The National Portrait Gallery Gets a Photograph of Dolley Madison

The earliest known photograph of an American president is a daguerreotype of John Quincy Adams taken in 1843, eight years after he left office and quite soon after Louis Daguerre introduced his photographic process in 1839. That photograph resides in the National Portrait Gallery, a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The gallery recently purchased another rare find, the oldest known photograph of a First Lady. Dolley Madison was the wife of James Madison, the fourth US president. James Madison left office in 1817 and died in 1836. In 1846, Mrs. Madison sat for a photograph, also a daguerreotype.

The photo was lost for decades and then discovered by family members among the possessions of a deceased person. The anonymous family sold the photograph through Sotheby's, which estimated it would fetch $50,000 to $70,000. The bidding went up and up until the Smithsonian paid $456,000 so that the earliest photograph of a First Lady could be saved and displayed in the USA's archives. Read the story of this photograph at Smithsonian. 

(Image credit: Sotheby's)