Waterworks Road - Hobart - Tasmania - John Watt Beattie (1859-1930)

Glass, masking paper, 8.2 x 8.2 cm, Waterworks Road
A lantern slide of the "Waterworks Road - Hobart" in Tasmania
John Watt Beattie (1859-1930)

Handwritten note "Waterworks Road - Hobart"
Bottom - printed in red "Prepared by J.W. BEATTIE HOBART, Tasmania

John Watt Beattie (1859-1930), photographer and antiquarian, was born on 15 August 1859 at Aberdeen, Scotland, son of John Beattie, master house-painter and photographer, and his wife Esther Imlay, née Gillivray. After a grammar-school education he migrated with his parents and brother in 1878, and struggled to clear a farm in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. He soon turned to his life's work. From 1879 he made many photographic expeditions into the bush, becoming a full-time professional in 1882 in partnership with Anson Bros whom he bought out in 1891.