Jeremiah Curtin (Collector)

Jeremiah Curtin was born on September 6, 1838 in Detroit, Michigan. Not to long after his birth his family relocated to Greenfield, Wisconsin. In terms of religion and ethnicity he was a Catholic Anglo-Irish. 

In 1859, Jermiah entered Harvard College and studied the following languages, Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, Italian, French and for a brief time Russian. He also studied languages independently and learned Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. He completed his studies in 1863 with a bachelors. 

After graduating from Harvard College in 1863 he moved to New York to start a career in law. However, during his time there he was able to accompany a couple of Russians on a ship. During this time, he continued to studied to the Russian language which later inspired him to leave law and move to the Russian capital in October of 1864. Here he took on a position as a clerk in the American Legation in St. Petersburg and few months later was the vice-counsel of the legation until October of 1869. 

Be left Russian was briefly a journalist in London. He returned to the U.S. in spring of 1871. During this period he got married to a women by the name of Alma Cardell. This newly married couple returned to Russia in 1873 and lived there until 1877, when his attempt to start a fortune in the timber business failed due to the war between Russia and Turkey.

They returned to the U.S. and temporarily settled in Wisconsin. During this time, he published several book related to myth and folktales in an array of cultures. In 1883 he accepted a position with the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. He worked for this organization for the next nine years. While working here he was able to study the many languages and mythology of American Indian groups and was able to become competent in nearly a dozen of Indian Languages. 

In 1887 he traveled to Ireland for the first time. The following year he traveled to Northern California where he studied the languages and prepared vocabularies of the Humboldt Indian Nation. A couple months later he went to Redding, California to work with the Wintu Indians and then the Hoopa Valley Indians in January of 1889. 

In 1894, he went to Rome and then Hebrides Island where he was able to study Gaelic folklore and later ended up back in Vermont. On October 3, 1895 he left Boston for an expedition to Mexico and Guatemala. However, this expedition had little success and he ended up calling it off and returning to the U.S. 

In May of 1897, him and his wife sailed to Europe. For nearly the last decade of his life traveled the world. During this time, he was able to meet many interesting people including an greatly admired write. During the end of his life fell ill and return to Vermont where Mrs. Curtin's sister resided. On December 14, 1906 he passed away and was buried in Bristol. 

-Myth and Folktales of Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars

-Creation Myths of Primitive America

-Seneca Indian Myths

-Myths and Folklore of Ireland

-Myths of the Modocs

-Hero-Tales of Ireland

-The Mongols A History

-A Journey in Southern Siberia

- Quo Vadis, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-Yanko the Magician and Other Stories, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-In Vain, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-The Knights of the Cross, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-The Argonauts, (Eliza Orzeszkowa)

-Children of the Soil, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-Hania, (Henryk Sienkiewicz)

-With Fire and Sword

Segel, H. (1965). Sienkiewicz's First Translator, Jeremiah Curtin. Slavic Review, 24(2), 189-214. doi:10.2307/2492325. 190-205