History is usually something we see through the blurry lens of oil paintings and dramatic re-enactments. But with John Quincy Adams, it’s different. You can actually look him in the eye. Honestly, it’s a bit jarring. When you find pictures of john quincy adams president, you aren't looking at a romanticized version of a Founding Father's son; you're looking at a tired, grumpy, and incredibly sharp-witted man who lived long enough to see the birth of photography.
Most people assume Abraham Lincoln was the first "photographic" president. He wasn't. While Lincoln used the medium to craft his image, John Quincy Adams was the one who pioneered the awkward, stiff-necked reality of the early daguerreotype.
The 1843 Daguerreotype: A "Hideous" Truth
In March 1843, Adams walked into the Washington D.C. studio of a man named Philip Haas. He was 75 years old. The presidency was a decade in his rearview mirror, and he was currently serving in the House of Representatives, famously known as "Old Man Eloquent."
The resulting image is haunting.
Adams sits in a simple wooden chair, hands clenched on his lap, looking like he’d rather be literally anywhere else. It’s the oldest surviving original photograph of a U.S. President. There was an earlier one of William Henry Harrison in 1841, but that plate is lost to time. What we have of Adams is the real deal—the actual silver-plated copper that sat in the room with him.
He hated it.
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Adams wrote in his diary that the process was "altogether incomprehensible" and that the likenesses were "hideous" because they were "too true to the original." Think about that. We spend our lives today filtering our faces to look better; Adams was offended by the 19th-century version of a high-definition raw file. He thought he looked terrible because, well, he looked like a 75-year-old man who had spent his life carrying the weight of a fracturing nation.
Why These Images Feel So Different
There is a world of difference between a portrait and a photograph. If you look at the oil paintings of Adams—like the ones by Gilbert Stuart or George Peter Alexander Healy—he looks regal. His skin is smoother. His posture is noble.
The Haas daguerreotype strips that away.
- The Eyes: In the photograph, his eyes are watery and piercing. You can see the irritation.
- The Clothes: He’s wearing a black double-breasted coat and a massive, stiff necktie known as a stock. It looks uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable.
- The Setting: No Greco-Roman columns or velvet curtains. Just a man in a chair.
You’ve got to remember that back then, sitting for a photo wasn't a "point and click" situation. You had to sit perfectly still for about thirty seconds to a minute. If you blinked too much or twitched, you became a blur. Adams complained about the "delicate" nature of the operation, noting that it failed "at least twice out of three times."
The Lost and Found History
For a long time, the public didn't even know the best pictures of john quincy adams president existed. The most famous one was actually a copy made by the firm Southworth & Hawes.
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Then came 2017.
A descendant of Horace Everett—a congressman who was a friend of Adams—decided to sell a family heirloom. It turned out to be an original 1843 Haas daguerreotype that Adams had personally gifted to Everett. It sold at Sotheby’s for $360,500. It’s now in the National Portrait Gallery.
It’s wild to think that for 170 years, the most authentic image of the sixth president was just sitting in a box in Vermont.
Beyond the Silver Plate
Adams sat for several more photos before he died in 1848. He visited John Plumbe's studio in 1846, and there’s a great shot of him there where he looks slightly more relaxed, though his "relaxed" is still more intense than most people’s "furious."
These images matter because they bridge the gap. They take the "Great Men" of the revolutionary era and turn them into human beings. When you look at the wrinkles around his mouth, you aren't thinking about the Monroe Doctrine or the Treaty of Ghent. You're thinking about a guy who probably had a headache from the bright studio lights.
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How to View These Images Today
If you want to see these for yourself, you don't have to spend a few hundred grand at an auction.
- The National Portrait Gallery: They hold the primary 1843 Haas plate.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: They have a stunning copy made around 1850.
- The Smithsonian (National Museum of American History): They house the 1846 Plumbe daguerreotype.
Honestly, skip the textbooks. If you want to understand the grit and the sheer stubbornness of the Adams family, just look at the 1843 photo. It’s all there. The refusal to smile, the intellectual intensity, and the exhaustion of a man who served his country from the age of 14 until he collapsed on the floor of the Capitol.
Next time you see a polished painting of a president, remember JQA’s "hideous" truth. Reality is always more interesting than the filter.
Actionable Insight: If you're a history buff or a photography enthusiast, visit the National Portrait Gallery’s digital archive. You can zoom in on the Haas daguerreotype to see the actual texture of the silver plate and the fine lines of Adams' face—a level of detail that even the best painters of the 1840s couldn't hope to match.