State Library of South Australia

[A son of William Baker Ashton] [B 25769] • Photograph

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Summary

A relatively informal ambrotype portrait of a young man in labourer's clothing. The portrait probably depicts one of the two older sons of William Baker Ashton who arrived in South Australia with his family in November 1838 on board the ship the 'Rajasthan'. Both older sons, William James Ashton and Henry Hamilton Ashton, travelled to the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s. Given the clothing worn for the portrait, the photograph was probably taken on the goldfields. The photograph has an arch-shaped, etched metal mat fixed in place by a patterned metal preserver.

Restrictions

This image has no known copyright restrictions.

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Physical description

1 photograph : ambrotype, black and white ; 5.2 x 3.8 cm, in case 8.3 x 7.4 x 1.5 cm

Dates / Publication details

Approximately 1856

Collection

Part of Portrait Collection

Subject

Ashton, William James, 1830-1893
Ashton, Henry Hamilton, 1833-1923
Pioneers

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

General notes

The photograph was donated to the library on 7 November 1958 from 'Estate late Henry Ashton through Miss May Mellor, Auburn'. At that time it was identified as 'Portrait of Wm Baker Ashton', i.e. William Baker Ashton, 1800-1854, the first Governor of the Adelaide Gaol. That identification was reassessed in 2018 on the following grounds: the photograph is an ambrotype, a format that was not invented until the 1850s; the photograph is of a young man, but William Baker Ashton was aged in his fifties in the 1850s and is depicted at that age in paintings by Henry Glover (see B 3142, B 11202, B 17790); there is a strong resemblance between the young man depicted and William Baker Ashton; the photograph was previously held by the Ashton family and is likely to depict one of William Baker Ashton's sons.

A photocopy of a photograph of a young man captioned 'Will Ashton. Is this "William James"?' is included in the Ashton family history papers of Colin Baker Ashton, PRG 1416/6, p. 117a. The photograph bears a strong resemblance to the ambrotype portrait. A photograph of William James Ashton's younger brother Henry Hamilton Ashton had not been located for comparison when this record was updated in November 2018.

Digitisation information

Date

17/07/2008

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

3,486 x 4,148 pixels (14.5 MP)

Size

43.41 MB

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