Are there any photographs of the Founding Fathers or early Presidents out there?

Question

Now I know there are no photographs of guys like Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Hancock, etc. But what about someone like James Madison or Andrew Jackson? Madison died in 1836, Jackson in 1845. I don't know exactly when the camera was invented, but I know it was around the 1830s. I'm sure a US President would be photographed at some point, right? Of course, no one probably had the audacity to ask Old Hickory to sit down for a photograph, but still! I do understand that they may have been photographed and the pictures were lost or destroyed over time.

Update:

I've seen that one of Jackson, but I could never tell if it was, in fact, a photograph. Guess it is! Never saw those of Adams, nice!

Kenny Dewit · Accepted Answer

http://www.notablebiographies.com/images/uewb_06_img0367.jpg

Jackson's photo and I believe John Quincy Adams was the first president to be photographed

Muinghan Life During Wartime · Answer

Photography was still in its INFANT STAGE during the American Civil War, 1861–1865.

There was no photography during the time of the AMerican Revolution.
George Washington passed away in 1799.

Andrew Jackson passed away in 1845  --- what you saw was a Daguerrotype done in 1845 just before he died at the age of 78.

A Daguerrotype is NOT a photograph but an image.
They are NOT photos - they are more like "Etch A Sketches".

It was the first successful photographic IMAGE process. 
The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silver plated copper plate. . 
The surface of a daguerreotype is like a mirror, with the image made directly on the silvered surface; it is very fragile and can be rubbed off with a finger, and the finished plate has to be angled so as to reflect some dark surface in order to view the image properly. 
It's basically an image on a silver foil metal plate.
They have to be tightly sealed or they disappear from the plate with air.
It takes a very long time for the image to actually appear and the person would have to "sit" for it, like they were having their portrait painted.

John Quincy Adams was the first person who had been a US President to have a Daguerrotype done many years after his presidency when he was quite elderly --- it has been lost but a copy of it was taken, 1843.
John Quincy Adams's Daguerrotype;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Quincy_Adams_1824.jpg

Jackson's Daguerrotype ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andrew_Jackson_Daguerrotype-crop.jpg

Here's is one of Abraham Lincoln;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abelincoln1846.jpeg

**A NOTE**
both Jackson and Lincoln's Daguerrotypes have been 'touched up' with paint.

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Are there any photographs of the Founding Fathers or early Presidents out there?

2 Answers