I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO GIVE YOU for the holidays, and so I went window-shopping up and down the aisles of the internet, where suddenly I found just the right thing: the uplifting images by “the camera man” Leslie Jones, from the Boston Public Library’s massive collection. Consider this slideshow my holiday card to you.

Jones (1886-1967), who modestly called himself “the camera man,” worked for “The Boston Herald-Traveler” newspaper from 1917-1956, creating a photographic history of Boston—both the mundane and magical—that now seems to transcend any specific place. The Leslie Jones Collection of about 34,000 photographic plates lives on the 5th floor of the Boston Public Library. Read more about the treasure trove, which was donated by Jones’s family in the early 1970s.

the slideshow

Click on the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrow keys on your computer or the arrows beside each caption. May your holiday season be filled with soaring joys. May the preposterous come true as it does in these images selected from Jones’s legacy.

browse the vast collections

All photos Copyright © Leslie Jones. Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

more, more, more

Still hungry for more? Remember the slideshow I did of botanical Louis Prang chromolithographs from the BPL collection? Or the Edward S. Curtis photos of Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son on President Theodore? Or the story of little-known Chicago street photographer Vivian Maier? Enjoy. (It’s OK to stray from horticulture this week, I think, isn’t it?)