May Hicks Curtis Hill Collection

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Volume:

189 photographs, primarily black-and-white photographs, but also 13 color photographs, picture post cards, a daguerreotype, a tintype, and 280 negatives, most without corresponding prints

Views include:

Flagstaff businesses and residences; Northern Arizona Normal School; Federated Church; Arizona Lumber and Timber Company

Portrait(s):

May Hicks; May Hicks family; William Henry Pierce; Daggs home; Federated Church members (ca. 1900-1960)

Biographic Note:

May Hicks Curtis Hill was born in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1888 and lived most of her life there. May's father was Judge John C. Hicks (1827-1910). Her family operated the Hick's Rooming House at 7 West Phoenix Avenue. May attended Northern Arizona Normal School and was a member of the 5th graduating class in 1905. She received a Bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, San Diego in 1909.

Returning to Flagstaff, she married Frank Curtis (1885-1918) in 1913. Sgt. 1, Arizona National Guard infantry, Curtis served with General Pershing on the border of Mexico during the Pershing Expedition. He died in 1918 of influenza in Portland, Orego n where he had been working in the shipyards.

May married John C. Hill in 1927. Mr. Hill died in 1968. She died on June 27, 1970.

Mrs. Hill spent much of her time involved with Sunday School, especially with young children and babies, at the Federated Community Church. She took pleasure in hiking and camping with husband Frank Curtis. Little is known of May in her later years.

Cline Library
Special Collections and Archives Department
Northern Arizona University