Christian Frederick Martin Sr. (german: Christian Friedrich Martin I.; January 31, 1796 – February 16, 1873) was a
German-born American luthier who specialized in
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
s and the founder of
C. F. Martin & Company. He made the first guitar in the United States in the 1830s.
Early life and career
Born in
Markneukirchen
Markneukirchen () is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany, close to the Czech border. It lies in between the Erzgebirge and the Fichtelgebirge in the Elstergebirge, southeast of Plauen, and northeast of Aš (Czech Republic ...
in the
Electorate of Saxony to a family of cabinet makers, Martin became an apprentice of the guitar maker
Johann Georg Stauffer of
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
. Martin also became a foreman at Stauffer's workshop. Martin was the second of five children and was more commonly known as Friedrich, given the German custom of using the second given name. In Martin's case, four of the children's first given names are a derivation of Christian (Christiane, Christian, Christian and Christiana).
As a result of a dispute between the Cabinet Makers Guild, of which Martin was a member, and the Violin Makers Guild, Martin moved to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in 1833. The move occurred less than a year after his father Johann Georg Martin died, and, being the last alive of Johann Georg Martin’s progeny, he would have been free of familial obligations to emigrate. On arriving in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, he set up shop at 196 Hudson Street on the
Lower West Side. Martin’s first workshop housed a small production setup in the back room, and a retail music store up front. This shop was the forerunner of
C. F. Martin & Company, which is still family-owned and operated, whose current CEO is CF Martin's great-great-great grandson, CF Martin IV .
At the insistence of his wife, Ottilia Kühle (daughter of the ''Maschinentischler''
achine carpenterand maker of pedal harps Karl Kühle in Vienna), Martin moved the guitar shop in 1838 to
Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Nazareth is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 6,053 at the 2020 census. Nazareth is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th most populous metropoli ...
where it is still located.
Martin's guitar construction and design innovations produced a model of flattop guitar that is still in use today.
See also
*
C. F. Martin & Company
*
Acoustic guitar
References
External links
BBC: ''How Martin guitars became an 'American Stradivarius'', 21 November 2013*
Michael Lorenz:
"Stauffer Miscellanea" Vienna 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Christian Frederick
1796 births
1873 deaths
People from Markneukirchen
People from the Electorate of Saxony
German emigrants to the United States
Guitar makers
German musical instrument makers
American musical instrument makers
People from Nazareth, Pennsylvania