In this interesting presentation, Dr. Laura Gellott will present a program that deals with Helen Perry Curtis and her experiences in Europe. This adventure will be a virtual tour of Eastern Europe, in 1937, when Helen led a group of young women through Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia on the eve of the Second World War.

Helen Perry Curtis (1888-1980) was by turns a suffragist, museum administrator, YMCA volunteer in France during World War I, interior designer, free-lance writer and world traveler. In 1937 she published Jean & Company, Unlimited, the charming story of an American girl’s first encounter with Europe. That book fictionalized Helen’s travels through Europe with her daughters.

Dr. Laura Gellott is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where she taught European history for 30 years. She has traveled extensively in Europe, and lectures frequently on European history and contemporary affairs. Her book, Helen Perry Curtis and the European Trip of a Lifetime, from which today’s presentation is drawn, was an opportunity for Dr. Gellott to uncover the real-life story behind the book the first inspired her love of all things European.

Ms. Gellott is a retired UW-Parkside professor and lives in Racine.