Margaret and Harriot Curtis
www.custissisters.org
 
 


Learning to play golf in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA when the Essex County Club opened in 1893, Harriot and Margaret Curtis won four National amateur golf championships, as well as numerous local and state titles. They were also the founders of the prestigious international competition named in their honor, the Curtis Cup Matches. Played every two years, the Curtis Cup pits the best women amateurs of the United States against their counterparts from Great Britian.

The Curtis sisters were featured in a special exhibit displayed on the grounds of the Essex County Club during the first week in June when the Club hosted the 2010 Curtis Cup Match. This exhibit, created by the Club's Historian and Curator of the Manchester Historical Society, John Huss, had special significance as the founders of the international competition, Harriot and Margaret Curtis, learned the game of golf on the Essex course and won several club championships there as well. 

The exhibit consisted of a series of six large photomural panels each standing 4 feet high and detailed not only the athletic prowess of Harriot and Margaret, but also offered a look at their childhood years at Sharksmouth and highlighted their lifetime of public service and philanthropy. Life-size photo blow-ups of the Curtis sisters in golfing poses were also displayed at the exhibit tent, near the scoreboards and at other venues on the Club grounds. Upon completion of the 2010 Curtis Cup Match, the exhibit was moved to the Manchester Historical Society where it remained on display throughout the summer.

This web site presents an internet version of the exhibit. Below are thumbnail sketches of the 6 panels.

Click on the navigation bar to the left to view the details of each panel.

 
         
   
 
         
     
         

         
     
         

         
     
         
 
         
     
 


  Exhibit designer John Huss (background) with Rock Beaudoin of White Light Visual, Beverly, MA, which produced the "Remarkable Curtis Sisters" display .

 

Interior of the Exhibit tent.


 

     
         
     
    Costumed as sisters Harriot and Margaret , Essex County Club members Sheila Hill and Joan Kulukundis greeted guests to the 2010 Curtis Cup Match and participated in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.    

Essex County Club Historian John Huss with a life-size replica of  Harriot Curtis outside the tent which housed the exhibit about “The Remarkable Curtis Sisters”. The exhibit was subsequently moved to the Manchester Historical Society where Huss is the Curator.

     
 

         
 

The Aunts, a biography of all five of the Curtis sisters was recently reprinted. Written. by their neice Isabella Halsted, this latest edition contains a number of never-before published family photographs and offers a nostalgic and entertaining look at a life style typical of the summer colony in Manchester during the early 20th century.

Available for purchase at Amazon.com.

 

 
         
         
         
   
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the Essex County Club for permission to use the exhibit created for the 2010 Curtis Cup Match by Club Historian and Manchester Historical Society Curator, John Huss. Thanks to the United States Golf Association for permission to use images from their archives. Thanks to the Shelving Rock Trust for permission to use images from their archives.
 

   
   

 

   
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Web site development by Arthur Saltzman