Sarah Elizabeth Marston ( Holloway; February 20, 1893 – March 27, 1993) was an American attorney and psychologist. She is credited, with her husband

William Moulton Marston William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947), also known by the pen name Charles Moulton (), was an American psychologist who, with his wife Elizabeth Holloway, invented an early prototype of the lie detector. He was also known as a se ...

, with the development of the systolic

blood pressure measurement Arterial blood pressure is most commonly measured via a sphygmomanometer, which historically used the height of a column of mercury to reflect the circulating pressure. Blood pressure values are generally reported in millimetres of mercury (m ...

used to detect deception; the predecessor to the

polygraph A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked ...

.Lamb, Marguerite.
Who Was Wonder Woman? Long-Ago LAW Alumna Elizabeth Marston Was the Muse Who Gave Us a Superheroine
, ''Boston University Alumni Magazine'', Fall 2001.Comm. to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, Nat'l Research Council. ''The Polygraph and Lie Detection'' (2003). She is also credited as the inspiration for her husband's comic book creation

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

, a character fashioned on their polyamorous

life partner The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...

, Olive Byrne."Alumni Spotlight: Elizabeth Holloway Marston (LAW '18)"
/ref>Malcolm, Andrew H

''The New York Times'', February 18, 1992.

Early life

Marston was born Sarah Elizabeth Holloway on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

, to William George Washington Holloway (died February 13, 1961), an American bank clerk, and his English wife, Daisy ( De Gaunza; died July 19, 1945), who had married in England in 1892. After her family moved to the United States, Sarah was raised in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. Her nickname was "Sadie". She eventually discarded her forename in favor of her middle name, Elizabeth, by which she would become known.

Career and family

Elizabeth received her BA in psychology from Mount Holyoke College in 1915 and her LLB from the Boston University School of Law in 1918,Green, Hope
"Panel Recognizes Astral Advances of Women in Law"
''B.U. Bridge'', vol 5, #31, April 19, 2002. one of just three female graduates of the School of Law that year. Elizabeth married

in 1915. She first gave birth at age 35, then returned to work. During her long and productive career, she indexed the documents of the first fourteen Congresses, lectured on law, ethics and psychology at several American universities, and served as an editor for ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

'' and ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...

''. She cowrote a textbook, ''Integrative Psychology'', with her husband and C. Daly King. In 1933, she became the assistant to the chief executive at

Metropolitan Life Insurance MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

. Sometime in the late 1920s, Olive Byrne, a young woman William had met while teaching at Tufts University, joined the household. Elizabeth Marston had two children, Peter and Olive Ann, while Olive Byrne also gave birth to two of William's children, Byrne and Donn. The Marstons legally adopted Olive's boys, and Olive remained a part of the family, even after William's death in 1947. Olive stayed home with the children while Marston worked. Continuing at MetLife until she was sixty-five, Elizabeth sponsored all four children through college — and Byrne through medical school and Donn through law school as well. She and Olive continued living together until Olive's death in 1990. Both Olive and Marston "embodied the feminism of the day."

Systolic blood-pressure test

Marston enrolled in the master's degree program at Radcliffe College of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

while her husband William attended the doctoral program in psychology at Harvard, which at that time enrolled only male students. She worked with William on his thesis, which concerned the correlation between blood pressure levels and deception. He later developed this into the systolic blood-pressure test used to detect deception that was the predecessor to the polygraph test. In 1921, Marston received her MA from Radcliffe and William received his PhD from Harvard. Although Marston is not listed as William's collaborator in his early work, a number of writers refer directly and indirectly to Elizabeth's work on her husband's blood pressure/deception research. She appears in a picture taken in his polygraph laboratory in the 1920s, reproduced in a 1938 publication by William.Marston, William Moulton. ''The Lie Detector Test'' (1938).

Wonder Woman

A 1992 "Our Towns" feature of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' discussed Marston's involvement in the creation of

(although no source is cited in the article for the declaration “this super-hero had better be a woman” that was attributed to Holloway): Her 1993 obituary also stated that she contributed to the development of Wonder Woman,"Elizabeth H. Marston, Inspiration for Wonder Woman, 100"
''The New York Times'', April 3, 1993. while Lillian S. Robinson argued that both Olive Byrne and Elizabeth were models for the character.Glenn, Joshua
"Wonder-working power"
''Boston.com'', April 14, 2004.Pollitt, Katha
"Wonder Woman's Kinky Feminist Roots"
''Atlantic Monthly'', October 14, 2014.

Death

Marston died on March 27, 1993, one month after her 100th birthday.

In film

Marston's life is depicted in ''

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women ''Professor Marston and the Wonder Women'' is a 2017 American biographical drama film about American psychologist William Moulton Marston, who created the fictional character Wonder Woman. The film, directed and written by Angela Robinson, star ...

'', a 2017 fictional biographical drama that also portrays her husband William, Olive Byrne, and the creation of Wonder Woman.Wonder Woman creator biopic gets mysterious first teaser
/ref> Marston is portrayed in the film by British actress

Rebecca Hall Rebecca Maria Hall (born 3 May 1982) is an English actress and filmmaker. She made her first onscreen appearance at age 10 in the 1992 television adaptation of '' The Camomile Lawn'', directed by her father, Sir Peter Hall. Her professional s ...

Asteroid

Asteroid 101813 Elizabethmarston was named in her memory. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on September 25, 2018 () along with the naming of Asteroid 102234 Olivebyrne.

Works

* ''Integrative Psychology: A Study of Unit Response'' by William Moulton Marston, C. Daly King, and Elizabeth Holloway Marston, 1931. * ''"Chalk Marks on the Gate"'', by Elizabeth Holloway; illus. Adolf Treidler; ''Woman's Home Companion'', 1924, January; pp 14–15, 96. * ''"Gift-Horse"'', by Elizabeth Holloway; illus. George Wright; ''Woman's Home Companion'', 1922, July; pp 22–23, 92–93.

References

External links

*
My Grandmother Was the Real-Life Wonder Woman (Guest Column)
" ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'', June 2, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marston, Elizabeth Holloway 20th-century American psychologists American women psychologists Feminist psychologists 20th-century American women writers Female comics writers Golden Age comics creators American centenarians American feminists Women inventors Lecturers Manx centenarians Boston University School of Law alumni Mount Holyoke College alumni Radcliffe College alumni Manx emigrants to the United States Writers from Boston Wonder Woman 1893 births 1993 deaths LGBT people from Connecticut Bisexual women Bisexual scientists American people of English descent Women centenarians LGBT scientists from the United States American LGBT writers Writers from Connecticut Polyamorous people