Nelly Littlehale Umbstaetter Murphy was born in Stockton, California. Early in her career, she painted whimsical illustrations for children's literature. In Boston, she studied under Joseph DeCamp and C. Howard Walker. After the death of her first husband, Herman Daniel Umbstaetter, in 1913, she remarried painter Hermann Dudley Murphy in 1916. She is known for her meticulously crafted flower still lifes and delicate landscapes inspired by her travels to Puerto Rico, Mexico, England, and California. Nelly won the Purchase prize for watercolor at the Boston Art Club in 1929.