James Moores Ball

Born in 1863, James Moores Ball was an American ophthalmologist, medical historian, and bibliophile based in St. Louis. He studied medicine at Missouri Medical College and went on to build a career as an eye specialist, while also developing a lasting reputation as a collector of rare medical books and a writer on the history of his field.

Ball wrote extensively about ophthalmology and the people who shaped it. His books and essays focused not only on medical progress, but also on the lives, discoveries, and odd corners of medical history that might otherwise have been forgotten. That mix of physician, historian, and collector gave his writing a practical knowledge of medicine along with a strong sense of curiosity about the past.

He died in 1929, but his legacy continued through both his published work and the collections associated with his name. For readers interested in the history of medicine, his writing offers a window into how one early 20th-century doctor tried to preserve the memory of the profession he practiced.