The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Thomes, John B.

John B. Thomes Contract Bridge Collection

1929-1936
5 vols. 0.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 874
Depiction of Shepard Club, ca.1934 (Thomas standing, second from right)
Shepard Club, ca.1934 (Thomas standing, second from right)

An enthusiast for contract bridge, John Bidwell Thomes was at his playing peak when the new game was sweeping the nation in popularity. In 1931, Thomes and his fellow Portland aficionados organized what may be the first state-wide contract bridge conference in their native state of Maine, just three years after formation of the American Bridge League and prior to creation of the present-day New England Bridge Conference.

Thomes indicated that these five typewritten volumes were originally intended as a means of preserving a record of “some hands that were quite remarkable,” holding out hope that his project might develop into a book that might be called “Adventures at the bridge table.” Simultaneously a record of the games themselves and the strategy and tactics pursued, these volumes are equally a record of the early formation of a bridge conference in New England and its first tournaments. The league included both men’s and women’s teams.

Subjects

Contract bridgeContract bridge--Tournaments--Maine

Contributors

Shepard Club (Portland, Me.)Shepard, E. V. (Edward Valentine), 1866-

Types of material

CorrespondencePhotographs