James Presley Ball
Escapees to Freedom on the Underground Railroad with Levi Coffin and Rev. Henry M. Storrs

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Escapees to Freedom on the Underground Railroad with Levi Coffin and Rev. Henry M. Storrs
Date1862–1867
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 7 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (19 × 13.4 cm)
Sheet: 7 1/2 × 5 1/4 in. (19 × 13.4 cm)
Mount: 8 11/16 × 6 11/16 in. (22 × 17 cm)
Overall: 10 1/2 × 6 11/16 in. (26.6 × 17 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors
Object number2019.259
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
On view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans surreptitiously traveled the Underground Railroad north toward freedom, bravely risking re-enslavement, torture, and even death if caught. Several routes from safe-house to safe-house passed through Cincinnati, just across the Ohio River from slaveholding Kentucky. At some point in the mid-1860s—likely after the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act in June 1864—this group of formerly enslaved people gathered with Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin in the Cincinnati studio of James Presley Ball, one of the period’s most prominent African American photographers. Frederick Douglass declared the quality of Ball’s photography "one of the best answers to the charge of natural inferiority we have lately met with." Indeed, Ball’s photograph eloquently records the group, now fitted with new clothes, shoes, and bibles, leaning into one another and held close, bearing expressions of both wariness and determination. It seems likely that these unnamed men, women, and children were among the estimated 3,000 "passengers" that Coffin (back center) and his wife Catharine helped escort on their journey to freedom.


Provenance[Cowan's Auction, Cincinnati, Ohio, American History: Premier Auction,
June 21, 2019, Lot 160]; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in ink on paper label affixed to mount: "LEVI COFFIN // (CENTER) // and some of the // UNDERGROUND RAILROAD PASSENGERS". Inscribed in pencil on mount, verso: "Levi Coffin - Friend of the black race // Henry M. Storrs - Pa[stor] to Seventh St. Cong Ch- // Are not sure who the white lady and child are." and "Annie Hager".

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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