THE INVENTION AND PERFECTION T h e G e o r g e S h e p p a r d a n d J o h n H o l l a n d S t o r y OF THE GOLD NIB by J.G. Leone

This story starts in 1840 in Detroit, Nibs” elsewhere in this issue for another view Michigan, a frontier fur-trading town on the role of Levi Brown and others in the of 5000 inhabitants. The new steel invention of gold nibs.) arriving from England intrigued a local The gold business prospered gunsmith, George W. Sheppard. (What and Sheppard soon moved it to larger we now refer to as ‘nibs’ were called quarters at Sixth and Walnut Streets. ‘pens’ at that time.) The steel pens Many needed supplies were purchased were an improvement over the quills at the nearby Armstrong’s Drug of Mother Goose, but left much to be Store. It was in this shop that our next desired. They were crudely made; they important development occurred.

corroded in both ink and the open air, JOHN HOLLAND JOINS THE and they were expensive because they had COMPANY to be replaced often. In 1845, John Holland and his fam- THE FIRST GOLD PENS ily emigrated from the area known as George Sheppard decided to make a pen “Holy Ground:” County Cork, Ireland. from gold instead of steel. A Detroit jew- They settled in Cincinnati where John’s eler named Levi Brown supplied the gold, and John Holland father found work as a bricklayer. After a brief Sheppard experimented with solving two major stint in public schools, John Holland became a problems: tempering the gold for a combination of clerk at Armstrong’s Drug Store. In the summer of strength and flexibility, and tipping the point so the friction of 1853, fifteen-year-old John caught the attention of George writing would not ruin it. Sheppard. John soon was employed as an apprentice pen maker at Sheppard eventually solved both problems and crafted the first a salary of $3.00 per week. durable gold pen. He realized that his handiwork would require a Holland was a quick learner. By 1858, he had become a master larger market than Detroit. The first railroad line had just been craftsman and had acquired a one-third partnership in Sheppard’s completed between Lake Erie and Cincinnati, so Sheppard used gold pen company. it to leave Detroit and find his fortune in Cincinnati, a city of In 1859, John Holland made his first , as he saw 50,000 and the largest city in the West. the appeal that such an instrument would have. However, the In 1841, above a barber shop on Main Street, between Seventh holders for the pens had to be made of non-corrosive materials & Eight Streets, George Sheppard founded the first gold pen fac- such as solid gold, which was cost prohibitive. tory in the world. In 1861, John’s brother, Timothy Holland, also became a master (Author’s Note: In 1916, John Holland made the claim that George pen maker at the factory. The gold pen business continued to thrive. Sheppard invented the gold nib and built the first factory for producing However, the tensions of the approaching Civil War weighed them. See L. M. Fultz’s article, “The History of Making Metal Pen heavily on George Sheppard’s mind. He was convinced that the

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THE PENNANT Fig.1. 1883 Holland advertisement showing Extra Fine (323), Falcon and Oblique nibs.

Fig. 2. Holland #8 nib with integral ferrule and holder, and a Falcon nib.

Confederacy would win the war, leaving Cincinnati, now a city of more than 200,000 people, vulnerable to the victors located just across the Ohio River in Kentucky. Sheppard decided to sell his pen company, retire to a farm along Hogan’s creek in nearby Aurora, Indiana, and live in peace for the rest of his days. (His peace was short-lived – see sidebar on page 14.) In 1862, John Holland bought the business from Sheppard and made immediate innovations to the product line. Until then, the company’s gold pens had been made with nibs of long, short and stub lengths with iridium points in various widths. They expanded the product line with Bank, Extra Fine (323), Falcon, IXL, Oblique, Record, and Spade nibs (Figs. 1, 2, 3). During the Civil War, John Holland served in the Union Army. It is not known whether Timothy also served, or remained at home to run the flourishing gold pen business. However, Timothy had become a partner, and the business was known as “John Holland and Brother” (Fig. 4). INNOVATION AND GROWTH The Hollands continued to experiment with fountain pens and stylographic pens and began to sell them in small num- bers. When the company issued 60th anniversary blotters in 1901, they stated, “Gold pens since 1841—Fountain pens since 1865” (Fig. 5). Although Charles Goodyear received a patent in 1844 for vulcanized rubber, it appears that hard rubber became commercially available on a regular basis only after the Civil War. John Holland wrote, “In 1867, we began turning hard rubber parts in our nib factory. The fountain and stylo- graphic part of the business had grown to such proportions

