Edward James Roye: 5th president of Liberia

Bibliographic Description:

Title: Edward J. Roye, three-quarter length portrait, standing, with hand raised

Date: between 1856 and 1860

Copyright: public domain

Description: daguerreotype portrait of Edward James Roye

Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Notes: unidentified photographer

Relation to the Canal Market Mural:

The mural I chose for my cultural object depicts three historic storefronts of Newark businesses and a barbershop. A product of the artist's imagination, the barbershop is owned by Edward James Roye, a Newark native, who served as the fifth president of Liberia from 1870-1871. This was an interesting decision as Roye never owned a barbershop in his hometown. However, upon relocating to Terre Haute, Indiana after completing college, Roye would go on to open the city’s first bathhouse/barbershop. According to Goldstein, this section of the mural depicts Roye reading a newspaper over the shoulder of his customer to discover the existence of the American Colonization Society, the organization through which Roye and his family would eventually emigrate from the US to Liberia. Once settled in Liberia, Roye would go on to become politically active and served as a representative and speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, and finally as president in 1870. Roye’s time as president was short lived as he was removed from office in 1871 and later died under mysterious circumstances. 

This is important knowledge because it is a relatively unknown, but interesting part of the city’s (Newark, Ohio) history.