Today we meet another early PICT, Susan Maude Martin, née Richard. Born in Pennsylvania in 1874, she married photographer William S. Martin in 1907. Originally from Denmark, Martin ran successful studios all over Connecticut starting in the late 19th century.
Quick note: Over the course of Susan Maude Martin’s life, she changed which name she used, going sometimes by S. Maude Martin, and at other times as Maude S. Martin. I will use “Susan Maude Martin” in this post, since I don’t know what she really preferred.
Anyway, unlike Emily Appelquest, Susan Maude Martin was an active partner in the Martin Studios with her photographer husband, William Martin. As I mentioned, there were Martin Studios in towns all across Connecticut in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, in towns like Willimantic, Norwich and Hartford.
BTW, it’s worth noting that Susan Maude Richard was active in photography even before her marriage. In fact, according to wedding announcements, (published in various Connecticut newspapers in 1907), Susan Maude Martin had been working as an assistant photographer in William’s studio in Norwich, CT for over a year prior their wedding.
Anyway, by 1930 Susan Maude and William were running studios in both Norwich, CT and Westerly, Rhode Islan, the latter town being where the couple and their children had moved to in 1919.
But then in March 1930, life undergoes a dramatic change for the Martins:
After the 63-year-old William dies in his wife’s arms on the floor of their Westerly studio, Susan Maude Martin sells off their Norwich studio but continues to run the Westerly studio on her own for another 10 years. During this period, she takes out ads for the studio, such as the following one that appeared in the 1933 city directory in Westerly:
Here’s a photo produced by the Martin Studio in Westerly:
That article about William S. Martin’s death in 1930 mentions that “Both Mr. and Mrs. Martin were working in the studio, at 52 High street, as is their custom in the spring when their spring rush starts of taking photographs of local and Stonington high school students.” (The Day, March 20, 1930) One can imagine that the photo above of the young man would have been the kind of school photo the Martins typicallytook during their “spring rush” – unfortunately, the photo above is undated, so it’s unclear if it dates to before or after William Martin’s death in 1930.
Susan Maude Martin finally retires from photography circa 1940, and dies 5 years later at the age of 71. Even though she did spent much of her career in Westerly, Rhode Island, Susan Maude Martin is still celebrated here on the blog as an Early PICT.
P.S. To show why I had trouble figuring out what name to use for her, I thought I’d share the following listing for her in the residence section of the 1933 Westerly, RI directory. In this diectory, she’s listed as both “S. Maude Martin” and “Maude S. Martin”:
I didn’t want to put that listing at the top of the post, since it would have given away the fact that by 1933 Susan Maude Martin was already the widow of William S. Martin. But, perhaps now you can see why I couldn’t decide how to refer to her in this post!
