Book Talk: Dr. Samuel M. Jones And The Arnold Print Works of North Adams

This presentation will focus on his grandfather Dr. Jones.  Dr. and Mrs. Jones owned an estate on Bulkley Street in Williamstown between 1927 and 1964.

Dr. Samuel Mansfield Jones, the Berkshires-born son of an Irish immigrant, graduated in 1905 as president of his class at Drury High School in North Adams. He went on to study theoretical chemistry in Germany, earned his PhD. in Switzerland, and at 24 years old, he became a textile plant manager in Russia. Upon returning home from Russia in 1915 at the outbreak of WWI, he began his career at Arnold Print Works (APW) and eventually purchased a majority ownership in the company in 1926. An innovative manager, Dr. Jones purchased a second manufacturing plant in Adams, MA in 1928 and created The Jones Division of APW. The expansion was lauded as a national model, and in 1929, Dr. Jones led APW in achieving its most profitable year in company history. He remarkably kept both plants in operation throughout the Great Depression when many of his textile printing competitors closed. APW returned to profitability in 1939, but WWII abruptly forced the company’s liquidation in 1942 when necessary cloth supplies were cut off due to war demands.

Samuel Trudel, an award-winning graphic designer and family historian, was born in North Adams and lived in Williamstown as a boy. He recently published two companion books about Arthur Gallup and Dr. Samuel Jones, who were his great grandfather and grandfather. Both men owned the Arnold Print Works in North Adams. The Arnold Print Work complex is now MASS MoCA.