The Ewart M. Ball Collection is drawn from more than 11,000 negatives and glass plates in the possession of the Special Collections in Ramsey Library at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. These negatives taken between 1918 and 1965, largely feature Asheville, its people, and environs.

Photographs allow us to see past moments that are gone forever, yet which may influence us still. For scholars, photographs can illustrate and illuminate their work, or in the absence of written documentation, serve as a primary research tool. For the general public, visual images such as photographs often are the only impressions remembered about an event or period. For many people the photographs that Jacob Riis took of New York tenements and industries have etched their minds far more than any words he ever wrote.

This collection includes some scenes of rural life and farming in the outlying area from which the town drew its population and trade. Largely, however the photos stress Asheville themes; the flourishing resort trade that secured Asheville's reputation, the town's businesses and industries that subtly began to change its character in the 1920's, familiar street scenes including Pack Square, public buildings and transportation, memorable events of the 1920's, and scenes of townspeople in moments of leisure, pleasure, and commitment.

The entire collection consists of negatives taken by Ewart M. Ball (1894-1937) and Ewart M. Ball, Jr. (1918-1966), as well as some photographs in the possession of Plateau Studio when the elder Ball acquired it in late 1922. It is possible that some of these photos were taken By George Masa, the Japanese photographer who, after arriving in Asheville in 1915, turned to photographic work until his first love of charting and photographing the Smoky Mountains led him to abandon studio work.

Most of the Collection photographs consist of the elder Ball's work. He was born in Madison County near Marshall where he spent his early life on a farm. In 1911 he joined the U.S. Army and saw service along the Mexican border. It was during this period that he began producing post card picture portraits. He left the service in 1919 and in quick succession lived in and practiced photography in Charleston, Florence, and then Georgetown, S. C., where he opened a studio in 1922. The opportunity to purchase Plateau Studio at Pack Square led him back to Asheville. There he conducted a full time commercial and portrait business and simultaneously did photography for the Asheville Citizen and Times before they had regular staff photographers.

Ball's work was cut short by death at age forty-three. By then, however, he had established his reputation as a commercial photographer and had shown much energy in depicting Asheville places and people. His work was doubtless enhanced by Ball's employment of N. Brock, a photographer whose portrait work gained him international acclaim. Eventually Brock won so many prizes that contest sponsors implored him to avoid competitions to give other contestants a chance. Doubtless both Brock and Ball benefited by their association.

- Bruce Greenawalt [Director of the Southern Highlands Research Center] (1979)