Mina Curtiss Collection

Collection

Call Number: MS 1206

Scope and Contents

The original accession consists of original and typed copies of letters sent home by American servicemen from various training camps in the United States and from overseas campaigns during World War II, many of which Mina Curtiss used for her 1944 book, Letters Home. The addition consists of Henry T. Curtiss papers and photographs. There are a diary and book relating to Curtiss's 1910 trip to Europe on the S.S. Arabic, which included stops in the British Isles, Holland, Germany, Venice, Scutari and Dalmatia; a volume of letters and photographs sent by members of the Scroll and Key Society to one another from 1920-1923, with reminiscences about Curtiss after his death in 1928; and eight large photographs of Curtiss alone and with friends, circa 1910.

Dates

1910-1945

Creator

Curtiss, Mina Kirstein, 1896-1985 (Collector)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by Mina Curtiss has been transferred to Yale University. These materials may be used for non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from Yale University as the copyright holder. For other uses of these materials, please contact mssa.assist@yale.edu.

Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Mina Curtiss. Gift of Lincoln Kirstein and the Estate of George Kirstein, 1986.

Arrangement

The papers are arranged by accession.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1206

Additional Description

Overview

Biographical / Historical

Mina Kirstein Curtiss was born on October 13, 1896, in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Smith College in 1918, received a M.A. in English from Columbia University in 1920, and returned to Smith, where she was an associate professor until 1934. She was a research assistant for the Mercury Theater from 1935 to 1938, and she worked for the Office of War Information during World War II. She taught at Smith from 1940 to 1941. In 1942, Curtiss wrote and produced a local radio program in Des Moines, Iowa, in which she featured Iowa soldiers' letters home, and interviews with their families. The response inspired her to expand the project and incorporate letters of servicemen from all over the country, and in 1944 she published an anthology of enlisted men's Letters Home. During the next decades, Curtiss spent much time in France, and later Russia. She was the author of many publications, and received the Legion of Honor from the French government for her books on Marcel Proust and Georges Bizet. She married Henry ("Harry") Tomlinson Curtiss on June 1, 1926. Curtiss died on November 1, 1985.