John Adams

After John Adams's presidential term expired in 1800, the Adamses retired to Quincy, Massachusetts. John Adams maintained a lively interest in public affairs, launching public and private letter campaigns supporting such policies as the embargo of 1807. His extensive surviving correspondence, like that of Abigail Adams, tells us much about political, family, and social life in the early republic.
Raphaelle Peale, a son of Charles Willson Peale, ventured along the eastern seaboard and through the South in search of sitters for his profiles. Peale probably took these likenesses when he stayed with the Adamses in Quincy in October 1804. The inscription and date were probably added later.