James Otis Curtis (November 1, 1804 – March 3, 1890) was an American shipbuilder who built ships in Medford, Massachusetts (up the Mystic River from Boston).

Each ship was built from fifteen or more species of wood carefully pieced together where the special properties of each would do the most good.

Just 4 years earlier Curtis had retired from shipbuilding after the launching of the last ship that he built in 1869, but he was still very much involved in his local community.

In 1877 he donated to Medford its only school-bell (in the tower of the Curtis school that had been built in 1877 and named after him), that formerly did service in his shipyard where it rang at the opening and closing hours of daily labor.

Curtis died on Monday March 3, 1890, in the house which he built at the corner of Main and Royall Streets at Medford leaving a widow, his second wife, whom he had married in 1859.