Les frères HOLLAND

holland andrew portrait holland george portrait

Andrew HOLLAND

(Ottawa, 1843-Ottawa, 1923)

 George HOLLAND

(Ottawa, 1846-Jacksonville, 1923)

Jean-Claude SEGUIN

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William Lewis Holland (Mountshannon, 25/09/1814-Gatineau, 02/09/1883) épouse Charlotte Clarke (Canada-). Descendance :

  • Andrew M. Holland (Ottawa, 11/08/1843-Ottawa, 23/03/1923) épouse Margaret Gilson. Descendance:
    • Rosa Carrie Holland (24/05/1876-)
    • Edward James Holland (Ontario, 02/02/1878-Cobalt, 18/06/1948)
    • George Hibbard Holland (31/08/1879-)
    • Lewis Harold Holland (16/12/1881-)
    • Ernest Hudson Holland (16/08/1883-)
    • Iva Allison Holland (04/09/1887-)
  • George Clarke Holland (Ottawa, 1846-Jacksonville, 26/02/1923) épouse (Downsview, 30/12/1874) {tip John Robinson épouse Agnes K. [Robinson]. Descendance :}Allison Hilson Robinson (Kirkintilloch, 08/09/1856-San Diego, 16/07/1924). Descendance :
    • William John Holland (1875-1905)
    • HIbbard Hudson Holland (1877-1878)
    • Clara Hilson Holland (1879-1967)
    • Ethel May Holland (1881-1923)
    • Mary Holland (1882-)
    • Charlotte Emma Eveline Holland (1883-)
    • Andrew A. Holland (1885-[1946])
    • Arthur Andrew Holland (1885-1969)
    • George Reginald Ivan McKay Holland (1886-)

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Les origines (1843-1891)

Andrew a fait ses études à Ottawa (Ontario) et George dans le canton de Napean. Les deux se forment à la sténographie et deviennent journalistes. Le cadet commence sa carrière (1866), comme reporter, à l'Evening Post et, la même année, il participe comme volontaire aux Raids Renians. De 1872 à 1875, Andrew et George sont copropriétaire du journal Daily Citizen (Ottawa), le premier en est le rédacteur en chef et le second, directeur commercial. Puis, ils vendent leurs intérêts dans le quotidien afin de rejoindre le personnel chargé d'enregistrer les débats du Sénat avant d'en être les rapporteurs officiels. Finalement, en 1877, George  en devient rédacteur en chef, fonction qu'il occupera jusqu'en 1917. Ils commercialisent également des machines à écrire.

holland freres 1885 The Ottawa Journal Thu Dec 24 1885
The Evening Journal, Ottawa, jeudi 24 décembre 1885, p. 2.

Dès 1891, les frères Andrew et George Holland deviennent les agents, pour le Canada, du phonographe Edison :

THE PHONOGRAPH ABROAD.
The North American Phonograph Company have concluded arrangements for the introduction of the phonograph into Canada. Mr. T. R. Lombard went to Ottawa a few days ago and appointed the Messrs. Holland Brothers, Senate reporters, agents for the company in Canada. We take the following from The Empire, of Toronto:
"Holland Brothers, the Senate Hansard reporters, have been appointed general agents for Canada for the Edison Phonograph, and are about to establish agencies throughout the provinces for the sale of these machines. Mr. T. R. Lombard, Vice-President of the North American Phonograph Company, came to Ottawa last week with the result above mentioned. The voluminous correspondence now in the hands of the company from all parts of Canada has been transferred to Messrs. Holland Brothers. Three classes of machines will be put on the market at once: the phonograph, for business office purposes; the “social" machine, for furnishing orchestral music, recitations, readings, etc., for entertainments; and the dime-in-the-slot machine, for hotels, steamboats and exhibition purposes. Any one who knows the Hollands will have no doubt that the business will be pushed with all the energy, skill, and resource that have made the brothers famous in other branches of trade.”


The Phonogram, vol. 1, nº 6-7, juin-juillet 1891, p. 135.

holland freres 1891 canadian agency
The Phonogram, vol. 1, nº 6-7, juin-juillet 1891, p. 135.

Dès 1892, les frères Holland promeuvent, dans plusieurs ministères du Gouvernement Fédéral, le phonographe qui représente pour eux le sténographe parfait. En 1894, ils exploitent l'entreprise "Holland Brothers" qui commercialise des machines à écrire.

Le kinetoscope et le vitascope (1891-1896)

En 1894, les frères Holland vont obtenir les droits de distribution du phonographe Edison et, peu après, ceux du kinetoscope. Le 7 avril, Andrew reçoit les dix premiers Kinetoscope et le 14 avril, il inaugure le premier kinetoscope parlor à New York (1155, Broadway). 

holland 1894 05 edison
Th. Edison, Holland Bros, Orange 1er mai 1894.
Edison Microfilm Reel 270 (Archive.org.)

