Long before Martha Stewart built her empire as an author, TV personality, business mogul, and a close friend of Snoop Dogg, she was a woman on Wall Street trying to figure out how to pivot her career. The answer, of course, is obvious in retrospect: food.
Stewart began her career in New York City after graduating from Barnard College in 1962. By then, she was already married to Andrew Stewart, and modeling, mostly as a way to pay for her college tuition. But working as a stockbroker was a short-lived endeavor. The couple moved to Westport, Connecticut in 1971, and, in 1976, Stewart launched a catering company out of their basement. By 1982, her fame grew with the release of her first cookbook, Entertaining. Many more books—and magazines, and TV shows, and podcasts—followed, and while it wasn’t always a smooth ride for Stewart, she managed to weather every storm.
Stewart’s career has since spanned almost half a century. In that time, her name has become virtually synonymous with pop culture’s understanding of home. From the grounds of her 1805 farmhouse to the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, food has always been the through-line. Ahead, nine photos that capture a few of the many iconic moments of Martha Stewart’s life and career.
Best-dressed
In August, 1961, Stewart graced the pages of Glamour for its annual “10 best-dressed college girls” spread as the representative for Barnard. Asked of her dreams post-graduation, Stewart said, “I want a simple life: a house in the country.”
Herding geese
Photographed by the iconic Susan Wood at her home in Westport, Connecticut, Stewart was living out her dreams of living in the country by 1971.
In her yard
Stewart had likely begun the developing the ideas for her first cookbook, Entertaining, by 1980, when this photo was taken in her yard. She’s joined in the photo by one very adventurous Persian cat.
In her veggie garden
By 1976, Stewart’s vegetable garden was already overflowing at the seams just five years after moving to her iconic 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road. The home would later become the model for the TV set of her long-running show, Martha Stewart Living.
“I spent a great deal of time in the vegetable gardens, originally attempting to grow all that our family would need during the long growing season,” Stewart later said.
By her chicken coop
Stewart and her husband bought the farmhouse for $46,750 in 1971. The couple eventually purchased additional land surrounding the lot, while the home itself underwent two major renovations.
“We did lots of excavating and sculpting of the land after we added another two-acre parcel in 1975,” Stewart said. “We constructed a barn, a chicken coop, a garden shed, and a free-standing garage. Little by little, the farmland took on a more designed appearance.”
With her ex-husband, Andrew
Andrew and Martha married in July 1961, just one month before she was crowned one of Glamour‘s “10 best-dressed college girls.” She finished her degree in history and architectural history at Barnard one year later, in 1962. Twenty-six years after they first said “I do,” the couple separated in 1987. They finalized the divorce in 1990.
All dressed up
Obviously, Stewart knew how to have fun. For a wild west-themed party in 1995, Stewart grabbed her best cowboy hat and partied till the wee hours at Nick & Toni’s, a longstanding restaurant in East Hampton.
On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
Stewart returned to Wall Street on October 19, 1999 to celebrate her company’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange. In true Martha Stewart-fashion, she brought a tray of brioche with scrambled eggs to mark the occasion.
In her farmhouse kitchen
Stewart’s kitchen wasn’t professionally renovated until the late 1990s. Nevertheless, it remained at the center of her work as a caterer, cookbook author, and era-defining celebrity chef.
“Turkey Hill was a dream place for my family and me for many years,” Stewart wrote on her blog after selling the property in 2007. “It taught us, it nurtured us, it fed us, and it occupied us in so many wonderful and instructive ways. I would not be who I am today without the vast knowledge I gained there, on that small bit of paradise.”
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