MARTIN SMITH DEMUTH
April 16, 1895 – March 2, 1961
In the comic book industry he is best known as a letterer and writer.
A Chronology
1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Martin Demuth
Age: 5
Birth Date: Jan [sic] 1895
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1900: Cardington, Morrow, Ohio [Rail Road Street]
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son
Marital Status: Single
Father’s Name: Smith Demuth
Father’s Birthplace: Ohio
Mother’s Name: Harriett Demuth
Mother’s Birthplace: Ohio
Occupation:
Household Members:
Name / Age
Smith Demuth 52
Harriett Demuth 48
Merre Demuth 8
Martin Demuth 5
1910 United States Federal Census
Name: Martin S Demuth
Age in 1910: 15
Birth Year: abt 1895
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1910: Salem Ward 3, Marion, Oregon [152 Church Street]
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son
Marital Status: Single
Father’s Name: Smith Demuth
Father’s Birthplace: Ohio
Mother’s Name: Harriet Demuth
Mother’s Birthplace: Ohio
Household Members:
Name / Age
Smith Demuth 61
Harriet Demuth 51
Georgia M Demuth 17
Martin S Demuth 15
Oregonian
(Portland, Oregon)
October 29, 1910
Hazing Episode to Be Explained
Salem Students Summoned to Tell Directors of Hair-Cutting Scrape.
Wrong Victim Is Sheared
Sophomores Clip Freshman’s Hair in Park and Get One Not Intended—
Sister Sees Affair and Becomes Hysterical
...Martin DeMuth is the freshman who was made the subject of attack by the students, according to the allegations. He was accompanying his sister home from school when he was seized...
(excerpt)
April 12, 1914
‘Sylvia’ Being Rehearsed
Two-Act Operetta Will Be Presented
by Lincoln High School
August 18, 1916
Portland Artist Wins
Martin DeMuth’s Drawings Accepted by College Publication.
Berkeley, Cal., Aug. 27.—(Special.)—Martin DeMuth, formerly of Lincoln High, quite well known as an artist in Portland, has made good here. After registering as a freshman, he started drawing, and beat out the old-line artists by annexing the first cover and several other drawings in the first issue of the Pelican, the college comic monthly.
World War I Draft Card
Name: Martin S Demuth
City: San Francisco [1485 Vallejo Street]
County: San Francisco
State: California
Birthplace: Ohio, United States of America
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1894
Race: Caucasian
Draft Board: 12
Age: 22
Occupation: Commercial Artist
Employer: Harry N. Stone, 520 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California
Nearest Relative: Mother
Height / Build: Tall / Medium
Color of Eyes / Hair: Brown / Brown
Signature: May 23, 1917
Oregonian
December 16, 1917
The following names were added last week to the list of Lincoln boys now in the Army or Navy, making the total number of stars on the service flag 199: ...First Lieutenant Martin DeMuth, infantry, Camp Lewis, American Lake.
Official List of Officers of the Officers’ Reserve Corps of the Army of the United States
Supplemental to Volume III
Officers Residing in—New York
September 1, 1919 to December 31, 1919
page 21: DeMuth, Martin Smith…..320 West Eighty-ninth Street, New York…Apr. 16, 1895
1920 United States Federal Census
Name: Martin S De Muth
Age: 24
Birth Year: abt 1896
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1920: Manhattan Assembly District 9, New York, New York [320 West 89 Street]
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son
Marital Status: Single
Parent’s Name: Harriet De Muth
Father’s Birthplace: Ohio
Mother’s Birthplace: Ohio
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Household Members:
Name / Age
Harriet De Muth 60 [widow]
Martin S De Muth 24 [unemployed]
Leo Ratner 24
New York Evening Telegram
September 21, 1920
Award Prizes to Winners of Victory Hall Poster Contest
Competition Was Arranged as Preliminary to Public Appeal for
Funds with Which to Build Memorial to War Dead of New York
Well known artists and illustrators of this city have for several weeks been engaged in a poster competition, arranged by the Victory Hall Association as a preliminary to the public appeal for funds with which to build in Pershing Square the great utilitarian memorial to the war deed of New York city.
