Marriage as a Chicago debutante into the Marshall Field department store dynasty, affluent widowhood at a young age, European grand tours, "summer cottage" life on the Maine coast, marriage to novelist Thomas Nelson Page, membership in Washington social and political circles, service as the wife of the ambassador to Italy at the time of World War I - Florence Lathrop Page (1858-1921) was an active figure in many worlds throughout her life.

Her life story provides an opportunity for exploring larger historical questions of class, gender, and social milieu. It contributes to our knowledge of the influence of women in a social order which celebrated the achievements of men. Although she was self-effacing and "a paradigm of good manners" (virtues much admired by her second husband, Thomas Nelson Page), premature widowhood and economic emancipation brought out the decisive, capable, and independent aspects of her personality.

Economic independence allowed her to evade the constrictions of her gender and class without overtly challenging them.

Florence Lathrop Page established and funded visiting public health nurse programs in the communities in which she lived. She contributed to numerous charitable, artistic, and educational programs and organized a major relief program for the victims of Italy's devastating earthquake in 1915. Most importantly, she was a leader in providing succor to Italy's civilian and military casualties during the catastrophic war of 1915-18, yet she neither sought nor received public recognition for her generosity.

Her letters provide an almost continuous account of her daily life in wartime Italy and reflect the strain of separation from family and friends. From her unique vantage point in Rome, she perceived almost immediately that World War I would be a turning point in world history and in the social order in which she had been raised and whose values and traditions she cherished.