Terry Ramsaye, en s'appuyant sur les journaux de compte des frères Holland, indique que les kinetoscopes sont vendus au 1 Columbus avenue:

A number of Kinetoscopes and various films and machine parts were sold, ostensibly for use in America, to two Greek persons, George Georgiades and George Trajedis. These machines, according to the daybook entries of Holland Brothers, eatern agents for Raff's firt Kinetoscope Company, were delivered in August 1894 at 1 Columbus avenue, New York City. At te same adress was one T. Mavro, of whom we hear no more, who received and signed for the Kinetoscopes, films and other equipment. Georgiades and Trejedis shortly took their machines and sailed for London, where according to tradition, they had been candy merchants or green groces.


Terry Ramsaye, A Million and one NIghts, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1926, p. 138.

À Chicago, les frères Holland inaugurent un nouveau kinetoscope parlor, le 17 mai 1894 (148 State Street), puis c'est au tour de San Francisco (juin), dans l'établissement de Peter Bacigalupi, et de Boston. Le 3 novembre 1894, Andrew Holland ouvre le premier salon à Ottawa (Rue Sparks, Édifice Perelman). Andrew Holland évoque, pour un journal de Sydney, sa collaboration avec Thomas A. Edison:

EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS
USES OF THE KINETOSCOPE
Mr. Andrew Holland, one of the official reporters of the Canadian Senate at Ottawa, arrived in Sydney yesterday by the Miowera. Mr. Holland during the past four years has been connected with Edison, and a Herald reporter last night visited him at the Hotel Metropolis for the purpose of obtaining some particulars of the latest productions of the great inventor.
My connection with Edison is this," explained Mr Holland, "it was I who placed on exhibition in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston the first machines in the shape of kinetoscopes that he built. At present I have no direct connection with him beyond representing the Kinetoscope Company, in New York. I was their manager and organised the business in New York, and in that way was brought into contact with him a good deal in the laboratory. But it is only four years since I have known him personally. For the last two years it has been a very difficult matter for anyone to see Edison, unless they visited him at his iron mine in the Jersey Mountains, where he is devoting himself to the completion of an extraordinary plant for the extraction of iron from the ore by magnetic attraction. [...]
"Can you state what those inventions will be?"
"My information comes from a source that renders it practically confidential. It is noticed that Edison is aging very rapidly. He is only 48 years old now, and he looks 10 years older than that. His life is made miserable by lawsuits connected with his various patents. The phonograph that he intended to make wonderful improvements upon remains in about the same condition that it did seven years ago, owing to the protracted litigation that has been going on between himself and the owners of the Bell patents for the graphophone. His latest novelty has been the kinetoscope. I have brought has brought with him the first of his large machines that has ever been off the American Continent. Edison's assistants are experimenting to construct a machine that will produce the pictures life-size and project them on a screen in a dark room. Two other inventors have been following out Edison's idea, and last year produced a machine in New York that astonished the people there by producing a fight that occurred on the Madison-square Garden Theatre roof between Griffo, of Sydney, and a New York "bruiser." The result was not a complete success, owing to the vibration of the film. While one could recognise one of the pictures as Griffo, the pictures were dim and unsatisfactory. Edison's assistants expect to perfect the machine in the coming season, and this new kinetoscope will project the figures so perfectly as to be an absolute life-size representation. Another inventor has produced a kinetoscope with coloured pictures ; but it is not yet on the market. The principle of it is different from that of Edison's machine, inasmuch as the strip containing the pictures is wound on a large drum, and the light is thrown on the surface instead of underneath.


The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, mardi 21 janvier 1896, p. 6.

Avec le succès du Kinescope, les frères Holland ont également obtenu les droits de distribution du projecteur Vitascope de la société Edison en 1896.

holland freres 1896 The Ottawa Journal Sat Aug 1 1896
The Evening Journal, Ottawa, samedi 1er août 1896, p. 7.

Le nouveau projecteur projette de grandes images sur un écran géant à 42 images par seconde. Les Hollands ont inauguré la première séance à Ottawa (West End Park) le 21 juillet 1896. 

Peu après, ils délaissent ces activités.

Et après... (1897-1923)

Andrew Holland délaisse l'industrie cinématographique pour développer des activités commerciales avec l'Australie et se lancer dans l'établissement d'une ligne de bateaux à vapeur de Sydney (Australie), à Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique. Les frères Holland diversifient alors leurs affaires.

holland freres 1898 The Ottawa Journal Thu Feb 10 1898
The Ottawa Evening Journal, Ottawa, jeudi 10 février 1898, p. 7.

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