Miss Mary Adams

A carte-de-visite portrait of Miss Mary Gardiner Adams (1845-1928), daughter of Charles Francis Adams, the United States minister to the court of St James. Her grandfather was the US president John Quincy Adams and her great-grandfather was John Adams, second President of the United States.

The sitting that follows this one in the Silvy daybooks is a portrait of a Miss Chapman, wearing similar grand tenue. On 2 March 1863, the court circular in the Times carried a lengthy report of a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace held by the Princess Royal on behalf of the Queen. Mrs Adams, wife of the United States minister, presented her daughter, Miss Adams, and Miss Anne Chapman, of Boston, Massachusetts.

No specific dates were entered in the Silvy daybooks for the sittings that took place between 24 February 1863 and 5 March 1863, so the exact date of the 80 sittings that took place on those days is unknown. However, since this portrait fits so neatly with an event that took place on a known date, it seems likely that the sitters visited Silvy's studio on Saturday 28 February, on their way to the Palace.

On 20 June 1877 Miss Adams married Dr Henry Parker Quincy (1838-1899) in Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London, probably on 28 February 1863.

From an album compiled by Elizabeth Van de Weyer, wife of Jean Sylvain Van de Weyer, Belgian ambassador to the Court of St. James.