The Biographical Dictionary of America/Ball, Thomas

BALL, Thomas, sculptor, was born at Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1819, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Wall) Ball. On the death of his father he was apprenticed to wood engraving. A portrait of his mother gained a first prize at the Mechanics association exhibition. He was a choir singer of note and a soloist in the Handel and Haydn society. His first important painting, "Christ in the Temple," gained him an honorable membership in the Baltimore academy. This and his "King Lear" were purchased by the American Art Union. His first work in clay was the head of Jenny Lind, and his first life-size bust that of Daniel Webster. At Florence, Italy, the "Signing of the Declaration of Independence" for the Greenough statue of Franklin; "The Shipwrecked Sailor Boy"; a bust of Napoleon; a statuette of Washington Allston and a figure of "Pandora" were completed. He modelled the second panel for the Franklin statue, "The Signing of the Treaty of Peace in Paris," in Boston, and in 1859 received there the order for his great equestrian statue of Washington. He returned to Florence in 1865; made the statue of Forrest as "Coriolanus" for Philadelphia, "Eve Stepping into Life" and "La Petite Pensée." In 1873 he revisited America and made the statue of Gov. John A. Andrew for Massachusetts, also "Love's Memories" and "St. John." In 1874 he modelled the "Emancipation Group" for the city of Washington; a replica for Boston: a colossal statue of Daniel Webster for Central Park, New York: and the figures of Charles Sumner and Josiah Quincy for Boston, Then came the groups of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams "Christ with a Little Child," and in 1882 "Paul Revere's Ride." He visited America again in 1883 and modelled busts of many prominent men. When he returned to Florence he made several ideal medallions and portrait busts, beside statues of Lincoln and Garfield and in 1885 the statue of Daniel Webster presented to Concord, N. H., by B. P. Cheney. He modelled the "David" in the winter of 1885-'86 and chiselled it for Edward Searles of Great Barrington, Mass. In 1886 he finished P. T. Barnum's statue and in 1890 the colossal statue of Washington for Methuen, Mass. He married Nellie Wild of Boston, in October, 1854, and received the degree of A. M. from Dartmouth college. He is the author of "My Three Score Years and Ten" (1891.)