The Yachting Photography of Leslie Jones

Preserving an era

by Matthew Murphy

Leslie Jones is shown here on the occasion of the 1929 Corinthian Yacht Club–sponsored International Series at Marblehead. The series was sailed in 30-Square-Meters and attracted crews, and boats, from Sweden and Germany (For more detail on this and other images, please refer to WoodenBoat magazine No. 252, which is available from The WoodenBoat Store)

In WoodenBoat No. 252, Editor Matt Murphy explores the work of Leslie Jones (1886–1967), a staff photographer for The Boston Herald Traveler from 1917 to 1956. Jones had a particular interest in yachting, and covered racing at Marblehead, 20 or so miles northeast of Boston, throughout his career. His photographs are cared for by the Boston Public Library and are archived online at Digital Commonwealth, a collaborative cultural heritage institution representing more than 130 Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives.

Here we present links to the images in WoodenBoat’s article so readers may explore the photographs in greater detail than that allowed by the printed page. Click on a thumbnail image below, and a high-resolution file, housed at Digital Commonwealth, will open in a new window. The Digital Commonwealth archive includes a magnifiying device; zoom in on a particular image by clicking on it (up to three times, for closer zooms), and you’ll see a smaller version of that image appear in the upper righthand corner of your screen. In that small image is a red rectangle; drag that rectangle around the image to explore areas in detail. (Please note that the files are not available for download here, and they are protected by copyright. Jones’s family maintains the commercial rights to the images, but they also seek to have them enjoyed widely by the general public. Image requests must be directed to Boston Public Library.)