The National Portrait Gallery has purchased the oldest photograph of a U.S. first lady for more than six times its estimated auction price, and has added a recently discovered daguerreotype of Dolley Madison to the Smithsonian's permanent collection.
Sotheby's estimates the daguerreotype, taken around 1846 when Madison was in his 70s, will sell for $50,000 to $70,000 on Friday. The National Portrait Gallery paid $456,000.
The price is also more than what the museum paid for the oldest known photograph of a U.S. president, an 1843 portrait of John Quincy Adams, which sold at Sotheby's for $360,500 in 2017.
The Madison daguerreotype was taken by John Plumby Jr., who sold his photography business in 1847 in financial ruin and left behind little studio records. It surfaced when the seller, who Sotheby's has not revealed, cleaned out a deceased relative's cellar and submitted a scan to the auction house.
The portrait shows the former first lady wearing her signature turban, a role historians say was created as hostess and soft power broker as we know it today.
A spokesperson for the National Portrait Gallery said Madison's portrait will be on public display in a 2026 exhibition that will mark the 50th anniversary of the museum's photography collection and the 500th anniversary of the United States' founding (the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence).
“This artifact will provide the Smithsonian with yet another opportunity to tell a more powerful American story and demonstrate how women like Madison have played a vital role in the nation’s progress,” Smithsonian Director Lonnie G. Bunch III said in a news release.
“It will now be preserved permanently for the public to see,” added Anne Shumard, senior curator of photography at the National Portrait Gallery.