John Quincy Adams - the Enhanced Daguerreotypes

The Original Daguerreotypes

John Quincy Adams sat for photographer Philip Haas in 1843 that resulted in three daguerreotypes being produced.¹ The first, shown below-left, is the well-known historical image of JQA. The second, on the right, was given by Adams to Congressman Horace Everett and remained hidden within the Everett family lost to history until it resurfaced in 2017 when a direct descendant put it up for auction with Sotheby’s. The third daguerreotype remains unaccounted for.

Below are up close views of the before and after colorized and enhanced daguerreotypes.

The "Lost and Found" Daguerreotype

The following before and after image is the "lost but found" daguerreotype of Adams.

Since the second Adams daguerreotype has more blur, the AI has to interpret data that is not there; thus, the rendering of Adams' eyes does not appear correct. The AI is making its best guess as to what Adams' eyes looked like. In the images below, the top image shows the untouched original. The 2nd image shows the eyes as the AI renders them. The third image shows my Photoshop adjustments to make the eyes look more like the original or at least how I think the AI should have rendered them.

Final Versions

Below are the full colorized and enhanced versions of the dagueertypes.

Downloads

These colorized and enhanced daguerreotypes are available as full size TIF downloads for non-commericial use.

JQA Daguerreotype No. 1 Download

JQA Daguerreotype No. 2 Download

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John Quincy Adams Daguerreotype Enhancement Video

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What did the Founding Fathers really look like? Can we know for certain?

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Sources & References:
¹https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/arts/design/john-quincy-adams-daguerreotype-sothebys-auction.html
Image Sources:
Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/268333
National Portrait Gallery https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2017.110