First Photo

Imagine coming across a 178-year-old photo of First Lady Dolley Madison while cleaning out the basement of a deceased family member. That’s exactly what happened to the anonymous seller of a daguerreotype portrait of Madison, according to The New York Times, which was recently sold at auction to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for $456,000.

The portrait (above) is the earliest known photo of a first lady. It was made in 1846 by photographer John Plumbe Jr. who emigrated from England to the United States in 1821 and opened photography studios in more than a dozen U.S. cities. Madison was in her late 70s when she posed for the portrait.

The photo is now part of the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection, which also includes an 1843 daguerreotype of President John Quincy Adams (above), the first known photograph of a president, that the museum acquired in 2017.

Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.