Winifred E. Lefferts | |
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Winifred Lefferts Arms, philanthropist
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Born |
Winifred Earl Lefferts October 9, 1903 Newtonville, Massachusetts |
Died | November 16, 1995 Blandford, Massachusetts |
(aged 92)
Education |
Pratt Institute Art School National Academy of Design Tiffany Foundation |
Known for | Painting, design, philanthropy |
Winifred Earl Lefferts (October 9, 1903, Newtonville, Massachusetts – November 1995, Blandford, Massachusetts), also known as Winifred Lefferts Arms, was a painter, designer and philanthropist. A member of the Lefferts family, early settlers of Brooklyn, she studied and exhibited art, and designed for New York book publishers prior to her 1937 marriage to Carleton Macy. Following her marriage to Robert A. Arms in 1952 she painted as Winifred L. Arms. After the death of her second husband she became known for philanthropy and for founding a private residential treatment center in Carmel, New York, named Arms Acres.
The daughter of Oscar Leffert Lefferts and Winifred Wood, Winifred Earl Lefferts was born into a socially prominent family. Her mother was descended from Francis Fauquier, Colonial lieutenant governor of Virginia, and Major Nathan Peters of Connecticut, aide to General George Washington. Through her father Lefferts was descended from Oliver Wolcott, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; Matthew Griswold, governor of Connecticut; and Pieter Lefferts, an early Dutch settler of Brooklyn.
Winifred Lefferts studied at the Pratt Institute Art School and the National Academy of Design in New York. She won a fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in 1925, and received prizes from the National Arts Club in 1931, 1933 and 1936. She held membership in the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the New York Watercolor Club, the American Watercolor Society and the Allied Artists of America.