Biography
“Loïs Mailou Jones is one of the few figures in American art to achieve a long, exciting and inspiring career in which there is no room for defeat, dullness and trickery. Whether it is the Loïs Jones of the fifties and sixties watching Peasants on Parade, Haïti, or the Loïs Jones of today reflecting on Dahomey or the Ubi Girl from Tai Region, it is always the Loïs Jones in full control of her design and her colors…”
— Edmund B. Gaither, Curator at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, 1972
Jones in her Washington, DC studio, 1983 (Papers of LMJ | Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University)
Jones and her mother, Carolyn Jones, 1906
Loïs Mailou Jones, circa 1925
Jones and Pierre-Noël on their wedding day, August 8, 1953
Jones at Howard University, 1930
Jones and her paintings in Washington, DC, circa 1931
Jones in her Paris studio with kitten, circa 1938
Jones painting a portrait of her mother, Carolyn Jones, 1950 (Papers of LMJ | Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University)
Jones and one of her students by the Potomac River, Washington, DC, circa 1967
Loïs Mailou Jones, 1994
  • Jones in her Washington, DC studio, 1983 (Papers of LMJ | Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University)
  • Jones and her mother, Carolyn Jones, 1906
  • Loïs Mailou Jones, circa 1925
  • Jones and Pierre-Noël on their wedding day, August 8, 1953
  • Jones at Howard University, 1930
  • Jones and her paintings in Washington, DC, circa 1931
  • Jones in her Paris studio with kitten, circa 1938
  • Jones painting a portrait of her mother, Carolyn Jones, 1950 (Papers of LMJ | Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Howard University)
  • Jones and one of her students by the Potomac River, Washington, DC, circa 1967
  • Loïs Mailou Jones, 1994

Loïs Mailou Jones (b. November 3, 1905 Boston, MA. - d. June 9, 1998 Washington, D.C.) wanted to be remembered as an artist, not an African-American or woman artist. Her life spanned almost all of the twentieth century—a time of unprecedented changes in American history—and she was an active participant in the development of African-American influence in the arts.  Loïs Mailou Jones is a trailblazer, a respected college professor, an artist ambassador, and an international expert on culture who documented everything she saw and did as a painter in the Harlem Renaissance, as an illustrator for Carter Woodson, a colleague of Alain Locke and Langston Hughes, an educator and mentor, and a champion of black artists in Africa and the Caribbean.

Along with being an award-winning artist, Loïs became known as a tireless advocate for international artists, especially for Africans and Haitians who would not have been known outside of their own countries without her help.  Loïs’ first four-month visit to eleven African countries (Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal) resulted in new cultural understandings for Americans and Africans, and she continued making those personal and political connections for the rest of her life. Her archive of over 1000 slides and other information are an important source of African and Caribbean art history.

Loïs was fond of saying, "At 90, I arrived!"  Lois was invited to the White House eight times, she visited and spoke at 15 foreign embassies, many dozens of college campuses and international events. She was one of the longest living artists of the Harlem Renaissance, but is only now being recognized and studied as a trailblazer in the Civil Rights movement.  She knew many heads of state personally, painted their official portraits, and received their awards and citations. Today her work is in public buildings, museums and private homes all over the world.  Loïs Mailous Jones is known as an artist, without any additional limiting descriptions.