1. Elias Burton Holmes was an American traveler, photographer and filmmaker credited with the invention of the "travelogue", though the term itself was apparently coined in 1898 by John Bowker.
14 Facts About Burton Holmes
1. 2.
Travel stories, slide shows, and motion pictures were all in existence before Holmes began his career, as was the profession of travel lecturer; but Holmes was the first person to put all of these elements together into documentary travel lectures.
3.
Burton Holmes recorded the earliest known footage of Japan and Korea, in 1899.
4.
Elias Burton Holmes was born into a middle-class Chicago family, the son of a banker.
5.
In 1890, Burton Holmes accompanied his grandmother on a trip to Europe and when he returned showed slides of his trip at the Chicago Camera Club, of which he was a member.
6.
In 1893, after sending out 2,000 invitations to a select group of people from Chicago, Burton Holmes gave two sold-out talks about a recent trip to Japan.
7.
Around the same time, Burton Holmes began to supplement his hand-colored glass slides with the then excitingly new technology of moving pictures.
8.
Burton Holmes lectured about such topics as the Panama Canal, the "Frivolities of Paris", even the adventures of Richard Halliburton, one of his competitors in the travel lecture profession.
9.
Burton Holmes visited the first modern Olympics in 1896, rode the first trans-Siberian train, and shot what may be the first movies ever made of Japan, in 1899, as well as the first recorded video footage of Korea.
10.
Burton Holmes catered especially to the armchair traveler with escapist fantasies, and for this reason he consciously focused his lectures on the most agreeable and scenic aspects of the places he lectured about.
11.
Burton Holmes avoided all discussion of politics, poverty, and other social ills.
12.
In 1914, Burton Holmes married Margaret Oliver, whom he had met on one of his expeditions.
13.
Burton Holmes had a duplex, "Nirvana", in New York that was packed with treasures from Southeast Asia; this he eventually sold to Robert Ripley.
14.
Burton Holmes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.