John Winter Jones joined the Museum in 1837 and became a protégé of the great librarian Antonio Panizzi, succeeding him as Keeper of Printed Books in 1856 and as Principal Librarian in 1866, retiring in 1878. Panizzi is often credited with the formulation of the 91 rules for scientific cataloguing but these were originated by Jones, who was also much involved in the building of the Round Reading Room. The portrait was donated by the sitter’s great-grandson, Major Maurice Nicholson, who wrote that he was heir to the family portraits: ‘competent portraits of middle class gentle folk, painted by competent but unfashionable artists’. It was hung in the boardroom, replacing an earlier copy of it by Percy Graves.