James Presley Ball
Portrait of a Young Woman

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Portrait of a Young Woman
  • (Case) Lily and Rose
Date1850s
PlaceUnited States
MediumDaguerreotype, 1/6 plate
Dimensionsvisible image: 2 3/4 × 2 1/4 in. (7.0 × 5.7 cm)
case, open: 3 5/8 × 6 3/8 × 3/8 in. (9.2 × 16.2 × 1 cm)
case, closed: 3 5/8 × 3 1/8 × 3/4 in. (9.2 × 7.9 × 1.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Sonia and Kaye Marvins Portrait Collection, museum purchase funded by Sonia and Kaye Marvins
Object number2000.541
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

James Presley Ball, Sr., who captured the image of this unknown young woman, was one of the most celebrated African American photographers of the 1800s. He opened a number of photography studios, the most successful being “Ball’s Great Daguerrean Gallery of the West” located in Cincinnati, Ohio. His customers ranged from African American slaves to elite white society, including opera singer Jenny Lind and Queen Victoria.


 But Ball was much more than just a photographer. As an avid and outspoken abolitionist, Ball employed his artistic skills in the movement to end slavery. In the 1850s, he used the latest technology to build a moving panorama that depicted the horrific living conditions of enslaved laborers in the South. This “Mammoth Pictorial Tour” traveled throughout the urban North, inspiring visitors to take action against the gross injustice of slavery.


Provenance[Charles Schwartz Ltd., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2000.
Exhibition History"Turning Light Into Silver", 19 February - 30 May 2005, Audrey Jones Beck Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lower level.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
The artist's name is embossed in red velvet of case: "J.P. Ball Artist / Cincinnati"
There is a label in the case: "CS5995"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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