Sylvia Holland

Sylvia Holland (born Sylvia Moberly, 20 July 1900 – 14 April 1974) was a British-born concept artist, illustrator, and the second woman to become a storyboard artist for Walt Disney Productions. She worked for Disney in the 1930s and 1940s and is especially known for her work on the 1940 film Fantasia.

Biography Born in the village of Ampfield, England on 20 July 1900, Holland was born Sylvia Moberly was one of four children. Her father was an ordained clergyman and musician who organized an all-women string orchestra. As a child, she developed a hobby of photography after receiving a Kodak point-and-shoot camera, as well loved to draw and conduct music. As a teenager, she was enrolled at the Gloucestershire School of Domestic Science before moving to London to study at the Architectural Association School in 1919. Holland graduated in 1925, and became the first woman to join the Royal Institute of British Architects. The following year, she married Frank Holland, a fellow architecture student from Canada. The couple moved to Victoria, British Columbia and had their first child, Theodora.

In Canada, Sylvia joined the Architectural Institute of British Columbia. In 1928, Sylvia, who was pregnant with their son Boris, traveled to England to see her parents leaving her husband behind at home. While she was away, Frank had developed a cold, and after some Christmas shopping in severely cold Canadian weather, he was diagnosed with an ear infection. Frank later died from mastoiditis on 28 December, a month before the birth of their son. Not long after, the Great Depression had occurred in which demand for architectural projects had plummeted. During the early 1930s, Sylvia moved her single-parent household to a farm in Metchosin. Sometime later, her son developed the same ailment as Frank, in which Sylvia was advised by a doctor to seek a drier climate. In 1936, she re-located her family to Los Angeles, but because she did not have an American degree, she could not practice as an architect. A year later, Sylvia was hired as a sketch artist by Universal Studios on several movies such as One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) and Mad About Music (1938).

After seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Holland decided she wanted to work for Walt Disney Productions. To gain more experience in animation, she briefly worked as a cel inker for Walter Lantz Productions. By the summer of 1938, she had heard that Disney's next film after Pinocchio (1940) would be a concert film. Excited at the news, Holland applied to work for Disney and was granted an interview with Walt Disney. On 6 September, she was hired, and became the second woman hired into their story department, following Bianca Majolie.

Because of her background as a musician and artist, her first assignment was the Pastoral Symphony segment for Fantasia (1940). By December 1938, Holland had been asked to supervise the "Waltz of the Flowers" segment of the Nutcracker Suite. After being partnered with Majolie and fellow sketch artist Ethel Kulsar, her responsibilities at Disney included story direction, concept art, colour studies, timing, and supervising other artists.

On Easter Sunday 1974, Holland died from a stroke in Tarzana, California.