 Curtis was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Thomas Buckminster Curtis and Maria Osborne Sargent.His maternal grandfather was Daniel Sargent, close friend of American President, John Quincy Adams.The Sargent extended family, an old Bostonian family whose ancestors arrived in America on the "Mayflower", included artist John Singer Sargent, Henry Sargent, and Lucius Manlius Sargent.