The winners, as selected by a jury of eminent artists and critics, are announced today by General George W. Wingate, president of the Association and the director in charge of the contest. Colonel Wade H. Hayes, until recently State Commander of the American Legion. They are:—First prize, $1,200, charles B. Falls, of No. 2 East Twenty-third street; second prize, $800, Edward Penfield, of Pelham Manor; third prize, $500, Martin S. DeMuth, of No. 61 Vermilyea avenue [Manhattan].
...Martin S. DeMuth, winner of the third prize, is a student at Columbia College and a member of the Art Students’ League. He is a graduate of the California School of Fine Arts and saw overseas service as a lieutenant in the Eighth U.S. Infantry.....
The American Printer
October 5, 1920
DeMuth was not mentioned in the article.
Popular Mechanics
June 1921
DeMuth and his Victory Hall third prize were used in the Federal Schools ad
Photoplay
October 1921
U.S. Army Recruiting News
July 1, 1925
To Portray Service in Pictures
Sgt. Martin S. DeMuth, of Fort McDowell, California, recently arrived in Tientsin, according to the 15th Infantry Sentinel of May 15, to acquire local color for cartoons and publicity sketches for Army periodicals and recruiting posters to be issued upon his return to the United States. Sgt. DeMuth is a poster designer and advertising man by profession. In August, 1923, while in search of experience which might furnish ideas for a newspaper car toon series, he enlisted as a private in the Army, and while
September 1, 1925
Demuth Returns from the Orient
Sergeant Martin S. Demuth, Recruiting Service, recently arrived in San Francisco on the Army Transport Thomas, after a year’s travel in the Far East, where he made cartoon and poster sketches of the Army’s activities in the Orient.
Sergeant Demuth was a lieutenant during the World War, and after attending the California School of Fine Arts and the University of California, enlisted as a private, U.S. Army, in search of colorful experience which would furnish ideas for a newspaper cartoon series. He was stationed temporarily on several vessels of the Asiatic Squadron and was with the U.S. Army in the Philippines and China and for a while with the Marines at Pekin.
November 1, 1925
A Hop Around Oahu
December 1, 1925
comics
“Alpha Test” Employed at Tank School
Sketchettes
1926
marriage of Martin and Flora Nash; see New York Post, December 2, 1931, article
New York Passenger List
Name: Martin Demuth
Arrival Date: 12 Apr 1927
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Location: Ohio
Birth Location Other: Cardington
Age: 31 Years 7 Months
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: New York, New York [December 2, 1926]
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Address in U.S.: 415 Lexington Avenue, Room 902, New York City
Ship Name: Empress of Scotland
New York Post
May 6, 1927
“Memograms” a New Medium
An innovation in ocean travel entertainment—and good will advertising— was introduced by two New York commercial artists, Martin and Flora Nash Demuth, on the world tour of the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Scotland, recently completed. Passengers received copies of about 200 sketches, drawn on shipboard from day to day over the period of four months world travel, and mimeographed by a special process devised by Mr. Demuth. The memograms, inspired by cruise activities on ship and shore, appeared as diary pages, post cards, maps, cartoon and educational sketches, to be preserved as a record or mailed to friends from foreign ports. Some of the memograms were conceived, drawn and reproduced within an hour. the stunt earned the couple’s honeymoon tour.
