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Tom Jones photograph collection

 Collection
Identifier: Coll. 4246

Scope and Content note

This collection documents the work and career of Maine photographer Tom Jones. Contents include photographic prints, negatives, slides, and contact sheets, as well as correspondence, financial records, personal papers, legal documents, news clippings, albums, CDs, and ephemera.

Dates

  • Creation: 1963 - 2017

Creator

Access

Unrestricted, except for Series 4, which is closed until 2125.

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Biographical note

Thomas E. Jones was born April 11, 1944, in New London, Connecticut. After graduating from Robert E. Fitch High School in 1962, Jones joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed in Cuba. While serving in Cuba, Jones had his first experience with aerial photography, capturing images of Russian tankers carrying missiles to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After Cuba, Jones spent two years stationed at the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Me. Already deeply invested in photography, once Jones left the Navy in 1967, he moved to Brunswick and took his first job working as a photographer for the Bath-Brunswick times record.

Over the course of the next 50 years, Jones would become the most published photographer in Maine, with photographs featured in local and national publications, including Maine times, Downeast magazine, New York times, National geographic, People, and Time. He won national and international awards for his work and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in photojournalism. Jones also operated a successful business photographing private clients, creating and selling landscape and aerial prints of scenes throughout Maine, and photographing high-profile individuals such as Bette Davis, President Bill Clinton, Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamil, Dahlov Ipcar, and a variety of Maine politicians, among others.

Jones lived and worked in Brunswick throughout his career. His photographs have captured many aspects and people of Maine over the last half century and provide an enduring record.

Extent

18.5 Linear Feet (45 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in six series.

  • 1. Client photographs, 1963-2012
  • 2. Landscape and subject photographs, 1967-2012
  • 3. Papers, 1968-2017
  • 4. Nude/intimate portraits, 1974-1997
  • 5. Maine times photographs, 1967-1983
  • 6. Slides, 1968-1994

Provenance

Gift of Tom Jones, November 3, 2022 (acc. no. 2022.161).

Processing note

Collection arrived in plastic totes and boxes. Photographic prints, negatives, slides, and contact sheets were housed in envelopes labeled with client information, in binders arranged by type or purpose, and loose. Material was removed from envelopes and arranged into series defined by the archivist, based on purpose and/or media. In many cases, prints and negatives remain in original paper or glassine sleeves; material would benefit from transfer to archival enclosures in the future.

Related Names

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Tom Jones photograph collection
Status
In Progress
Author
Processed by Mia Sigler, MHS Reference Librarian, 2023; finding aid by Jordis Rosberg, MHS Archivist, 2025.
Date
September 2025
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Maine Historical Society Repository

https://www.mainehistory.org
Contact:


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