James Presley Ball, Senior

James Presley Ball Sr. ( – May 4, 1904) was an African-American photographer, abolitionist, and businessman.

Biography

Ball was born in Frederick County, Virginia, to William and Susan Ball in 1825. He learned daguerreotype photography from John B. Bailey of Boston, who like Ball was "a freeman of color." Ball opened a one-room daguerreotype studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1845. Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion in 1854 described the gallery as displaying 187 photographs by Ball and 6 paintings by Duncanson; furthermore, the gallery was "replete with elegance and beauty," with walls "bordered with gold leaf and flowers," "master-piece" furniture, a piano, and mirrors. By 1887, the studio was known as "J. P. Ball & Son, Artistic Photographers"; Ball's son was named James Presley Ball, Jr.

By 1892, the Ball family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Ball opened the Globe Photo Studio.

Ball's photographic work is held by, among other institutions: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Historical Society, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, Montana Historical Society, Ohio State University, and University of Washington.