William Stuart

 
William Stuart

William Stuart born about 1849, died 9 March 1880 aged 31 or 32 years, buried Motueka Cemetery row 5, plot 65.


Nelson. Tuesday. Tom [sic] Stuart, photographer, who recently has been living at Motueka was missed since Friday last. A search was made, and continued till this morning, when the body was discovered near the cemetery. It appears that he wrote to his mother on Friday last, intimating that he intended destroying himself. 
Marlborough Daily Times, Volume ii, Issue 105, 23 March 1880, Page 3


Suicide at Motueka.— We have received the following telegram from our Motueka correspondent: "Motueka, March 22. "The body of William Stuart, photographer, who had been missing since Friday, has just been found near the Cemetery; he apparently poisoned himself. Parties were out searching on Saturday and Sunday, and again this morning. Stuart had posted a letter to his brother previously, stating his intention of destroying himself, and that his body would be found near the Cemetery. His brother received the letter on Saturday night, and arrived here yesterday morning. Unfortunately he misread the letter, and thought it stated that the body would be found near the Church, but on Sunday evening he ascertained that it read 'near the Cemetery.' Further particulars after inquest."
From inquiries we learn that the deceased, who was well connected, was better known in the Marlborough district than in Nelson. So far we are without grounds for attributing his rash act to any particular circumstance, but we shall doubtless be in possession of farther details very shortly.
Colonist, Volume XXIII, Issue 2683, 23 March 1880, Page 3


Suicide at Motueka.
On Monday last an inquest was held at Motueka touching the death of William Stuart, photographer, the finding of whose body together with some particulars regarding his death furnished by our correspondents has been made public in these columns. The Jury having been duly sworn, and Mr S. Carter chosen foreman, the following evidence was adduced :-
Lucy Burnell deposed that she was the wife of a laborer. That morning whilst going for some wood she crossed the sandhills, when she found the body lying near the Cemetery. She had never seen the deceased before. She immediately sent her son to the wharfinger to inform him of the occurrence. 

Daniel White, a miner, deposed that he was lodging at the Retreat Inn. He knew the deceased slightly, and last saw him alive on Friday afternoon, the 19th instant, near Mr Coppins' hotel, but he did not speak to him. That morning Mrs Burnell's boy came to him and told him that his mother had found the body lying near the Cemetery. He went with William Davy, and at once recognised the body as that of William Stuart. He thereupon sent word to the constable. 
W. W. Coppins, proprietor of the Motueka Hotel deposed that he knew deceased, who for the last eight weeks had been lodging at his house. He noticed that Stuart was very gloomy and continually saying that he wished he was dead. He believed that on Sunday night he took half a three and sixpenny bottle of chlorodyne. He wished deceased to see the Coroner when that gentleman was over with Judge Broad, but he urged him (witness) not to call him. Deceased had eaten nothing for a week, and he last saw him on Friday evening when at his request he gave him half a pint of beer he then said he wanted to go down and see Mr Burrell. The deceased had repeatedly said that he wished he was dead, and when he heard of Mr Talbot's death he said he wished he was in his place. By a juror: He should think he was not quite right in his mind; he had been suffering from diarrhoea. He had a copy of a letter deceased wrote to his brother, which read — "My dear James, — I received your kind letter. It was my intention not to have written to a soul. I shall never write to any one again; I mean to destroy myself to-night after dark. I shall be found near the grave yard. I wish to give as little trouble as possible." The deceased was not at all intoxicated on the Friday. George Hickmot, laborer, deposed: He knew deceased, and last saw him alive about a week ago, when he appeared as usual. He found the bottle produced about 15 yards from where the body was found, and the white crystals in it were the same then as when he found it. 

