Thomas Ball (1819-1911) was one of the most important American sculptors of the nineteenth century, whose long career produced some of the most familiar public monuments in American civic life. Born on June 3, 1819 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, he came to sculpture only after establishing himself first as a musician and portrait painter, and much of his early technical development was self-taught. His remarkable ability to translate careful observation into precisely modeled form quickly distinguished him among his American contemporaries.

Ball spent much of his career as an expatriate in Florence, Italy, joining the community of American sculptors, including Hiram Powers, Horatio Greenough, and Randolph Rogers, who had gravitated to Italy for its unrivaled marble resources, artisanal traditions, and proximity to the great classical models. Working from his Florentine studio, he produced portrait busts of many prominent Americans and undertook the ambitious public commissions that would establish his lasting reputation. His equestrian statue of George Washington, unveiled in the Boston Public Garden in 1869, is among the most beloved sculptures in New England, and his 1876 Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., depicting Abraham Lincoln with a formerly enslaved man rising at his feet, remains one of the most historically significant American public monuments.

Ball also mentored a number of important younger American sculptors, including Daniel Chester French, who trained briefly in his Florentine studio. His autobiography, My Threescore Years and Ten, published in 1890, offers a rich account of the expatriate American art world of the nineteenth century. Ball died on December 11, 1911 in Montclair, New Jersey, having spent seven decades helping to shape the tradition of American public sculpture.