Burton Holmes, Profiled in MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE for February 1899
"THE LAUNCH OF A POPULAR LECTURER""It was about ten years ago that a young man of inherited wealth, and belonging to one of Chicago's first families, returned home from a pleasure trip to Japan. He was known to his friends as an indefatigable amateur photographer, and at the request of the Chicago Camera Club he exhibited the pictures he had taken in the Mikado's kingdom as a collection of lantern slides. Of course he was obliged to explain things as he went along, and both the pictures and the talk were so enjoyable that he was urged to repeat the entertainment, this time for a fashionable charity. Then another pet benevolence put in its claim to be remembered, and so it went on, until the young man, not yet of age, discovered that he had blossomed into a full grown amateur lecturer.
"Last summer Mr Holmes journeyed to the Hawaiian Islands. Here he was an eye witness of the scenes incidental to annexation, and to the halting of transports on their way to Manila, and his views include not only the usual colored stereopticon slides, but moving pictures as well. Another spot from which he has secured fresh material is the Grand Canyon in Arizona." |