Nelly Littlehale Murphy
American, 1867-1941
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Born in Stockton, California, Nelly Murphy was a painter of decorative floral still lifes and landscapes and an illustrator of children's literature. Murphy grew up in California, later settled in Lexington, Massachusetts and became active in the Boston area. She studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and with Joseph DeCamp and C. Howard Walker at the MFA School from 1885-87. In 1893 she married Herman Daniel Umbstaetter, an editor, publisher, and short story writer. After his death in 1913, she became the second wife of the painter Hermann Dudley Murphy, who had courted Nelly when they were students in Boston.