Arthur Astor Carey

Arthur Astor Carey (1857–1923) was an American author, philanthropist, and social reformer born in Rome to John Carey and Mary Alida Astor. He earned his A.B. from Harvard in 1879 and later became known in Boston-area cultural and charitable circles for supporting education, civic improvement, and the Arts and Crafts movement.

Carey wrote New Nerves for Old (1914), The Scout Law in Practice (1915), and Boy Scouts at Sea (published in the late 1910s and later editions). His work was closely tied to his interest in character-building and youth development, and contemporary records connect him with early Sea Scouting and Boy Scout activity in Massachusetts.

Beyond his writing, he was remembered for wide-ranging philanthropy in Waltham and greater Boston. Archival and historical sources describe his support for reading rooms, schools, moral reform efforts, and the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, where he served as president in 1899. The surviving record is patchy, but it consistently shows a man who tried to turn privilege into public-minded work.