Oldest Surviving Photograph of a US President

As reported in a Smithsonian article, the oldest photograph of a US president has been found and is set to go on auction October 5th. The photograph is a 174 year old portrait of John Quincy Adams that was taken in March of 1843 in Washington DC. Photography had only risen a few years before this portrait was taken.

The estimated sale price of this piece is between $150,000 and $250,000. This photograph is representative of the first publicly available photographic process, the daguerreotype. This process was invented in 1839 and involved using an iodine sensitized silver plate and mercury vapor. Photographs produced by this were described as being accurate, detailed, and sharp. Daguerreotypes were extremely expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to have their portraits taken, however there are records of them being used for other types of photography as well. This just goes to exemplify the leaps that photography has made in fairly recent history.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-original-photo-us-president-be-auctioned-180964565/