Skip to main content

Lea Hoyt papers and design work

 Collection
Identifier: KA-0027-01

Summary

Lea Hoyt (1912-1998) received a degree in graphic design from the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (later, Parsons School of Design) in 1933, and went on to a six decade career as a graphic and textile designer. The collection includes biographical material, correspondence, design drawings, photographs, and examples of Hoyt's work, represented by napkins and paper plates, among other items.

Dates

  • 1933 - 1998

Creator

Extent

0.5 Cubic Feet (1 box, 10 folders)

Language of Materials

English

Scope and Contents of Collection

The Lea Hoyt papers include biographical materials, textile design drawings executed in a variety of media, photographs, printed materials, and samples of products created using Hoyt's designs.

Biographical materials include Hoyt's diploma from the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, copies of her school transcript, clippings about her, and correspondence regarding the Tiffany Foundation award. This series also includes a letter from Vera Neumann.

The design drawings are comprised of drawings in a variety of media. Although some depict flowers and animals, the majority feature geometric shapes, patterns, and abstractions. The drawings do not indicate how the design would eventually be used, nor are the items dated. The collection includes one example of Hoyt's student work, an advertising illustration for R. H. Macy's department store.

Photographs and slides depict artwork, women's apparel, and Hoyt displaying her work in a gallery and working on batik designs outdoors at her home in Florida. With the exception of a black and white photograph of Hoyt dated 1964, all photographic materials date from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.

Printed materials and textiles consist of finished products incorporating Hoyt's designs. These include greeting cards, paper napkins and plates, batik-patterned wrapping paper, and a fabric sample. The series also includes commercial paper goods catalogs from the 1970s featuring Hoyt's work. Textiles employing a lady bug motif may have been designed by Hoyt, or may represent a gift from Hoyt's former employer, Vera Neumann.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.

Use Restrictions

To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.

Biographical note

Lea Hoyt (1912-1998) created original batik, silk screened, and hand-painted designs for paper goods (greeting cards, wrapping paper, plates and napkins), textiles, and clothing.

After attending Textile High School in New York, Lena Roberta La Rue Hoyt (at some point she began using Lea) enrolled in a three-year program at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now, Parsons The New School for Design). She graduated in 1933 from the Graphic Advertising and Illustration Department. Hoyt was later hired as a stylist by the textile converting firm of Cohn-Hall-Marx, Inc., where she worked for thirteen years. She was then offered a position with "Scarves by Vera" for whom she designed linens, blouses, and Vera Neumann's trademark scarves in the early 1960s. While designing for Vera, Hoyt won a Louis Comfort Tiffany award, which she used to finance a study trip to Scandinavia and Positano, Italy.

Hoyt later worked as a designer for Ameritex and for Burlington Industries. She retired in 1978 and moved from Fairlawn, New Jersey to Punta Gorda, Florida where she became an artist and freelance designer of clothing, textiles, and paper goods. Hoyt joined the Sea Grape Gallery, an artists' co-operative, where she taught batik and silkscreen techniques, and during this period, expanded into new media, studying ceramics and stained glass.

Organization and Arrangement

Organized in 4 series: Biographical materials, 1933-1990s; 2. Design drawings, circa 1933, undated; 3. Photographs, 1964-1994; 4. Printed materials and textiles, 1972-1986, undated

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Earl Hoyt, Lea Hoyt's son, 1999.

Title
Guide to the Lea Hoyt papers and design work
Status
Completed
Author
New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
Date
November 9, 2010
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English