[2] She married at seventeen to Thomas Koons in 1910 and moved to Florida in 1923 with her family of three girls Virginia (Win), Elizabeth (Betty or Bets), and Barbara (Barby).
After her husband's real estate speculation failed in the 1926 economic collapse, Nell opened her own portrait studio to support the family.
There she met up with her childhood friend and confidante, movie actress Lillian Gish, and also was introduced to Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz (for whom she baked bread) whose admiration of her individual style gained her useful attention and patronage.
The Dorr Foundation funded the printing of the book, donating nearly 1,000 copies to the U.S. Information Agency which regarded it as promoting American family values.
Commenting that Steichen's own work was hardly featured in the show, Dorr suggested that photographic exhibits ought to depict and stand for something more important than just a "Who’s Who in Photography"; "We all are born, we suffer, and we die, and within that compass, we all must walk.
Her work spanned fanciful scenes of children posed as fairies and wood nymphs amid the scenery of the Florida Keys and Everglades.