Saranac Lake resident, Major Arthur D. Moir. Painted in the 1920s. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 23, 1986 
Amy Jones, 1920s. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 23, 1986 
Lincoln's Arbiter Settles the Winsted Post Office Controversy by Amy Jones - oil on canvas installed in 1938 in Winsted, Connecticut Post Office. Courtesy of the United States Postal Service, © United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Jones also painted Post Office murals in Scotia and Painted Post,New YorkBorn: April 4, 1899 in Buffalo, New York, as Amy Wisher
Died: October 8, 1992
Married: December 19, 1920 to D. Blair Jones; May 14, 1961 to Owen Phelps Frisbie
Children: a daughter, Lucy Jones Berk and a son, Phelps Frisbie
Amy White Jones was an accomplished artist who accompanied her ailing husband, David Blair Jones to Saranac Lake for the cure in 1930. While her husband cured, Ms. Jones taught watercolor painting at the Saranac Lake Study and Craft Guild and was a founding member of the Saranac Lake Art League. While living in Saranac Lake she became one of the first artists to work for the Section of Fine Arts established by the United States Treasury Department as part of the New Deal, painting murals in Post Offices in Painted Post (1939) and Scotia (1941) , both in New York, and Winsted (1938), Connecticut.
Amy Jones, 1987, at the 1st TB Reunion
Amy Jones, 1958
Courtesy of the Saranac Lake Free Library
A scarf showing a whimsical map of the Adirondack Park drawn by Amy Jones. Courtesy of Marge Glowa. Ms. Jones belonged to the Society of Illustrators and her work was not limited to "fine art." She contributed to magazines such as Women's Day, provided art work for advertising and illustrated books for World Publishing, Thomas Y. Crowell (publisher) and Random House. Although she moved to Mt. Kisco, New York, in 1943, she maintained ties with the village. In 1946, she illustrated A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, another famous health seeker. In 1969, she returned to Saranac Lake to give a demonstration at the opening day of the village's annual Paint and Palette Festival. She continued journeying to the North Country the following summer and entered the painting, begun at the demonstration the previous year, “The Skipping Sun of the Adirondacks” in the Festival.
In 1996 Lucy Jones Berk, Ms. Jones's daughter, donated one of her mother's pen and ink drawings to Historic Saranac Lake. The work, entitled "Adirondack Arrival" depicts Saranac Lake's Union Depot and was created circa 1940. Originally intended as an illustration for a children's book, a cut line underneath the drawing reads, "Down the street came a dog team at full gallop." The book was a collaborative effort between the artist and the author, Louise Leser of Howling Dog Farms on Kiwassa Road. Although the book went unpublished, Lucy Jones Berk fondly remembers the Lesers— "Their daughter Fredrica (Fifi) was my closest childhood friend and our two mothers were lifelong friends."1
Jones' painting Sandy Acre is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, April 23, 1986
Artist's accomplishments noted by Reviewers Club
SARANAC LAKE - A painter who lived here in the 1920s has gone on to make a big name for herself in the art world.
Amy Jones, who continues to exhibit new work at an age when most people are retired, was the subject of a presentation by Daurice Benson at the April meeting of the Reviewers Club hosted by club member Janet Dudones. Members of the 75-year-old private club gather at each other's homes twice a month to discuss various topics. The theme for this year's presentations is "Famous People Who Have Lived in Saranac Lake."
Benson said she chose Jones, who lives in Escondido, Calif., with her daughter, because they were friends during the 12 years the artist lived here while her husband recovered from tuberculosis.
Jones is an artist, teacher, lecturer, sculptor, lithographer and muralist. Acrylics is the only media she does not work in. She has shown her work in group and one-woman shows in Venice, Padua, New York City and London as well as California.
Born Amy Wisher, she attended the Pratt Institute, designing Christmas cards and illustrating store catalogues to pay her tuition. She married David Blair Jones in 1920. They moved here during the 1920s when he was struck with tuberculosis. During, her time here, she helped form the Saranac Lake Art League and had a daughter named Lucy.
The Jones family eventually moved to Mt. Kisco because David was unable to endure the cold due to his fragile health. After he grew stronger, they traveled to Europe. She was especially fond of Italy and has returned there to visit and work many times.
Among her works, Jones illustrated an edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" and an Abercrombie & Fitch sales catalogue. She is the only woman included in the book, "Nineteen Watercolor Painters" published by American Artists.
Three of her works hang in the Saranac Lake Free Library, including paintings of people skiing at Mt. Whitney, the Stevenson home and a bird cage. Her works also are owned and displayed by General Electric Co., Ford Motor Co., Standard Oil and Pepsi Cola, according to Benson. Recently she sold a painting of Ed LaBounty, a now-deceased Saranac Lake resident well known for giving sleigh rides.
After David Jones died some years ago, she married Owen Phelps Frisbie. He also died.
Jones moved from Mt. Kisco to Escondido in the fall to be with her daughter. She continues to work. Last year, she was featured in a one-woman show at the Mathers Community Culture Center in Escondido. According to her friend Benson, she also is writing a book on Saranac Lake.
Details from the upper left and lower right corners of the map. Noted near Saranac Lake is Trudeau, the Study and Craft Guild and Howling Dog Farm.
Footnotes
1. Letter from Lucy Jones Berk to Historic Saranac Lake. July 24, 1996
