Photography as a medium had only arisen just a few years prior to Adams' portrait. In the 1990s, a great-great-grandson of Everett came across the image, and only after some internet sleuthing, did he realize the significance of the family heirloom. The photograph, showing Adams looking sternly at the camera in wooden chair, passed through Everett's family for generations, reports Schuessler. It was to one of his friends and allies in Congress, Vermont Representative Horace Everett that Adams gave his March 1843 photograph to, calling Everett his "kinsman" on a note in his own handwriting on the paper backing. In these tense years leading up to the Civil War, Adams used his post and his prestige to wage a largely solitary fight against the institution of slavery on the floor of the House of Representatives, despite many efforts to silence him. That image is now held by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.Īdams was more than a decade removed from his presidency when he sat for this photo, already deep into his second act serving as a Massachusetts congressman. Taken in March 1843 in Washington, D.C., the daguerreotype beats out another surviving photograph from just a few months later, when Adams sat for a portrait in New York that he later deemed "hideous," reports Schuessler. "An invaluable document, this daguerreotype a remarkable moment in the history of photography and American politics," the auction house Sotheby's announced in a statement detailing the auction, which is planned for October 5. president has surfaced and is set to go on sale this fall, reports Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times. Read the story about when the photograph first surfaced below:Ī lucky someone will soon have th e chance to own a 174-year-old piece of American history: the oldest-known original photograph of a U.S. The earliest-known photograph of a United States president will go on public view in 2018 when it's featured in the museum's "America's Presidents" exhibition. Update, October 11, 2017: The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has acquired the March 1843 daguerreotype of President John Quincy Adams for its permanent collection.
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