This daguerreotype, a type of photograph, of President John Quincy Adams was taken in 1843 by Philip Haas. John Quincy Adams is believed to be the first former president to be photographed following the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839. Adams was particularly fond of photographs, writing about his experience, “I walked this morning to Mr Haas’s shop, and he took from his camera obscura, three Daguerrotype likenesses of me— The operation is performed in half a minute; but is yet altogether incomprehensible to me… It would seem as easy to stamp a fixed portrait from the reflection of a mirror; but how wonderful would that reflection itself be, if we were not familiarised to it from childhood.” Adams’s appreciation for photography was the beginning of a new period in which the presidential image could be recorded and shared with greater accuracy.

John Quincy Adams was the son of President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams. Prior to his presidency, President Adams was a diplomat to the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, and the United Kingdom. He served as Secretary of State under President James Monroe and is the only president who went on to serve in the United States House of Representatives after being president. Adams represented his home state, Massachusetts, in the House.