Figure013

Citation

James Presley Ball (American, dates uncertain). “Cincinnati street scene.” circa 1850. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/244. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Title

Cincinnati street scene

Subject

Cincinnati street scene

Creator

James Presley Ball (American, dates uncertain)

Date

circa 1850

Type

city scene, commercial

Identifier

Figure013

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

daguerreotype

Physical Dimensions

Half Plate (4.25 x 5.5 inches)

Factual Commentary

This street scene is by James Presley Ball (1825-1904), a successful African American photographer. Ball learned the daguerreian process in 1845, and then spent most of the next 25 years in Cincinnati, where his business was successful enough to allow him to travel to Europe in 1856. He was an abolitionist, and his large and elegant studios hosted both white and black clients.

This scene depicts a street in Ball’s home city, Cincinnati, featuring the building of a candy manufacturer, Myers and Co., Confectioners, along with some of the employers, and perhaps the owner himself (we do not know if Mr. Myers is one of the men standing outside). If you click on the image to the left, you can zoom in to see the extraordinary detail of this daguerreotype, including the writing on the hand-painted signs and a youthful, well-dressed black man, leaning on a post. Barely visible behind him is another black youth in a white shirt, pushing a wheelbarrow with crates of goods on it.

On the street is a wagon, where the crates are being loaded for delivery. They are marked “CANDY, Myers & Co., 50 lbs.”

Interpretive Commentary

J. P. Ball was a remarkably skilled photographer, as this extraordinary daguerreotype demonstrates. In the bright light of full day, Ball produced an image with beautiful tones and contrasts that even captures a sense of movement without the tell-tale blurring of a long exposure time. The resolution and detail in the photograph is exceptional, and such effects required a practitioner who had both the talent to compose a shot and the technical mastery to bring it off, both in preparing the plate and in understanding all the conditions of light and subject matter. Ball’s mastery of the process explains why he was such a successful portrait photographer, too.

We cannot know for certain, but it is likely that Myers and Company commissioned J. P. Ball to make this portrait of their business, probably from a sense of pride at is success ― hence the delivery under preparation and the sense of activity. While not exactly a documentary photograph, because it was probably made on commission and not to record historical facts, early images such as this of city life are rare, and J. P. Ball executed this one with great skill.

The best scholarly work on James Presley Ball is by Deborah Willis: J. P. Ball: Daguerrean and Studio Photographer (Routledge, 1993).

Alternative Title

Collection

Mirror of Race