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THE PENNANT that we established a separate factory for turning and working hard rubber, being the pioneer in this line of business. By 1869, we began to regularly make foun- tain pens and stylographic pens from hard rubber.” Today, if we think of stylographic pens at all, we think of them as suitable for technical drawing. However, they were popular in the 19th century for general writing, particularly where a thin, even line was desired, as in bookkeeping. Some referred to them as ink (Fig. 6). The early Holland eyedropper filling fountain pens had primitive feeds. They used a black hard rubber ‘overfeed’ on top of the nib, and a cylindrical, slitted hard rubber feed under the nib (Fig. 7). Lewis Edson Waterman’s breakthrough feed design would come about 15 years later.

Fig. 3. Holland nibs with different ‘breather holes ’—crescent, oval, ‘V.’

Fig. 4. Civil war era nib with “J. Holland & Brother” nib imprint.

It was about this time that the company name was changed to the John Holland Gold Pen Company. We do not know the reason for the change, but the Cincinnati city directory of the era no longer lists Timothy Holland as a gold pen maker. He is mentioned as a lithographer. John Holland continued his innovations, receiving patents for various fountain pens, feeds, mechanical pencils (added to the line in 1870), gold toothpicks, and iridium tip- ping (Fig. 8). JOHN HOLLAND AND IRIDIUM NIB TIPPING Perhaps John Holland’s most enduring contri- bution to the pen industry was his work with iridium for tipping pen points.

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THE PENNANT Fig. 5: 1901 blotter stating when Holland started making nibs and fountain pens

Iridium, similar to platinum and the hardest of all metals, had been known since 1803. Decades after its discovery, it still was expensive to buy and difficult to use. The processing of the ore had progressed only to the point where iridium was avail- able as a fine powder or in small grains. It was devilishly difficult to fuse iridium to gold and shape it into pen points, as is evident in the number of old nibs with miss- ing iridium on the tips. In the late 1870s John Holland conducted experiments to create a better tipping material. His objective was to create a compound containing iridium and another more malleable, less expensive material. He discovered that if he heated iridium ore in a crucible until it turned white, then added phosphorus, he could fuse the iridium with gold and form a pen point in the desired shape. The importance of his invention was recognized in 1891 when John Holland received a medal as an honorary member of the Parisian Inventor’s Academy in France for his work with iridium and gold nibs. HOLLAND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOUNTAIN PEN Today, Waterman is often credited with creating the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Waterman made this claim in its advertising, and it has been widely accepted as fact. However, it is clear that Holland (and others) were making and selling ser- viceable fountain pens prior to 1884. The historical record seems to support the claim that the John Holland Company was the first U.S. manufacturer to introduce a commercially successful fountain pen in the late 1860s. There are earlier patents and earlier fountain pens that have sur- vived. However, Holland appears to have been the first to make and sell them in quantity in the USA. The next fountain pens to emerge were the stylographic pens of Alonzo T. Cross and Duncan MacKinnon. They did not become popular until the 1870s, about five years after Holland’s second factory was built. By the 1880s, Wirt, then Waterman, began to dominate the American fountain pen market. Other major players would emerge. George S. Parker moonlighted sell- ing John Holland pens in the 1880s before he founded the in 1888. Walter ’s pens would appear 15 years later. Fig. 6. Red hard rubber Stylographic pen or ink .

