ABOUT MARTHA
Historian. Author. Family Storyteller.
A unique perspective on American history
Martha Frick Symington Sanger is an author and historian whose work has explored the life, family, homes, and legacy of her great-grandfather, Henry Clay Frick.
Her research has drawn on family papers, art-historical materials, personal recollections, and the extensive Frick archives, giving her an unusually personal perspective on the people and world of America’s Gilded Age.
A HISTORY WITHIN THE FAMILY
Martha’s connection to the Frick story is both historical and deeply personal. As the great-granddaughter of Henry Clay Frick, she grew up with family stories, photographs, correspondence and memories that offered a perspective unavailable in the public record alone.
Over decades of research, she brought those family sources together with archival material to examine not only Frick’s public legacy, but the private lives, relationships and experiences behind it.
Great-granddaughter of Henry Clay Frick
RESEARCH , WRITTING & THE FRICK ARCHIVES
Martha’s first book, Henry Clay Frick: An Intimate Portrait, was published in 1998. In 2007, Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian included it in his selection for The Wall Street Journal of five notable books about American philanthropists of the Gilded Age.
Her research continued with The Henry Clay Frick Houses: Architecture, Interiors, Landscapes in the Golden Era, an extensive examination of the homes Frick created in Pittsburgh, New York and on Boston’s North Shore.
Martha also served as an advisor for the introductory film for The Frick Collection in New York and exhibitions at Clayton in Pittsburgh, and as a consultant to the 1995 WGBH/PBS documentary Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World.
