James Hazel Adamson
James Hazel Adamson (27 June 1829 – 2 May 1902) was a machinist and inventor, better known for his paintings and engravings of marine subjects in the early days of colonization of South Australia. History. Adamson was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland, one of seven children of wheelwright James Adamson (c. 1790 – 14 August 1864) and Elizabeth May Adamson, née Beveridge (17 September 1795 – 29 March 1870), who arrived in South Australia in September 1839 aboard "Recovery" from London. Little is known of his education and training in art, but his eldest brother, Adam, was educated at the  High School in Dunfermline and studied art under Joseph Paton, alongside his son (later Sir) Joseph Noel Paton. Adamson worked with his father and brothers as carpenter and wheelwright in their flourishing business on Hanson Street, Adelaide from 1841. In 1853 he built a water-powered flour mill on Smith's Creek near Smithfield. In February 1854 he held an exhibition in Rundle Street, mostly views of the River Murray and "The Goolwa" (Goolwa, South Australia) and Port Elliot. By March he had a studio in Flinders Street and was painting portraits professionally. In October he released the first of  a series of lithographed prints on the same River Murray – Goolwa – Port Elliot themes. He exhibited several pictures for the competition run in conjunction with the South Australian Society of Arts' first exhibition, held at the Legislative Council chambers in March 1857. His still life received lukewarm praise, but his painting "The First Steamer on the Murray, and the Surprise of the Natives" won first prize. By late March 1857 he had opened a photographic studio at 150 Brunswick-street, Collingwood, Victoria. In December 1857 he exhibited a well-received series of nine panoramic views of Melbourne (taken from the  newly-completed Houses of Parliament) at the first exhibition of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts. He moved to 67 Collins Street east, and was a successful exhibitor at the February 1858 exhibition of the Victorian Industrial Society. He had a partnership with one Chauncey Leicester as photographic portraitists in 1858 and later in that year was marketing photographic goods with Arthur S. Jackson at the same address, but quit the business late in 1858. He had not left South Australia completely, as he submitted photographs of scenes in Melbourne and Adelaide suburbs to the East Torrens Institute's annual  exhibition in January 1859, and was listed in 1860 by "The Northern Star" of Kapunda as running the Adamson Brothers farm machinery factory in that town. He was however living at Collingwood in September–October 1859 when he made an oil painting depicting the steamer "Ladybird" firing a blue flare over the wreck of the "Admella", from a sketch by one Johnson (or Johnston), who had visited the spot. The completed painting was exhibited in a shop window on Collins Street five weeks after the tragedy. This painting and another by Adamson were delivered to the South Australian Society of  Arts in time to be exhibited, and the companion piece, "Rescue of the Survivors of the Admella by the Portland Lifeboat" was awarded first prize despite being ineligible on two or three counts: having been submitted after the cutoff date, and painted outside South Australia by a non-resident. The judges' decision was subsequently rescinded. By 1875 Adamson was living and working in Sydney, with a studio at 279 George Street He exhibited half-a-dozen paintings to the fourth annual exhibition of the New South Wales Academy of Art which met with qualified praise, but won no prizes apart  from a certificate of merit. He returned to South Australia in 1878 to work on the Adamson Brothers' entry for the Government harvester trials and was living at Riverton. Nothing has been found of his activities in the last decades of the century. He died at his home, Clifton Parade, Goodwood Park and his remains were buried at the West Terrace Cemetery. There was no obituary in the Adelaide newspapers. Other activities. Though later dissociating himself from Adamson Brothers' carriage and agricultural machinery business, Adamson was involved in development and trials of seeding and harvesting equipment. Between 1863 and 1887  he took out several South Australian patents relating to agricultural machinery. Also: Family. Adamson never married. His siblings included: