Portrait of former President John Quincy Adams expected to sell for whopping amount

A picture is worth a thousand words, but the earliest surviving photograph of a US president is expected to sell for a couple hundred thousand.

John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, sat for a daguerreotype in 1843. He gave the photo to Horace Everett and the photo remained in the Everett family.

In the 1990’s they discovered that the forgotten photo was an ancestor they didn’t remember, but was, in fact, the former president of the United States.

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The portrait is signed by President Adams and includes a bookplate indicating the portrait was given to Everett.

The portrait will go on the Sotheby’s auction block on October 5th and is estimated to go for over $200,000 dollars.

Emily Bierman, head of Sotheby’s photograph department, said: "The interest in this portrait will likely be broad, from school children studying American presidents to serious collectors of historical objects and rare photographs."

Had President Adams known the portrait would be worth so much someday perhaps he would have smiled.