Johan Peter Ernest F. Johansen, duly qualified medical practitioner, deposed that he had seen the body of deceased, but the external signs were so inconsiderable that without other evidence he could give no opinion. The body was in an advanced stage of decomposition. He noticed no signs of hydrocyanic acid. After giving the appearance of deceased, the witness stated that there were no signs of violence on the body, and that the signs were of poisoning by cyanide of potassium, which is used by photographers. Death must have been almost instantaneous. The poison would decompose almost immediately. By a Juror: He would not find any further proof by a further examination. The Coroner said that from the evidence of the last witness he did not think a post mortem examination necessary and the jury then returned a verdict " That decased [sic] died from taking a dose of cyanide of potassium, administered by his own hand whilst in a state of temporary insanity.
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 72, 24 March 1880, Page 2

Klix Studio

 

Klix Studio
Agency Leicagraph Studios, Hotel Street, George Corner, Wellington





Minicam Photographers


Minicam Photographers
9 The Cable Car Lane, Wellington






 

Smith, Robert Henry


Robert Henry Smith
119a Manners Street, Wellington


unknown couple photographed by Robert Henry Smith
[purchased February 2023]



1946 - Miramar Electoral Roll: 11234 - Smith, Robert Henry, 3 Carlton St., photographer
1949 - Miramar Electoral Roll: 11715 - Smith, Robert Henry, 3 Carlton St., photographer
1954 - Miramar Electoral Roll: 12370 - Smith, Robert Henry, 4 Sunglow Avenue, photographer
1957 - Miramar Electoral Roll: 12971 - Smith, Robert Henry, 4 Sunglow Avenue, photographer
1960 - Miramar Electoral Roll: page 169 line 57 - Smith, Robert Henry, 4 Sunglow Avenue, photographer
1963 - Miramar Electoral Roll: page 179 line 32 - Smith, Robert Henry, 4 Sunglow Avenue, photographer



Howell, J.


J. Howell
Marton



 


unknown photographer

 















Dunedin



Dunedin



Dunedin



Dunedin



Dunedin







Index




Index - here



All newspaper articles and advertisements are from Papers Past - National Library of New Zealand or Trove - National Library of Australia unless otherwise stated.

Photographer's negatives - the most common question I am asked relates to the current location of photographer's negatives - see this post.

I'm not able to provide any information about photographers other than that on this site. I'm am also not able to date photographs or assist you in identifying people in photographs you may have. I am unable to assist in locating the current location of business records or negatives of any photographer.

I recommend the Auckland City Library's website for more information about New Zealand photographers - http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/photographers/basic_search.htm




Milne, Geoffrey Roderick


Geoffrey Roderick Milne
Balclutha


born 19 January 1926 - died 5 June 2017 reg. 2017/14785
1972 - 35 Pakefield street, Balclutha, photographer


not identified
[purchased March 2023]



James Martyn Nicholas

 
 
London Portrait Rooms
James Martyn Nicholas
Esk Street, Invercargill
 
James Martyn Nicholas (photographer) born 2 August 1833 Coombe, St Stephens, Cornwall, England, bapt. 18 August 1833, St. Stephens-in-Brannel, Cornwall, emigrated to Australia about 1857 aged 24 years to Creswick Creek, Ballarat, arrived New Zealand 1863, later in 1867 he returned to Cornwall and came back to NZ in 1869. In 1873 again returned to Cornwall where he married leaving in 1880 with his wife and three of a family for New Zealand, arriving in December of that year, died 9 February 1916 Rakaia aged 83 years, married 1873, reg. Sep 1873, Pancras vol. 1b page 293 Margery Cornish Pearce, she died about 1908
issue:
2a. Lilian Edith Nicholas (Fiji), married Thomas Raeburn Anderson reg. 1897/1352           
2b. Charles Christopher Nicholas (Orepuki), married Elizabeth Grier Pearson reg. 1902/6191
2c. Arthur James Nicholas (Christchurch) married Anna Elizabeth Veitch reg. 1909/5761
2d. William Edgar Nicholas born circa 1882 New Zealand, reg. 1882/486                         
2e. Ethel Nicholas (Rakaia), born circa 1883 New Zealand, reg. 1883/15711 married 1911, reg. 1911/3586c William John Lee                                                                                  
2f. Herbert Hedley Nicholas (Christchurch) born circa 1890 New Zealand, reg. 1890/18991 married Winifred Alicia Philpott circa 1921 reg. 1921/627  


 
[purchased February 2023]


[purchased February 2023]
 
 


 

George Fiske

 
 


Off Topic
 George Fiske 
American landscape photographer. 
born 22 October 1835 – died 21 October 1918
 
