Hoyt Sherman's Grandchildren

Hoyt Sherman Place has received the archives of John Ramsbotham Griffith, the grandson of Hoyt Sherman.  Among his papers were several handwritten letters from Hoyt Sherman written in his later years.

This new arrival has sparked an interest in Hoyt’s children and grandchildren.  Many club members are familiar with Hoyt’s daughter Helen “Nellie” Hoyt Sherman Griffith.  Helen was the mother of John Griffith who was a landscape architect.  Helen was an active women’s club member in Pennsylvania who wrote to and visited the Des Moines Women’s Club.  Helen helped the club retrieve the dining room furniture originally used at HSP.

Hoyt Sherman’s two sons were Frank and Charles.  Hoyt Sherman Junior was actually Hoyt’s nephew, the son of Hoyt’s older brother James, who snapped up the “Junior” before Hoyt had a chance to get married.  Hoyt and Sara Sherman had nine grandchildren: two named Sara, two named Hoyt, two named John, and a Hanna, a Florence, and a Helen.

Hoyt and Sara’s second daughter was Adeline Sherman.  Adeline was named after her maternal grandmother, Adeline Wallace.  Adeline was the mother of Sara Sherman Wiborg Murphy. Sara Wiborg was the most famous of Hoyt’s grandchildren.  Sara along with her husband Gerald Murphy moved to the French Riviera in the 1920s and were part of the lost generation.  They were friends with Picasso and Hemingway along with many others.  It was rumored that Sara had affairs with both Picasso and Hemingway, and she is featured in several Picasso paintings.  The Murphys were the model for Nicole and Dick Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. 

Gerald Murphy was a landscape painter and the son of the founder of Mark Cross Company a New York leather goods store.  In 1933, the Murphys returned to New York to take over the family business which had suffered during the depression.  

Hoyt and Sarah Sherman’s Granddaughter Sara Murphy and her husband Gerald were  wealthy American expatriates in Europe in the 1920s.  They were  credited with “transforming the Riviera into a summer destination peppered with artists and celebrities.”  They were friends with writers and avant-gardener artists and brought sunbathing into style.  Before that time, the Riviera was considered a winter health resort.

After purchasing a house called Villa America they invited “a stream of guests including Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Dorothy Parker and Coco Chanel.”  Fitzgerald used the Murphys as a model for the couple in Tender is the night.  It was said that both Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway fell in love with Sara.

Several books were written about the Murphys: Living Well is the Best Revenge; Everybody was so Young; Making It New: the art and style of Sara and Gerald Murphy; Sara and Gerald: Villa America and after; and Letters from the Lost Generation: Gerald and Sara Murphy and friends.  The Murphys’ archives are at Yale University.  You can learn more about the Murphys on their Wikipedia page (search under Gerald and Sara Murphy). Quotes for National Geographic History magazine July/August 2025