James Conway Farley (10 August 1854–by 1 January 1912), photographer, was born into slavery in Prince Edward County and was the son of Thomas Farley and Nancy Farley. It is not known how or when he and his mother obtained their freedom, but they moved to Richmond in 1861 after his father died. At first employed making candles in the hotel where his mother worked, Farley later attended school for three years and was apprenticed to a baker. In 1872 he took a job in the chemical department of C. R. Rees and Company, a photography studio. His skill attracted the attention of another Richmond photographer and studio owner, George W. Davis, who hired him in May 1875 to work as an operator, responsible for arranging background scenes and taking photographs. When four white employees demanded that Farley be dismissed, Davis, a white man, instead fired them. He later installed Farley as chief operator of the busy studio. On 5 December 1876 Farley married Rebecca P. Robinson, of Amelia County. They had nine children, of whom seven daughters survived infancy.

In 1884 Farley's photographs won the premium at the Colored Industrial Fair held in Richmond. His work received enthusiastic reviews the following year from national photography journals when it was exhibited alongside that of white photographers at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. In the mid-1880s, while continuing to work for Davis, Farley became the photographer for the Richmond Planet, an African American newspaper. His images, typically portraiture, served as the basis for the woodcuts that illustrated the paper.

In July 1895 Farley's wife signed a partnership agreement with George O. Brown, a Black photographer and photograph printer who had also worked in George W. Davis's studio, to open the Jefferson Art Gallery (later the Jefferson Fine Art Gallery). Farley himself worked with Brown to operate the lavishly appointed studio, located on busy East Broad Street. When the partnership dissolved in September 1898, Farley obtained the shares held by his wife and by Brown and continued to run the business. Serving both Black and white patrons, he specialized in shooting portraits and printing them onto playing cards and postcards. He also captured street scenes and documented the meetings of Black religious and civic organizations.

Farley joined the First African Baptist Church in June 1878 and later served as a deacon. He became a founding stockholder in the Mechanics' Savings Bank of Richmond in 1902 and sat on its board of directors. Farley and his family resided in Richmond until at least 1909, but by April 1910 they had moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. James Conway Farley had died in Philadelphia by 1 January 1912, when he was eulogized at his former church in Richmond. Little of his identifiable work survives, though in 1978 his rare photograph of a grocery store operated by the Reformers' Mercantile and Industrial Association, established by the African American Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, was included in an exhibition at the Valentine Museum, in Richmond.

Sources Consulted:
Biographies in William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1887), 801–804 (with self-reported birth date and portrait facing 801), G. F. Richings, Evidences of Progress among Colored People (1900), 495–496 (portrait), Deborah Willis-Thomas, Black Photographers, 1840–1940: An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography (1985), 9, and Jessie Carney Smith, ed., Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), 1:287–288; United States Census Schedules, Richmond City, 1900 (variant birth date of Aug. 1855), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; Marriage Register, Amelia Co. (variant birthplace of Amelia Co. and parents' names), Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia; Richmond City Chancery Court Deed Book, 163C:418–419; Richmond Planet, 21 Feb. 1885, 31 Aug. 1895, 7 Sept. 1895, 23 Nov. 1901; Richmond Dispatch, 1 Jan. 1903; Jet 46 (8 Aug. 1974): 8; Baltimore Afro-American, 2–6 May 1978; death noted in First African Baptist Church, Richmond City, Minutes (1897–1930), 3:278.

Photograph in G. F. Richings, Evidences of Progress among Colored People (1900).

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Jennifer R. Loux.

How to cite this page:
Jennifer R. Loux, "James Conway Farley (1854–1912)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2024 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Farley_James_Conway, accessed [today's date]).

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