] then entered politics that year and ran unsuccessfully in municipal elections[26][27][28] before he became an MP in the Tasmanian parliament until 1862,[29] in which role he advocated for the Hobart Town Artillery and was its paymaster, called for cancellation of the telegraph construction on the basis of cost, opposed pensions for public servants,[30][31] as a landlord himself agitated about rises in water rates,[32] and called for a tax on all vehicles[33]

References

  1. ^ "A Companion to Australian Art". A Companion to Australian Art: 459, 460. 2021-04-02. doi:10.1002/9781118767979.fmatter.
  2. ^ "NOTICE is hereby given, that the partnership hitherto existing between us, the undersigned". New South Wales Government Gazette. 1846-08-25. p. 1030. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. ^ "Australia Felix". Illustrated London News: 53. 26 January 1850.
  4. ^ a b Westgarth, William (1853). Victoria ; Late Australia Felix : or Port Phillip district of New South Wales Being an historical and descriptive account of the colony and its gold mines ; with an appendix containing the reports of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce for the last two. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. OCLC 815622725.
  5. ^ Crombie, Isobel (1991). "Australia Felix: Douglas T. Kilbum's Daguerreotype of Victorian Aborigines, 1847". Art Bulletin of Victoria (32). Council of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: 21–31. ISSN 0066-7935. OCLC 3384942.
  6. ^ quoted in Peterson, Nicolas (2003). "The Changing Photographic Contract : Aborigines And Image Ethics". In Pinney, Christopher; Thomas, Nicholas; Peterson, Nicholas (eds.). Photography's Other Histories. United States: Duke University Press. pp. 124–5. ISBN 9780822331131.
  7. ^ Crombie, Isobel (1999). "The sorcerer's machine: a photographic portrait by Douglas Kilburn, 1847". Art Bulletin of Victoria (7): 7–12. OCLC 7128758343.
  8. ^ a b Cato, Jack (1955). The story of the camera in Australia (1st ed.). Melbourne: Georgian House. pp. 8–9. ISBN 9789120069654. OCLC 3064639.
  9. ^ "Domestic Intelligence". Melbourne Argus. 7 July 1848. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  10. ^ "The Waterloo". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 February 1850. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  11. ^ "General Intelligence". Courier. 1853-11-09. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  12. ^ "Domestic Intelligence". Argus. 29 September 1852. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  13. ^ "Local Intelligence". Colonial Times. 1852-10-08. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  14. ^ "LOCAL". Courier. 1852-10-13. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  15. ^ Kilburn, Douglas T. (4 December 1853). "On Sun Pictures, by the Calotype Process" (PDF). University of Tasmania.
  16. ^ "Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land". Courier. 27 March 1855. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  17. ^ "Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land". Courier. 7 September 1855. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  18. ^ "Commercial and Markets". Colonial Times. 1853-01-11. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  19. ^ "Commercial intelligence". The Argus. 1853-02-12. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  20. ^ "Commercial Intelligence". Hobart Town Advertiser. 1853-04-19. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  21. ^ "LOCAL". Hobart Town Advertiser. 1853-02-17. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  22. ^ "TO THE EDITOR OF THE MERCURY". Hobart Town Daily Mercury. 1859-07-13. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  23. ^ "SUPREME COURT". Hobart Town Advertiser. 1854-07-22. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  24. ^ "SUPREME [?]". Argus. 1848-11-17. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  25. ^ "The Magistracy". Courier. 26 September 1854. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  26. ^ "ELECTIONS FOR ALDERMEN". Courier. 1854-06-21. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  27. ^ "MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS". Colonial Times. 1855-01-02. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  28. ^ "HOBART TOWN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS". Sydney Morning Herald. 1855-01-12. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  29. ^ "Parliament of Tasmania - Douglas Thomas Kilburn". www.parliament.tas.gov.au. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  30. ^ "To the Editor of the Tasmanian Daily News". Tasmanian Daily News. 1856-01-08. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  31. ^ "RETIRING ALLOWANCES". Courier. 1856-01-17. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  32. ^ "WATER-SUPPLY TO HOBARTON". Mercury. 1860-09-11. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  33. ^ Burch, Nigel (2018). The father of Tasmania : Premier Tom Chapman. Beaconsfield, Tasmania: Nigel Burch. pp. 281, 352, 363, 367, 369. ISBN 9780987371355. OCLC 1041127178.
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