Boston, September 27, 1842:
Today, I visited a Daguerrean Gallery to have my photograph taken. They took me to the top of the house where a round house has been erected; it had windows like a green house, with a door opening to the sun. I took a seat at the corner of a settee so that the light of the Sun came obliquely on the side of my face. There was a small telescope nearly in front of me pointed directly at me. And at a corresponding angle on the other side a mirror. A tin or metallic plate was fitted into the telescope, and on that metallic plate the photographic impression is made. Not more than two minutes were required for each impression during which I was required to keep my head immovable, looking steady at one object. They kept me there an hour and a half, and took seven or eight impressions, all of them very bad. An exposition of sleep came over me, and I found it utterly impossible to keep my eyes open for two minutes together. I dozed, and the picture was asleep. I give it up in despair. How the impression is taken or comes upon the plate is utterly inconceivable to me.

– from John Quincy Adams Journal