Martin earned her bachelor's degree at Bryn Mawr College in 1894 majoring in mathematics and Latin. She continued her graduate studies at Bryn Mawr under the supervision of Charlotte Scott.[3] In 1897-1898 she used a Mary E. Garrett Fellowship from Bryn Mawr to study at the University of Göttingen.[3] In Göttingen, Martin and Virginia Ragsdale attended lectures by Felix Klein and David Hilbert.[4] Although her name and dissertation title were printed in the 1899 commencement program, her Ph.D. wasn't granted until 1901 when her dissertation was published.[4]
In 1903 she became an instructor at Mount Holyoke College. She was later promoted to associate professor and then professor. Although she had earned a doctorate, it did not hasten her promotion to professor. She spent eight years as an instructor and fifteen as an associate professor. This was common for women of her time, who were often unable to pass the associate professorship. Martin's research focused on primitive substitution groups of degree 15 and primitive substitution groups of degree 18. In 1904 she published the index to the first ten volumes of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.[2]
