Papers: Ifor Owain Thomas tenor and photographer

Papers: Newspaper cuttings, [1928] - 1977; programmes, 1926 - 1928; personal photographs, [early 20th century]; biography, 2000; photographs, 1948 - [undated]; copy letter, 1991; Eryl Wyn Rowlands' research papers, 1912 - 2000.

Ifor Owain Thomas (1892-1956), singer, was born at Pentraeth, Anglesey, the son of Owen and Isabella Thomas (née Morris). They later moved to Pandy, Anglesey, and he was sometimes known as Ifor Pandy as a result. He went to Pentraeth Board School in 1895 and at the age of 13 became a carpenter with Huw Parry of Pentraeth. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London in 1914. He met his wife, Ceridwen, and they moved to Milan, Italy; he sang in the opera houses of Milan, Nice and Monte Carlo. In 1928 he joined the Metropolitan Quartet in New York, USA, with Frances Alda. He worked with the Radio Atwater Kent Company and he sang in two Newark Music Festivals. He recorded several operas for HMV. When his musical career ended in 1933 he became a photographer for Collier's Magazine, his subjects over the next 15 years including Frank Sinatra, Ingrid Bergman, Tommy Dorsey and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the 1940s he took up painting and exhibited in London, New York and a number of colleges in the United States, signing his work as Ifor o Fôn. A patriotic Welshman, he founded the Cymric Society of New York in 1945. Mildred Unfried was his second wife. He died in New York in 1956.

Arranged in chronological order

Dim cyfyngiadau/ No Restrictions

Adnau preifat / Private deposit.

Os gwelwch yn dda archebwch y dogfenau gan ddefnyddio y rhif cyfeirnod amgen (lle ddarperidd) / Please order documents using the alternative reference number (where provided)

Mae copiau clawr caled o`r catalogau ar gael yn Archifau Ynys Môn ac yn y Gofrestr Cenedlaethol Archifau. Polisi Archifau Ynys Môn yw catalogio yn iaith y ddogfen./Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Archifau Ynys Môn / Anglesey Archives and the National Register of Archives. It is the policy of Archifau Ynys Môn / Anglesey Archives to catalogue in the language of the document.

Cyflwr da /Good condition

Compiled by Seri Crawley for the ANW project. The following sources were consulted in the compilation of this description: Archifau Ynys Môn / Anglesey Archives, Papers of Ifor Owain Thomas; Owain Ifor Thomas (www.mon51.u-net.com/village/fame.htm); Pentraeth - a village and its people website (www.menternet.org.uk/footpaths/pentr.htm), viewed 21 July 2003.

Mae'r holl gofnodiadau sy'n cydymffurfio â pholisi casglu Swyddfa Gofnodi Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn wedi eu cadw /All records which meet the collection policy of the Anglesey Archives have been retained.

Some of the papers were sent to his sister, Miss A. E. Thomas, Port Dinorwic, Caernarfonshire, in 1959. The remainder were collected by Eryl Wyn Rowlands in the course of researching a biography of Thomas.

Ni ddisgwylir croniadau/Accruals are not expected