The First Presidential Photograph Is Taken

Well, if we’re being technical about it, some historians would argue that it’s the first surviving presidential photograph. There is evidence to suggest that William Henry Harrison was the first sitting president to have his likeness captured on camera (1841), but the image has since been lost to history. Conversely (after he left office) John Quincy Adams was the first former president to be photographed wayback in !843.

Our 11th President would settle the matter.

In 1849 (while in office) James K. Polk was photographed inside the White House by famed photographer Mathew B. Brady. The image survived and is widely regarded today as the first honest-to-goodness presidential photograph. Evidently, Polk was in a foul mood during the sitting having just dealt with a swarm of office seekers who had pestered him all morning. In his diary he would record,

“I have great contempt for such persons and dispose of their applications very summarily. They take up much of my time every day. I yielded to the request of an artist named Brady, of New York, by sitting for my daguerreotype likeness today. I sat in the large dining room.”
James Polk, February 12, 1849

Mathew Brady was all of 27 years old at the time. Still a young, aspiring daguerreotypist, his historic photograph of Polk would prove an important addition to his expanding gallery of famous American faces. It would also raise his stature in advance of his star-making turn during the 1851 World’s Fair before he ultimately achieved photographic immortality during the Civil War. So how did the Polk photo turn out? You be the judge.

The First Presidential Photograph Is Taken

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