Early Views of Washington

John Plumbe, Jr. (1809-1857)
[United States Capitol, Washington,
D.C., east front elevation]
LC-USZC4-3595
Half-plate daguerreotypes, ca. 1846
Prints & Photographs Division

Several government buildings were among the first edifices in the nation's capital to be recorded by the relatively new medium of photography. John Plumbe, Jr., the first professional photographer in Washington, D.C., operated a studio in the mid-1840s. His daguerreotype of the south side of the White House was probably taken in the winter of 1846 during President James K. Polk's administration. Plumbe's image of the Capitol, with its former copper-sheathed wooden dome, is the earliest surviving photograph of the building. He also recorded the U.S. Patent Office, which now houses the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of American Art.