Leslie Jones worked for the Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper between the years 1917 and 1956. He was educated at the Farm and Trade School on Thompson Island. Jones first worked as a pattern-maker, but had long held an interest in photography. While working in a Boston factory, he continued developing himself as a freelance photographer. It was not until Jones unfortunately lost two of his fingers to the factory machinery, however, which led him to convert this avocation into his profession. He joined the Boston Herald-Traveler staff in 1917.

In his 39 years at the newspaper, Jones covered everything from a fox stuck in a tree on the Boston Common, to Charles Lindbergh's U.S. tour after the aviator crossed the Atlantic. His photographs document both the usual and the unusual in the daily life of Boston.