queerplaces - Carol Arms Mather

Queer Places:
Cimitero Nuovo di Viterbo, Strada Lazzaro, 1, Viterbo 01100, Italy

Carol Arms Mather (March 28, 1880 - April 20, 1968) was born on March 28, 1880, in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey, to Francis Jewett Mather, a prominent Connecticut attorney, and Caroline Augusta Graves. She was raised in a large family alongside siblings Frank Jewett Mather Jr., Henry Arms Mather, Sidney Graves Mather, Rufus Graves Mather, Herbert Rowe Mather, Margaret Graves Mather, and Eloise Graves Mather. Through her family lineage, she was a direct descendant of the Puritan minister Cotton Mather, known for his role in the Salem Witch Trials. Her brother, Frank Jewett Mather Jr., eventually became a distinguished professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.

Rather than remaining in the United States, Carol joined her family in living as a wealthy American expatriate in Europe during the early 20th century. Settling in Italy alongside her sister Margaret, Carol became an established figure within international aristocratic and artistic circles. During World War I, Carol and Margaret were actively involved in humanitarian relief efforts. Working alongside Italian-American artist and nurse Candida Colosimo, the Mather sisters used their substantial family wealth to personally finance the construction of housing for blinded and mutilated Italian veterans through the Comitato "Pro-Case" in Florence. Their philanthropic contributions operated alongside major relief organizations of the era, including the YMCA and the Permanent Blind Fund of America.

In addition to her humanitarian work, Carol was engaged with the arts and supported struggling artists abroad. She took private art and painting lessons from Lillian Flannigan, an American painter from Baltimore who exhibited at the Salon des artistes français in Paris. When Flannigan lost her scholarship funding, Carol and the Mather family provided long-term financial backing, allowing Flannigan to paint full-time.

Carol spent the remainder of her life living abroad in Italy. She passed away on April 20, 1968, at the age of 88 in Viterbo, Lazio, Italy, outliving her father by nearly four decades and dying one year before her sister Margaret, who passed away in 1969. She was buried in the Cimitero Nuovo di Viterbo. Within expatriate social circles, her life intersected with bohemian, artistic, and LGBTQ-adjacent international communities in Europe during the early to mid-20th century, where independent unmarried women of independent means often formed close-knit domestic and creative networks.

References:

Ancestry.com: Family tree data, passport applications, passenger manifests, and census records documenting the Francis Jewett Mather family.
Find a Grave: Memorial record for Carol Arms Mather (1880–1968), Cimitero Nuovo di Viterbo, Viterbo, Italy.
Historical Periodicals & Relief Reports: Archives documenting World War I relief efforts in Italy, including publications covering the Comitato "Pro-Case" and the Florence rehabilitation efforts for disabled soldiers alongside the YMCA and the Permanent Blind Relief War Fund.
Art Exhibition Catalogues & Biographies: Records from the Salon des artistes français regarding Lillian Flannigan, as well as biographical profiles of Frank Jewett Mather Jr. detailing the Mather family lineage.
L'Araldo Italiano: Historical articles documenting the philanthropic work of Margaret Graves Mather and Carol Arms Mather supporting Candida Colosimo's wartime rehabilitation initiatives in Italy.

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