Holdren's known works suggest a predominantly (but not exclusively) Social Realist bent. African-Americans appear prominently in several of these paintings.
Rickets and Ballots depicts two figures leaving a building with a sign reading "Ben Avon Colored Republican Club". The figures appear to be a mother and small child dressed in tattered clothing. Ben Avon may be referring to Ben Avon Pennsylvania, during the early 20th century Ben Avon was a pleasant summer retreat from Pittsburgh's steel industry.
Holdren served as advertising manager for the Pittsburgh Reflector Company from 1937 until at least 1941 (a brief biographical sketch appears in a 1941 trade catalogue for the company reproduced online at. He relocated to New York State in 1944, working for a Rochester advertising company and maintaining a studio in Gorham, New York, southeast of Rochester near Canandaigua Lake.
An avid fisherman, he is renowned in angling circles as the author of the 1975 fly fishing classic, Fishing New York State Lakes for Fabulous Trout, Rainbows and Salmon: Complete Fishing Handbook (Outdoor Sports Press, 1975). This item is in the category "Art\Paintings". The seller is "fischman-half" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States.