Gertrude Watson Goodridge

Tintype of Gertrude A. Watson Goodridge (1861 - 1948), wife of famed black photographer, William O. Goodridge. The couple had three children. She's buried in the Goodridge Cemetery plot in Forest Lawn.

She became a widow at the young age of twenty-eight when her husband died in an accident leaving her with three young children; their daughter was born after his death.

The Goodridge Brothers included Glenalvin (1829-1867), Wallace (1840-1922), and William (1846-1890), were among the first African American photographers to operate professionally in the nation. Begun by eldest brother Glenalvin Goodridge in York, Pennsylvania in 1847 and continued by his younger brothers, Wallace and William in Saginaw, Michigan between 1864 and 1922. Businesses were difficult to start and maintain in nineteenth century Michigan, especially if you were black. No matter the barriers, William and Wallace Goodridge thrived under the pressure and created the state’s first minority owned photography business.

The Goodridge Brothers Photography Studio was internationally renowned for its progressive use of photographic technologies, the variety of its subjects, and the skillful implementation of photographic techniques.

John V. Jezierski, "Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers," African American Photographers 1847-1922