Canada Passenger List
Name: Martin De Muth
Arrival Date: 19 May 1928
Port of Arrival: Quebec, Canada
Ship Name: Empress Australia
Port of Departure: Southampton, England
Age: 32
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Place: Ohio
Birth Country: USA
Address in U.S.: 50 West 67 Street, New York City
Gender: Male
New York Passenger Lists
Name: Martin Demuth
Arrival Date: 21 Jan 1928
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Location: Ohio
Birth Location Other: Cardington
Age: 32 Years 9 Months
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: Southampton, England [January 7, 1928]
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Empress of France
Address in U.S.: 50 West 67 Street, New York City
Canada Passenger List
Name: Martin Demuth
Arrival Date: 4 May 1929
Port of Arrival: Quebec, Canada
Ship Name: Empress Scotland
Port of Departure: Southampton, England
Age: 34
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Place: Ohio
Birth Country: USA
Gender: Male
Address in U.S.: 50 West 67 Street, New York City
New York Passenger Lists
Name: Martin S Demuth
Arrival Date: 27 Nov 1929
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Location: Ohio
Birth Location Other: Cardington
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: Quebec, Quebec [November 23, 1929]
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Empress of Australia
Address in U.S.: c/o Canadian Pacific Cruises, New York
California Passenger List
Name: Martin S Demuth
Arrival Date: 30 Mar 1930
Age: 34
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birthplace: Cardington, Ohio, United States
Gender: Male
Ship Name: Empress Of Australia
Port of Arrival: San Francisco
Port of Departure: New York, New York [December 2, 1929]
Address in U.S.: c/o Canadian Pacific, New York
1930 photograph
photograph of Martin and Flora at Ancestry.com, a subscription site.
Canada Passenger List
Name: Martin Demuth
Arrival Date: 25 Apr 1931
Port of Arrival: Quebec, Canada
Ship Name: Empress France
Port of Departure: Southampton, England
Age: 35
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1895
Birth Place: Ohio
Birth Country: USA
Gender: Male
Address in U.S.: South Kent, Connecticut or C.P.R. [Canadian Pacific Railroad], New York, New York
The Fredonia Censor
(New York)
June 12, 1931
Memograms, Exclusive Canadian Pacific Feature,
Made Daily by Cruise Artist, Give Choice Information
New York Post
December 2, 1931
Unique Honeymoon Lands Couple Steady Job
Seagoing Artists, Seeking Honeymoon, Found Unique Career
Martin and Flora DeMuth Sketch Their Way Around the World
Lead a Double Life as Sailors, Farmers
Empress of Britain of Takes Them on Third World Cruise Tomorrow
By Ruth Seinfel
When the Empress of Britain sails tomorrow to Madeira and points east, not to return until she has made a circuits of the world, she will have on board a pair of clever young persons who have made an unusual job for themselves in these times when jobs are hard to find.
They are Martin and Flora DeMuth, “Mr. and Mrs.” to the passengers, who will find their days at sea and their visits to glamourous ports recorded for them in pictures by these two young artists. For the DeMuths are a seagoing art gallery whose sketches, bound in book form, are lugged out by many a traveler who has made a world cruise on the Canadian Pacific Line and wants to tell about it, to the great relief of friends who expected to have to admire the snapshots of an amateur photographer.
Mr. and Mrs. DeMuth were cudgelling their brains for ways to spend an inexpensive honeymoon, five years ago, when they hit upon the idea which has determined their unique careers for them. They had learned their craft at the Art Students’ League at the same time, but it was not until some time later, after Martin had sailed around the world with the Navy and Flora had established herself as an illustrator in New York, they met and promptly married.
The Honeymoon Problem
The problem then arose, what to do about a honeymoon? Artists are notoriously helpless in money matters, but these two were an exception. If they hadn’t money enough for a honeymoon, they had wits, and they set about using them.
On his trip with the Navy, in the service of the War Department, Mr. DeMuth had not only made the required pictorial records of naval stations in the Orient, but had hit upon the idea of amusing the crews with informal sketches of things they saw and things that happened to them. Now he and his wife developed this idea, and when they were ready to present it they took it to the Canadian Pacific office, and then went hone and waited.
Nobody has ever counted up, but if all the schemes presented to steamship companies by people who want a free trip were collected, they would probably make a set of volumes about the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a good deal more fun to read. Nevertheless, an official of the line came all the way down from Montreal to talk with the DeMuths, and when he went away again their honeymoon was assured. What is more, it was to be nothing less than a world cruise.
Nor were they getting anything for nothing (the line is run almost entirely by Scotchmen). Their idea has been so successful that they are now supplying all the cruises on the line with the product of their talented pencils, and the Empress of Australia leaves New York Harbor for the West Indies today with two tons of printed matter in her hold—or wherever such supplies are kept—enough to last her for three West Indies cruises and one Mediterranean voyage.
Inventing Printing Process
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