Daguerreotypes by James P. Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge and Augustus Washington are the centerpiece of a collection that could rewrite the early history of American photography.
“We see beauty, we see fashion. We see these multidimensional experiences of Black men and women during that time period.” —Deborah Willis She added that the photographs broaden our view of the African American experience by depicting “not only the challenges or ‘suffering’ of the Black body, but stories of Black men and women who were entrepreneurs, who had dreams, who were motivated by the politics of the time.”














