As a child, Jones accompanied her father, Dr. Nelson Jones, as he visited patients. As they traveled, the two would collect birds' eggs and nests for the family's natural history cabinet. Jones developed an interest in ornithology. When Jones and her father acquired a nest of a Baltimore oriole, Jones searched for a book to use to research and identify it and was surprised that one did not exist. Her brother, Howard, later commented that if she would paint the images for such a book he would collect them for her. In 1876, Jones viewed James Audubon's "The Birds of America" at the World's Fair in Philadelphia and was inspired to undertake the project.