Martinez - "Father" of the Martini
Taken mostly from http://thejerrythomasproject.blogspot.com/, article called "The Martinez? ...what Jerry Thomas said it was."

The Marinez is the link between the Manhattan and the present-day dry martini.

A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. The cocktail is often stirred and strained into a cocktail glass, where it is garnished with a Maraschino cherry with a stem. This is one of the first drinks to popularize the use of vermouth in cocktails. It's thought that until this point, vermouth was primarily consumed on its own as a medicinal tonic or as an after-meal digestif (the latter use is still common in some European cultures today). It was around this time that New York City bars started having Italian vermouths on hand, and some experimentation with whiskey and bitters led to this classic; one of the most perfectly balanced cocktails ever made.

The Martinez, based on the Manhattan, substituted Old Tom gin, a sweeter, aged gin prevalent in the 1800s, for whisky. A shift in bartender preference from sweet to dry vermouth allowed for the creation of the martini some 10 years later.

The Martinez recipe is old. The Martinez first appears, says David Wondrich, in O.H. Byron's 1884 Modern Bartender's Guide, though without any mention of its origins. Also, the name remains a mystery.

His Manhattan recipe is: 1 pony French vermouth, 1/2 pony whiskey, 3 or 4 dashes of Agnostury bitters, 3 dashes gum syrup.

Byron gives the following direction for mixing a Martinez: "Same as a Manhattan, only you substitute gin for whisky."

In Professor Jerry Thomas' 1887 The Bon Vivant's Companion: Or How to Mix Drinks we find it in print 3 years later. These are the earliest known references to the Martinez recipes in print that have been uncovered up to this day.

Jerry Thomas' 'Bartender's Guide, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks' (1887)

Manhattan Cocktail.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 2 dashes of Curacoa or Maraschino.
1 pony of rye whiskey.
1 wine-glass of vermouth.
3 dashes of Boker's bitters.
2 small lumps of ice.

Shake up well, and strain into a claret glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon in the glass and serve. If the customer prefers it very sweet use also two dashes of gum syrup.

Martinez Cocktail.

(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 1 dash of Boker's bitters.
2 dashes of Maraschino.
1 pony of Old Tom gin.
1 wine-glass of Vermouth. (sweet Italian vermouth)
2 small lumps of ice.

Shake up thoroughly, and strain into a large cocktail glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon in the glass, and serve. If the guest prefers it very sweet, add two dashes of gum syrup.

The Martinez would largely remain unchanged in print until some thirty-eight years later, when Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them replaced the original sweet vermouth with dry vermouth.

Our first clear references to a Martini in print comes courtesy of Harry Johnson's New & Improved Bartender's Manual (1888). There is no Martinez recipe to be found in Johnson's tome.

Martini Cocktal
(Use a large bar glass.)

Fill the glass up with ice;
2 or 3 dashes of Gum Syrup (be careful in not using too much);
2 or 3 dashes of bitters (Boker's genuine only);
1 dash of curaçao or absinthe, if required;
1/2 wine glassful of Old Tom Gin;
1/2 wine glassful of Vermouth.
Stir up well with a spoon, strain it into a fancy cocktail glass, put in a cherry or a medium-sized olive, if required; and squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

After Harry Johnson, the next known Martini reference is brought to us by Henry J.Wehmann in his Wehmann's Bartenders Guide (1891);

Martini Cocktail

(Use large bar glass)
Fill the glass with ice
2 or 3 dashes Gum Syrup
2 or 3 dashes Bitters
1 dash of Curaçao
1/2 wine glassful of Old Tom Gin
1/2 wine glassful of vermouth

Stir well with a spoon, strain into cocktail glass, squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve

These Martini recipes are identical to the Martinez from Byron and Thomas, with the sole change relating to the gin and vermouth ratio, now equal parts as opposed to two parts vermouth to one part gin. And up to this point in time, the vermouth used was sweet vermouth.

