James G. McCurdy was born in Port Townsend in 1872. His father, William McCurdy, came to the Northwest as a ship's carpenter and then worked as a master builder in Port Townsend. The McCurdys moved to Neah Bay when William was appointed Government Superintendent of Construction at the Makah Indian Reservation.

James G. McCurdy therefore spent several years of his childhood at Neah Bay, which he recalls in Indian Days at Neah Bay. The family left when James's mother Johanna became seriously ill (and later died). McCurdy did not return until many years later when he was a young man. At that time, he took photographs of Makah people, included several people whom he was close to as a child. In addition to Indian Days at Neah Bay, McCurdy also wrote By Juan de Fuca Strait, a history of the entrance to Puget Sound.

McCurdy went on to become the president of First National Bank in Port Townsend. Both his son Horace Winslow McCurdy and his grandson, also named James G. McCurdy, ran the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company.