Friends of Wood Memorial Library And Museum

Albertus E. Jones

We are excited to announce our latest collaboration with the South Windsor Historical Society, a program about local South Windsor artist and teacher, Albertus E. Jones.  This program will take place at Wood Memorial Library on Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7pm.

We are also putting together an exhibit of paintings and artifacts for patrons to explore.  If you have any items relating to Albertus Jones you would like to have included in the exhibit please contact us.

Finally, we would also like to collect oral histories from some of Jones' students.  If you have a memory or story to share, please e-mail us to set up an interview.

Albertus E. Jones
(1882-1957)

South Windsor native Albertus Eugene Jones, was an influential artist and art teacher who according to the Connecticut State Library website "believed that 'his most important contribution' to art was 'training other artists.'”

Albertus Jones was born in South Windsor, Connecticut, in 1882.  He attended South Windsor schools including the Brad Factory School located on Old Main Street.  He went on to graduated from the Morse Business College but not before realizing that he liked to draw and paint.  He studied under prominent Connecticut artist, Charles Noel Flagg.

"New England Farm Scene" pictured below, is a watercolor on paper painted by Jones when he was working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression.

According to Phyllis Boros writing for the CT Post, everyday life was captured on canvas by a total of 173 Connecticut artists, through the WPA program. The artists' works were distributed around that state enlivening the interiors of such public buildings as schools, libraries and post offices. "New England Farm Scene" previously hung in a home economic classroom at Roosevelt Junior High School in New Britain.

The CT Library website credits Jones with creating approximately 111 easel works through the WPA Federal Arts Project from 1936 thru 1941. He was also one of nine Connecticut artists to have his work exhibited at the New York World’s Fair in 1940. He exhibited widely and received numerous awards throughout his career.

Jones was a Post-Impressionist artist, who painted his personal response to familiar New England scenes.  His works often feature houses, barns, curving roads and darkly outlined trees. Albertus Jones passed away in 1957 and is buried in Center Cemetery in South Windsor.

Join Gary Knoble on September 28, 2023, at 7pm and learn more about the life and art of Albertus E. Jones, whose paintings are included in the collections of the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Florence Griswold Museum, and the University of Connecticut, as well as many private collections.

Sources used for this Musing are listed below.

 - Boros, Phyllis, A.S., WPA artists document everyday life in '30s, CTPost, March 14, 2013, accessed August 4, 2023.
 - Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum website
 - Jones, Albertus Eugene (1882-1957), Connecticut State Library website,
accessed August 4, 2023.