Frederick Nelson Jones

A DigitalNZ Story by nelsonmuseumnz

Frederick Nelson Jones was a prolific photographer in Nelson and is considered to be one of New Zealand’s first photojournalists. In 1904 he started his career by selling over 1,500 prints of photos he had captured of the Nelson College fire. He established a studio soon after and was often seen on a three-legged ladder taking photographs from above crowds. F.N. Jones led an interesting and entrepreneurial life; he was also a saddler, inventor, mechanical musical box collector, amusement park owner and show organiser. He was fascinated with monkeys and imported three into the country.He married Ivy Dougan on 1 January 1910 and having no children themselves they set out to make all Nelson children laugh. They opened Coney Park in 1924 on Haven Road, complete with merry go rounds, music organs, miniature train rides among other attractions. Upon his retirement in 1933 Jones began to build Pixietown, animated scenes with handmade pixies, another venture to bring magic to children’s lives. Jones died at the age of 81 in 1962 and over 5,000 of his images are held in the Nelson Provincial Museum, with a further 8,000 held by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.