HBO’s John Adams miniseries has left me still feeling both floored and haunted. If only everything else on television could be so powerful…

Ever since Sunday night when the finale ran, my interest in real American history (as opposed to the fake pageantry of, say, the current election cycle) has been stoked. Not that it ever went away or anything, but I guess that after becoming so cynical about what America is turning into, I felt a need to look back at what we used to be, and what we could still be again.

So one thing led to another and I found myself looking for the earliest photographs of Presidents that we know are in existence. I wasn’t expecting to find any of John Adams (photography was invented the year he passed away and it would be some time before the process was perfected) but I did find this ...