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.

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.