American Historical Ephemera and Photography, Featuring African Americana

6 1/8 x 4 in. photograph on 7 x 5 in. cardstock mount, showing members of Company D, 24th US Infantry, with rifles in hand, standing before a series of buildings (toning, some soiling to recto/verso, edge and corner wear to mount incl. loss to top right corner). Verso ink stamp of "J.P. Ball & Son; Photographers, Main Street, Helena, Montana." -- 6 1/8 x 4 in. photograph on 8 x 6 in. cardstock mount, showing 9 soldiers from Company D, 24th US Infantry, seated on the stairs of an unknown building (toning, light soiling to recto/verso, light edge and corner wear to mount). The 24th US Infantry was one of the four so-called Buffalo Soldier regiments formed in 1869. From its inception through 1898, the 24th served throughout the western US, with missions that ranged from garrisoning frontier posts to fighting Native Americans and guarding the border between the United States and Mexico. In 1899 the regiment deployed to the Philippines to help suppress a guerrilla movement in the Philippine–American War. Headquarters and first battalion, including Companies A-D, arrived at Fort Harrison in Helena, MT, on 25 May 1902. They remained there until December 1905 when the entire regiment received orders to return to the Philippines. These images likely date ca 1902-1904 because the company wears the uniform that was replaced with a new pattern between 1903 and 1904. 

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. Based on the likely dates of the photographs offered here, they were almost certainly taken by Ball's son, James Presley Ball, Jr.