Robert Edmond Jones (1887-1954) designed scenes for the theater that were simple and conducive to a more complete and coherent collaboration between the director and the designer. His work provided the foundation for the whole present day tradition of scene design in the United States.

Robert Edmond Jones was born on December 12, 1887, in the township of Milton, New Hampshire, roughly halfway between Portland and Portsmouth, in a house built by his great grandfather Levi Jones. He was the second child born to Fred and Emma Jane Cowell Jones.

Robert began taking violin lessons at the age of nine and eventually played in the Harvard Pierian Sodality Orchestra, but even as a child he had decided that he wanted to become an artist. He graduated from Nute High School in Milton in 1905 and entered Harvard University the following fall. While at Harvard, Jones pursued a liberal arts curriculum and...