Curtis, Lucile Atcherson, 1894-
Variant namesBiographical notes:
One of the first women in the U.S. Foreign Service, Curtis served in the Division of Latin American Affairs, 1922-1925, and at the American legations in Berne and Panama City.
From the description of Papers. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007558
Lucile Atcherson Curtis, daughter of Charlotte (Ray) and Frederick W. Atcherson, was born October 11, 1894, in Columbus, Ohio. She attended Miss Phelps' Collegiate School and the Columbus School for Girls and received her A.B. from Smith College in 1913.
From 1914 to 1917, she was Executive Secretary of the Franklin County [Ohio] Woman Suffrage Society. In September 1917, she went to France as a staff member of the American Fund for French Wounded. In 1918, she joined the staff of the American Committee for Devastated France, where she assisted in the Committee's efforts to provide basic health care and social services and to physically restore eleven villages in the Coucy-le-Château area of the Departement de l'Aisne. In 1919, she was transferred by the Committee to Paris to oversee the Paris office and all personnel. She resigned in 1921. For her work to help rebuild France, she was awarded the Médaille de la Reconnaissance Française in 1919.
In 1922, Curtis passed the examination for the U.S. Diplomatic Service. She was nominated by President Warren G. Harding for secretary of the Diplomatic Service and was confirmed by the Senate on December 5, 1922. From 1922 to 1924, she was assigned to the Division of Latin American Affairs in the Department of State in Washington, D.C., with site visits to Panama and Haiti. From 1925 to 1927, she served as Third Secretary of the Legation at Berne, Switzerland. In 1927, she was transferred as Third Secretary of the Legation in Panama. Curtis resigned from the Foreign Service on September 19, 1927, to marry.
Curtis married George Morris Curtis on January 16, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois. Curtis, the son of A.B. (Anson Bartie) and Mae Christie Curtis, was born April 2, 1890, in Big Rapids, Michigan. He received his B.A. and Ph.D in anatomy from the University of Michigan and his M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago. While an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago, he spent a two-year sabbatical in Berne, Switzerland, where he met Lucile Atcherson. Following their marriage, the Curtises settled in Chicago, where their daughters Charlotte Murray Curtis (1928-1987) and Mary (Curtis) Davey (born 1930) were born. In 1932, they moved to Columbus, where Dr. Curtis became Chairman of the Department of Research Surgery at Ohio State University.
Lucile Curtis was a board member of several civic institutions, including the Columbus Council on World Affairs, the Columbus Philharmonic, the Columbus Public Health Nursing Service, and the Franklin County Mental Health Association.
George Morris Curtis died December 23, 1965. Lucile Atcherson Curtis died May 9, 1986, in Columbus, Ohio.
There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see the Women in the Federal Government Oral History Project interviews (OH-40) and the papers of Curtis' daughter, Charlotte Curtis (MC 592) .
From the guide to the Papers of Lucile Atcherson Curtis, (inclusive), (bulk), 1863-1986, 1917-1927, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
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Subjects:
- Diplomatic and consular service
- Diplomats
- Women diplomats
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- United States (as recorded)
