Frederic Courtland Penfield (April 23, 1855 – June 19, 1922) was an American diplomat who served in London, Cairo, and as U.S.

He received his early education at Russell's military school in New Haven, and later studied in England and Germany.

His wife died in 1905, and in 1907 he published the travelogue East of Suez: Ceylon, India, China and Japan describing his journeys through those countries.

During the period of United States neutrality (1914-1917) in World War I, he took care of the interests in Austria-Hungary of several of the belligerents.

[2] Penfield died on June 19, 1922, at his home on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan of "congestion of the brain".