Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis

Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis
C. H. K. Curtis circa 1913
Born	June 18, 1850(1850-06-18) Portland, Maine, U.S.
Died	June 7, 1933 (aged 82) Wyncote, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Publisher
Spouse(s)	1. Louisa Knapp 2. Kate Stanwood Cutter Pillsbury
Children	Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist

Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (June 18, 1850 – June 7, 1933)^[1] was an American publisher.

Biography

Born in Portland, Maine, he was forced to leave high school after his first year when his family lost their home in the Great Fire of Portland in 1866. He held a variety of newspaper and advertising jobs in Portland and Boston before establishing his first publication, weekly titled People's Ledger in Boston in 1872. In 1876, he relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in pursuit of lower printing costs.^[1][2]

His first wife was Louisa Knapp. In 1883 she contributed a one-page supplement to the Tribune and Farmer, a magazine that was published by Curtis. The supplement became an independent publication the following year, with Louisa as the editor of this new magazine. Its original name was The Ladies Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper, but she dropped the last three words in 1886,^[3] and it became the Ladies Home Journal. It rapidly became the leading magazine of its type, reaching a circulation of more than one million copies within ten years. Louisa Knapp remained as its editor until she was succeeded by Edward William Bok in 1889. Bok became the son-in-law of Louisa and Cyrus Curtis several years later when he married their daughter, Mary Louise, in 1896. Bok retired from the magazine in 1919, but he made important changes to the magazine that made it even more popular.

Curtis founded the Curtis Publishing Company in 1891; it published the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as several other magazines. A separate company founded by Curtis, Curtis-Martin Newspapers, Inc., controlled several newspapers, including for a time the major newspapers the Public Ledger, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Evening Post. Problems with managers at the newspapers led to poor financial returns from the publications, and eventually, the newspapers were sold.

During his lifetime, Curtis' businesses were extremely successful. The Ladies Home Journal was for decades the most widely circulating women's magazine in the US and the Post had biggest circulation of any weekly magazine in the world. In 1929, the Post and the Journal together carried 40 percent of all US magazine advertising.^[1] One source lists Curtis as the 51st richest person ever, with a fortune of $43.2 billion (adjusted for inflation to 2008 dollars), which according to this source made him richer than either Paul Allen or J. P. Morgan. ^[4] Curtis built a Renaissance revival style estate with landscaping designed by Frederick Law Olmstead in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

Cyrus Curtis also was known for his philanthropy to hospitals, museums, universities, and schools. He donated $2 million to the Franklin Institute, $1.25 million to the Drexel Institute of Technology for the construction of Curtis Hall, and $1 million to the University of Pennsylvania. ^[1] He obtained a pipe organ manufactured by the Austin Organ Company, which had been displayed at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 and donated it to the University of Pennsylvania. It was built into Irvine Auditorium when the building was constructed, and is known to this day as the Curtis Organ. It is one of the largest pipe organs in the world.^[5] Curtis donated pipe organs to many institutions in Philadelphia and the biography retained in the library of his burial location notes that on the day of his funeral, all of those organs were played to honor him.

Mary Louise Curtis Bok founded the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and dedicated it to her father in 1924.

Lyndon ^[6], the Curtis residence in Wyncote, PA

In the summer of 1932, Curtis suffered a heart attack while aboard his yacht, the Lyndonia. While he was recuperating at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, his second wife, Kate Stanwood Cutter Pillsbury, died suddenly. He remained in frail health until he died on June 7, 1933, less than two weeks before his eighty-third birthday, and he was interred in West Laurel Hill Cemetery at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.^[7]

Soon after his death, most of the buildings on Curtis' estate were demolished and his daughter founded the Curtis Hall Arboretum on the site. In the former headquarters of the Curtis Publishing Company, she founded a commercial center, the Curtis Center, which now houses a conference center, offices, a health club, shops, and restaurants.

Cyrus Curtis was among the initial ten inductees in the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame. ^[8]

Philadelphia portal

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis

• A biography of Curtis
• Biography on West Laurel Hill Cemetery web site
• Curtis' page at the Advertising Hall of Fame

References