Curtis Family
Biography
Daniel Sargent Curtis was born in Boston in 1825. He graduated from Harvard University in 1846, and from Harvard Law School in 1848. In 1849, he was admitted to the Suffolk county bar. After serving on the board of directors of the Old National Bank and as an agent for the merchant banking firm of Brown, Shipley and Company, Curtis became a trustee of the Boston Public Library in 1873, a position he held until 1875. In 1881, Curtis moved his family to Venice, Italy where he first rented and then bought the Palazzo Barbaro. Daniel and Ariana Curtis restored the Palazzo and hosted many artists, musicians, and writers there. Guests included Henry James, a close friend of Ariana Curtis, Isabella Stewart Gardner, John Singer Sargent, a relation of Daniel's, and Robert Browning. The family was also the subject of Sargent's painting "An Interior in Venice." Curtis died in Venice in 1908 at the age of 83.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Curtis Family papers
Contains Curtis family correspondence from Paris during the Siege of 1870-1871, as well as letters to Daniel and Ariana Curtis from Henry James, Lady Ritchie, Henry Adams, Claude Monet, Mrs. Fannie Browning and John Singer Sargent. 2 manuscript poems of John Addington Symonds are also included.