This is a guest blog by Rhondda Harris and Beth Robertson on the very intriguing case of Ashton’s Hotel’s new back cover …
Original full cover for Ashton’s Hotel
New full cover for Ashton’s Hotel
From Rhonda Harris, author of Ashton’s Hotel:
Why the new back cover? Well, a bit of detective work by the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) has changed everything. The photograph of William Baker Ashton originally gracing the back cover of my book Ashton’s Hotel: The journal of William Baker Ashton, first governor of Adelaide Gaol turns out not to be him after all! And I was so happy when I found it.
Original image from the back cover of Ashton’s Hotel
The more famous images of William Baker Ashton are some beautiful paintings by Henry Glover dated c. 1850, however Ashton’s journal was written in 1839–1845 so I was looking for something earlier. I first saw the image on the internet with a date of 1840 and never could find it again or be sure of it in any way, so I was delighted when I saw that along with the Glover paintings, the State Library of South Australia had this one as well, listed as a photograph of ‘William B. Ashton’ and an explanation of his time as governor of the gaol. The date offered was 1854. This was the year he died, but it was obviously a much younger version of the exceedingly wide man Glover depicted in 1850. A drawing of William, also in the SLSA collection, with the beginnings of his stout stature and with a date of 1841 seemed to provide a link to an 1840 date. Not so.
Drawing of W.B. Ashton
Enter Beth Robertson, Manager of Preservation at the State Library of South Australia:
SLSA’s South Australian collections include several hundred thousand photographs. The oldest we have identified so far is a daguerreotype of a group of actors in about 1850. After attending an excellent talk by Rhondda, which included the ambrotype of William with the date 1840, I knew I had to investigate further. I confirmed that the tiny original (only 5.2 x 3.8 cm) is an ambrotype, a photographic technique that was invented in the 1850s. The immutable history of photography means that the image cannot be of William Baker Ashton in his youth, or a contender for the oldest known photograph in the library. I went back to the original accessions record. The photograph was donated to SLSA on 7 November 1958 when it was indeed identified as ‘Portrait of Wm Baker Ashton’. It came from the ‘Estate of late Henry Ashton’. Henry was a son of Henry Hamilton Ashton, 1833–1923, and a grandson of William Baker Ashton. I gather that Henry Hamilton Ashton was at the Victorian goldfields in the mid 1850s. The image could have been taken by a travelling photographer. This would explain the untidy labourer’s clothing as well as the luxurious, untrimmed hair and beard. I wrote to Rhondda after gently breaking the news to her on the phone,
As discussed, I am sorry to raise the likelihood that the photograph held by the State Library at B 25769 identified as William Baker Ashton is of his son Henry Hamilton Ashton.
We are both now in touch with Ashton’s descendants to positively identify the image. Is it Henry Hamilton Ashton? Or is it his older brother William James Ashton, 1830–1893, who was with him at the goldfields? If you know, please get in touch. When we have an answer the catalogue record will be changed, with a nod to the previous identification.
Meanwhile the lovely people at Wakefield Press have come up with a new back cover for Ashton’s Hotel. It is of course stunning and will mean this interesting mistake stops here. Thank you all from the heart.
Rhondda Harris
Beth M. Robertson
Manager Preservation, State Library of South Australia