George Fiske was born October 22, 1835, in Amherst, New Hampshire, and raised on the family's farm. In 1858, at the age of 22, he moved west to Sacramento, California, where he worked as a banking clerk for his half-brother Thomas Fiske, of Thomas Fiske & Co. Located in the same building as the bank was the Vance & Weed Photographic Gallery, owned by Robert H. Vance and managed by Charles Leander Weed, the first photographer of Yosemite Valley. In the years following his move to California, it is likely that Fiske received a good amount of photographic training - though where and by whom is not certain - for in 1864 he surfaced as a freelance photographer in San Francisco. In 1868, after a brief hiatus from photography spent farming in the Santa Clara Valley, Fiske returned to San Francisco and became an assistant to Carleton E. Watkins. During the next few years he was employed as a photographer for Thomas Houseworth & Co., and worked with Eadweard Muybridge photographing the Yosemite Valley. In a one-year span between 1872 and 1873, Fiske lost his mother, father and half-brother James, and married his first wife, Elmira ("Myra") F. Morrill. In 1874 Fiske returned to work for Watkins. The following year Watkins went bankrupt, causing another hiatus in Fiske's career. In 1879, after resuming his photographic practice in San Francisco, Fiske moved to the Yosemite Valley, becoming its first year-round resident photographer. While at Yosemite, where he lived for nearly the remainder of his life, Fiske became the close friend of Galen Clark, established a long-running though modest photographic concession of landscape views and custom tourist portraits, and ceaselessly photographed the many features of the Valley and its environs.
 
In 1884 Fiske began to receive the recognition due his work. Upon viewing Fiske's prints on exhibition at the New Orleans World's Fair, the influential Philadelphia Photographer critic Edward L Wilson described his work as "gems of photographic art" that "place Mr. Fiske in the front rank." That same year, Fiske sent a selection of his photographs to London for the inspection of John Ruskin, who replied, "It is impossible to choose subjects more fitly, or to do better work." Despite this and posthumous praise from the likes of Beaumont Newhall and Ansel Adams, Fiske is yet to be widely recognized as a prominent figure in the history of photography.

In 1896, Myra Fiske died of cancer. The following year previous George Fiske next married Caroline ("Carrie") Paull. In 1904 a fire destroyed Fiske's house and studio, as well as two cameras, two lenses, three quarters of his glass-plate negatives, and a large portion of his stock of prints. (A 1943 fire destroyed the remainder of Fiske's glass-plate negatives.) After the deaths of Galen Clark in 1910 and his wife Carrie in 1917, Fiske become very despondent. In 1918, facing dim business prospects and suffering intensely from a brain tumor, previous George Fiske next committed suicide. He was buried next to Galen Clark in Yosemite's Pioneer Cemetery.

(Sources: Paul Hickman, The Life and Photographic Works of previous George Fiske next, 1835-1918 (M.A. Thesis, Arizona State University, 1979); Paul Hickman and Terence Pitts, previous George Fiske next, Yosemite Photographer (Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press; Tucson: University of Arizona, Center for Creative Photography, 1980).) 
The Online Archive of California


George Fiske, Landscape Photographer banner image [above] from Photographs of Yosemite Valley and Big Trees of Mariposa County, Calif., 1884, California, by George Fiske. Purchased 1991. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Te Papa (AL.000079)
 
 
 El Capitan, Yosemite, 3300 ft, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]


Mirror view, Three Brothers, Yosemite, California
by George Fiske
 [purchased February 2023]
 
 
Overhanging rock, Glacier Point, 3200ft. Yosemite Valley, California
 by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 
 
Cascade Falls, 500ft, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 
 
Yosemite Falls, 2635ft, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 
 
Going to the top of Nevada Falls, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
 [purchased February 2023]
 
 
Bridle Veil, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 
 
Nevada Fall, Yosemite Valley, California
Nevada Fall is a 594-foot (181 m) high waterfall on the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, California. 
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 

Vernal Fall, 300 ft, Yosemite Valley, California
Vernal Fall is a 317-foot (96.6 m) waterfall on the Merced River just downstream of Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park, California.
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 

Yosemite Valley Road, California
"Sunshine and Shadow"
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 

Sentinel Hotel, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]
 

 Merced River, Yosemite Valley, California
by George Fiske
[purchased February 2023]