Joseph Jenkins Roberts, First President of Liberia

Date: January 1854

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Category: Presidents & Leaders

Historical Significance:
This is an exceptionally valuable image because it is an early photographic portrait of Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia’s first president. The original daguerreotype was made by Augustus Washington in Monrovia in January 1854; the Library of Congress records the surviving image and identifies Roberts as Liberia's first and seventh president.

Roberts arrived in Liberia from Virginia in 1829. He became Vice Colonial Governor in 1839 and Governor of the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1841. After Liberia declared independence in 1847, he became the country's first president, serving from 1848 to 1856. He later returned to the presidency from 1872 to 1876.

The photograph is particularly significant because it was made in Monrovia itself, providing a direct visual connection to Liberia's early republican period. The Library of Congress lists no known restrictions on publication for the image.