In the 1930s, Esquire was recommending Italian vermouth for a medium martini (three parts vermouth to one part gin) and equal part French and Italian vermouth for a semidry martini (same ratio vermouth and gin).

From this it would be fair to conclude that the Martini was originally a drink calling for sweet vermouth, and equal parts gin. Would that ratio change be enough to warrant a new name? In short yes as there are numerous examples of this, but what if we had another consideration. Let's say a company called Martini that produced an ingredient found within the drink... Martini & Rossi Vermouth.

The Martini & Rossi company began exporting their sweet vermouth to New York around 1867 and quickly grew to be a market leader, sending more vermouth to the United States than any other company. This tells us that Martini & Rossi had been doing business in the US twenty-one years prior to the first mention of the Martini in 1888. With Martini's dry vermouth not making an appearance stateside until it was launched on New Year's day 1900 (after originally launching in 1890 in selected worldwide countries) and the Martini having showed up in print twelve years earlier (1888), I think the previous conclusion that the Martini started life as a sweet drink holds a lot of weight. I would also guess that the Dry Martini was likely created sometime in the early 1890s when you factor in the release date of Martini Dry Vermouth and the timeline of the original Martini as above. The Dry Martini is a branded variant of a branded cocktail if you must.

Up to 1894 there had been no mention of a Dry Martini, or of a Martini specifying French (dry) vermouth which it would most likely have to, though there is every possibility that the Dry Martini did appear between 1888-1894. Martini & Rossi began placing various newspaper advertisements detailing the Dry Martini Cocktail toward the end of the nineteenth century and at the start of the twentieth ("It's not a Martini unless you use Martini"), with the first printed recipe making an appearance in 1903/4.

The Dry Martini

In the 1890s there was a shift from sweet and/or sugary drinks to their drier counterparts, most notably recognised in the switch from Old Tom gin to London Dry. Olives also start making a regular appearance in this decade, and the obligatory dashes of curaçao and maraschino, often called for in Jerry Thomas' Fancy or Improved cocktails, would also be seen less and less with many drinks being simplified to a degree. It's apparent there's an increase in 2-3 ingredient cocktails versus those containing 5-6 which seemed all too common in the decade or so previously.

This dumbing down is recognised in the first recorded mention of a Dry Martini which appeared in Frank P. Newman's American Bar: Recettes des Boissons Anglaises et Américaines (1904);

Dry Martini Cocktail

Written in French this roughly translates to;

Glass no. 5
Take the glass mixture No. 1, put a few pieces of ice:
3 dashes Angostura (or orange bitters)
Finish with gin and dry vermouth, quantities equal, stir, strain into the glass no. 5, serve with a twist of lemon, a cherry or an olive, to the taste of the consumer.

In the same book a recipe can also be found for a Martini which reads;

Take the glass mixture No. 1, put a few pieces of ice:
3 dashes Angostura (or orange bitters)
Finish with gin and Turin vermouth, quantities equal, stir, strain into the glass no. 5, server with a twist of lemon, a cherry or an olive, to the taste of the consumer.

The Turin vermouth being called for in this Martini would obviously be sweet vermouth, but most importantly it had now been joined by a sibling which utilised dry.

For the most part, in the years following the 1903 and 1904 references the Dry Martini would remain as equal parts gin and vermouth (as first called for in its original guise in 1888) in a selection of notable books such as Jack's Manual (1908), the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) and the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book (1937).

There we have a simplified explanation of the evolution of the Manhattan, to the Martinez, to the Martini, and finally to the Dry Martini. The relation between the Martinez and the Martini takes further interest when it is noted that few, if any, books reference a recipe for each. If they were so different, why does no book list both? The increase of Martinez recipes calling for Dry Vermouth also correlates with a time where the preference was away from sweeter recipes. It also intrigues me that many Martinez recipes call for French vermouth, as if separating itself from the Martini which was by now largely associated with the Italian brand.

We see a decrease in the usage of vermouth, which is understandable given factors such as Prohibition in the United States and that both vermouth producing nations, France and Italy, were involved in the World Wars around this same period with production of their bottlings being affected.