At the young age of twenty-four Robert Edwards Holloway, a British schoolmaster, became principal of the Wesleyan Academy in St John's. During his thirty-year tenure he dramatically changed the direction of the school that later became the Methodist College. Ruby Gough's biography of Holloway and the "Holloway Era" is set against the growing social consciousness of the late nineteenth century and the major crises that shook St John's - the diphtheria epidemic of the late 1880s and the Great Fire of 1892 and its aftermath. Holloway was a scientist and innovative teacher who opened his classes to the public and kept up with current developments in science, demonstrating new discoveries in public lectures. For a time College Hall at Methodist College, later named Holloway School, was the site for the production of X-rays and their use for diagnosis and treatment by local doctors. The book is illustrated with Holloway's photographs of Newfoundland and Labrador reproduced from glass plate negatives.