If you close your eyes and think of Andrew Jackson, you probably see the face on the twenty-dollar bill. It’s that wild, wind-swept hair and those piercing, almost skeletal eyes that look like they’re judging your spending habits. That’s a painting. But what most people don't realize is that "Old Hickory" actually lived long enough to step in front of a camera.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a shock to see him. We think of the 1830s and 1840s as this ancient, oil-painted era where everyone looked like a statue. Then you see the photos of Andrew Jackson, and suddenly he’s a real, breathing, and very sick old man. He didn't just pose; he endured it. And he hated every second of the process.
The Day the Camera Met Old Hickory
It was April 15, 1845. Jackson was dying. He was at his home, The Hermitage, near Nashville, and he was basically a ghost of his former self. He had a musket ball lodged in his lung from a duel decades prior, which caused a chronic, hacking cough that often brought up blood. His body was swollen with dropsy.
In walks a daguerreotypist.
Most historians point to Dan Adams of Nashville or Edward Anthony (who was working for the legendary Mathew Brady) as the man behind the lens. Back then, getting your "photo" taken wasn't a click-and-done situation. You had to sit perfectly still for several minutes while light burned your image onto a silver-plated sheet of copper.
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Jackson was 78. He was in constant pain.
Legend has it that after the session, Jackson looked at the resulting daguerreotype and grumbled that the photographer had made him "look like a monkey." He wasn't being humble. He was a man who had spent his life controlling his image as a fierce general and a populist hero. The camera, however, didn't care about his reputation. It only saw the deep lines, the sunken cheeks, and the exhaustion of a man two months away from his grave.
Why These Images Feel So Eerie
There are only a handful of known daguerreotypes of Jackson. When you look at the most famous one—the one often attributed to the Mathew Brady studio—you’re looking at a copy of a copy. The original plates from that 1845 session were fragile.
What’s wild is how much more "human" he looks than in the portraits.
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- The Hair: In paintings, his hair is iconic—white, stiff, and heroic. In the photos, it’s wispy and a bit chaotic.
- The Eyes: There’s a certain "thousand-yard stare" in the 1845 photo. He’s looking past the camera, likely focusing on just staying upright.
- The Pillow: If you look closely at the bottom left of one version, you can see the ticking of a pillow. He wasn't just sitting in a chair; he was being propped up because he was too weak to support himself.
The "First President" Confusion
You’ll often see these photos labeled as the "first photograph of a U.S. President." That's sorta true, but also kinda not.
Jackson was the seventh president. He was photographed in 1845, well after he left office. John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, actually had his photo taken in 1843. Even William Henry Harrison supposedly had a daguerreotype taken around his inauguration in 1841, though that original is lost to history.
So, Jackson wasn't the first to be photographed, but his images are arguably the most haunting because they bridge the gap between the Revolutionary generation and the industrial age. He was born a British subject and died in the age of the telegram and the camera.
The Mystery of the "Lost" Plates
For a long time, the best version of Jackson’s likeness was a faded, scratched plate held by the Library of Congress. People thought that was as good as it was going to get.
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Then, things got weirdly lucky.
A much clearer plate of that same 1845 session was discovered in the basement of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with simple twine. Finding it was like finding a high-definition Blu-ray of a movie everyone thought only existed on a grainy VHS. This "Amherst Plate" changed how we see him—you can see the individual fibers of his coat and the wetness in his eyes.
How to See the Real Andrew Jackson Today
If you want to go down the rabbit hole of these photos of Andrew Jackson, don't just look at the first Google Image result. Most of those are heavily filtered or modern AI colorizations that smooth out the very details that make the photos important.
- Search the Library of Congress: Look for "DAG no. 043." That’s the official record. It shows the scratches and the aging, which, honestly, adds to the vibe.
- Visit The Hermitage: If you’re ever in Nashville, go to his estate. They don't allow photography inside the mansion (to protect the original 1820s wallpaper), but standing in the bedroom where he sat for that 1845 photo puts the whole thing in perspective.
- Check the Smithsonian: They hold several variations and copies made by Mathew Brady, who realized early on that people would pay good money to see what the "Old Hero" actually looked like.
It’s easy to look at a twenty-dollar bill and see a symbol. It’s much harder to look at a daguerreotype from 1845 and realize you’re looking at a man who was once an orphan, a duelist, and a polarizing leader, now just trying to hold his breath long enough for the light to do its work.
To get the most out of these historical artifacts, compare the 1845 daguerreotype side-by-side with the 1835 oil portrait by Ralph E.W. Earl. The difference represents more than just ten years; it represents the moment history stopped being a story we told and started being something we could actually see.