Designated in 2024 as an Exceptional Person.
Nominators: Suzanne Sexty and Jo Shawyer
For more than 30 years Elsie Holloway (1882-1971) owned and operated Holloway Studio in St. John’s, Newfoundland. In the early 1900s a woman entrepreneur was notable enough, but Elsie was also a well-respected, and innovative, photographer. She was the first woman in Newfoundland to be recognized as a professional photographer and the first woman to own a photography studio.
The beginning of World War I saw many young men in uniform, soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment, coming to the studio to be photographed before shipping out. For many of their families, this was the only image they had of a loved one who was later lost in the war. In 1919, Holloway Studio recorded the first non-stop transatlantic fight, which began when John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flew from Lester’s field in St. John’s to Ireland. They were there again for another moment in aviation history, May 1932 when Amelia Earhart left Harbour Grace to become the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight. And in June 1932, Elsie is thought to have been the official photographer for the Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Throughout her career, Elsie preserved, and added to, the Holloway family collection of photographs which contribute to the pictorial history of Newfoundland and Labrador from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. The Holloway Studio, owned and managed by Elsie for 30 years, survived two (2) world wars, an economic depression, and technological developments which promoted an increasing trend to amateur photography. In all these years there is no indication that there was a mortgage or a lien against the business. In 1946 Elsie retired and sold the business to a competitor – who chose to keep the Holloway name over the door.
LINKS
With the Camera: The Life of Elsie Holloway (Video)
Mother of the Regiment and Other Remarkable Women of Newfoundland and Labrador
Self-portrait of Elsie Holloway, likely taken in 1910s (NL The Rooms Archives).
Elsie’s iceberg photograph which appeared in Pearson’s Magazine (New York edition) September 1900 (NL The Rooms Archives).
Advertisement (The Evening Telegram, February 2, 1909, 8).
Section 8, Platoon 6, of the Newfoundland Regiment photographed by Holloway Studio in 1917 (NL The Rooms Archives).
Patricia (Rorke) Yorke, James Ernest Rorke and Yvonne (Rorke) Pratt, as children (MUN Maritime History Archives).
Photograph of Elsie Holloway and Westerland Kennels’ Newfoundland Dog Anglo, n.d. (NL The Rooms Archives).
Photograph of men curing salmon in Cartwright, taken during Elsie Holloway’s 1913 visit to Labrador (NL The Rooms Archives).
Photograph by Holloway Studio of Alcock and Brown’s Vickers Vimy plane taking off from Lester’s Field in St. John’s, June 1919 (NL The Rooms Archives).
