The exact date when Polk sat for this daguerreotype is unclear, but his haggard appearance and thin hair indicate that it was late in his presidential term or perhaps in the months after he left oflice. One letter writer who saw Polk in the summer of 1847 described his 'fatigued and careworn countenance, which me-thought, might turn the hearts of some of his most violent opponents” (Sandweiss, Eyewitness to War, 241