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THE PENNANT HOLLAND’S DECLINE The Civil War Comes to the Midwest The John Holland Gold Pen Company entered the 20th by John G. Leone and L. Michael Fultz century as a major manufacturer, selling pens across the USA and abroad; yet, the company was beginning to fade. When George W. Sheppard sold his partnership inter- The main reasons appear to be twofold: sporadic advertis- est in the John Holland Gold Pen Company in 1862 he ing and lack of investment in industrializing its manufac- said he feared that the Confederacy would win the war turing operations. and take reprisals against Cincinnati and its merchants. Although a neighboring soap & candle company was Sheppard retired to southeastern Indiana, feeling that it was the leading advertiser of the era, John Holland did not follow Procter & Gamble’s example. As the years rolled a safer location. While his fears of a Southern victory were by, Holland’s weak advertising put it at an increasing com- unfounded, his timing and choice of a safe haven were flawed. petitive disadvantage. By the 1920s, advertisements for During much of 1862 and the spring of 1863, Confederate Holland pens were disappearing from national magazines Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his troops conducted and only appeared in Cincinnati newspapers when new models were introduced. raids harassing, in particular, the L&N Railroad, a major line It is not clear why Holland did not make the invest- of supply for the Union army occupying sections of Middle ment in the equipment required for automated mass Tennessee. production. Perhaps cash flow did not provide sufficient On July 8, 1863, Morgan’s Raiders commandeered riverboats earnings to pay for automation. Perhaps the Holland and crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana. For several family did not want to dilute control by bringing in out- side investors to raise capital. Following incorporation days his troops destroyed railroad junctions and telegraph lines in 1884, the founder and his four children (James, John, and burned bridges, buildings, and homesteads. Pursued by Robert, and Teresa) owned nearly all the stock and kept Union troops, Morgan headed east, left Indiana near Sheppard’s it that way. Perhaps Holland simply believed that bench- ‘safe haven’ on Hogan’s Creek in Aurora and entered the state made nibs were the key to a quality product. (The founder of Ohio near the town of Harrison. He proceeded east, skirted is reputed to have tested every nib that went out the door, well into his 80s.) heavily defended but badly panicked Cincinnati and began to By the 1920s, Holland’s major competitors had auto- work on the second objective of his raid, the procurement of mated their pen production. Holland never did get there. horses and money for the Confederacy. He is said to have cap- When the auction of the John Holland Pen Company’s tured nearly 1000 horses, and it is alleged that his men also assets occurred on February 22, 1981, following the death of Robert, the founder’s last surviving son, observers com- robbed banks. mented that the Holland nib-making equipment belonged Morgan’s Raiders continued east along the Ohio River but in a museum as it was clearly from the 19th century. It were opposed by Federal troops, militia and even gunboats on became scrap metal instead. the Ohio. On July 26th, some of Morgan’s troops crossed the When John Holland died at the age of 85 in 1924, the Ohio at Buffington Island, Meigs County, back into Virginia (now company lost its guiding light. His sons had long worked in the business and were willing to experiment with new West Virginia). However, a major part of his force was killed ideas—painted pens, celluloid pens—but they lost the and Morgan himself was captured. His raid represented the innovation race, and the downward trend continued. longest and northernmost excursion of Confederate troops The Great Depression also took its toll on Holland’s into Union territory during the war. After several months of business. By the end of the 1930s, the quality of Holland incarceration in a Federal prison in Columbus, Ohio, Morgan products had deteriorated, and they were no longer a top- tier manufacturer. Annual production had dropped to escaped and returned to the South but was killed by Federal about 20,000 pens and pencils by the end of the 1930s. troops in Greeneville, Tennessee on September 4, 1864. During World War II, raw material restrictions Both authors are interested in Civil War History as well placed on pen manufacturers made it even worse. as pens. Production plummeted to barely 3600 units in 1947. By 1950, production had ceased, and salesmen were no

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THE PENNANT Fig. 7. Circa 1885-1890 Holland eyedropper pens with primitive hard rubber feeds.

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THE PENNANT Fig. 8: Circa 1877 advertisement showing Holland products.

Holland blotter advertising its gold and silver pens, gold toothpicks , charms, etc. longer on the road. The once proud manufacturer had become a retail shop and repair facil- ity that sold and serviced writ- ing instruments made by other manufacturers. Between 1953 and 1957, fewer than 1000 John Holland pens were sold, presum- ably assembled from existing parts. The halcyon days of the John Holland Gold Pen Company were in the late 19th century. Its pens earned top honors at the Vienna Exposition in 1873, at eight con- secutive Cincinnati Expositions, and at the U.S. Centennial The author wishes to thank the Cincinnati Historical Society, Exposition in 1876. Mike Fultz, Rick Horne, Dick Johnson, John Mottishaw, and Abe Holland pens have faded into history, but John Holland, the Schwartz for their contributions to this article. inventor, left an important technical legacy that deserves to be Pen photos by David Bloch & L.M. Fultz rescued from obscurity. The journey to make gold nibs may have All other photos by L.M. Fultz. started in the frontier town of Detroit, but it came to fruition in Images of paper items by Tim Smith of Tim Smith Design. Cincinnati. All the gold nibs that we cherish today are descendents Pens and ephemera from the collections of Abe Schwartz and of the efforts of George Sheppard and John Holland. ! Jack Leone.

All rights reserved by the author.

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