American Historical Ephemera & Photography

CDV of an officer standing in a studio beside a large column, with faint pencil identification to verso, "G.W. Gallup." [Cincinnati, OH]: J.P. Ball, n.d. 2 x 3 3/8 in. CDV on cardstock mount (toning to print, mount corners trimmed). With photographer's blindstamp lower left, "J.P. Ball / 30 W. 4th St." The subject may be George W. Gallup who enlisted as a 1st lieutenant 11/19/1861 and was commissioned into Field & Staff, 14th Kentucky Infantry, 12/10/1861. He was later promoted lieutenant colonel 5/11/1862, then colonel 1/13/1863, before mustering out 1/31/1865 at Louisa, KY. 

[With:] 1 x 1 in. badge inscribed, "R.A. Gallup / From her Husband / Col. G.W. Gallup." Badge clipped to velvet pad (light tarnish to badge). The consignor found the items together, but no further provenance accompanies the lot. 

James Presley Ball (1825-1904) is one of the most renowned African American photographers at one point owning the largest photographic gallery west of the Appalachians. When visiting White Sulphur Springs, Virginia in 1845 he met John B. Bailey, an African American Daguerreotypist from Boston where he acquired the passion and skill of photography. He opened a studio in Cincinnati later that year, and though it was unsuccessful, he continued his art with studios in Pittsburgh and Richmond and traveled as an itinerant Daguerreotypist. In 1849, he reopened a studio in Cincinnati. He hired his younger brother Thomas Ball to work as an operator, and in 1852 hired his future brother-in-law Alexander Thomas to work with him. By 1857, their gallery was one of the grandest in the United States attracting notables including Frederick Douglass. In 1887 Ball was chosen as the official photographer of a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation held in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In 1888, he moved to Helena, Montana with his son where he operated a studio for several years before moving again in 1892 to Seattle.