Former schoolteacher Elizabeth Meaders’ collection of artifacts dating back to the era of slavery will be sold in bulk on March 15.
“What is the history of a people worth?” asked Elizabeth Meaders in 2019, while showing off her incomparable collection of Black history memorabilia and artifacts to New York’s ABC7, 400 years after the first known ships brought enslaved Africans to America’s shores. The former history teacher has been collecting for over six decades, amassing what some have called “the most comprehensive Black History collection in the world” within her home on Staten Island, N.Y. Though the history of Black people in America is arguably priceless, Meaders’ question will at least be answered in part on March 15, as her massive collection is scheduled to be sold in bulk by New York City auction house Guernsey’s, reports the New York Times.
Screengrab: ABC7NY/YouTube
“Crammed into this simple home is a collection that tells the whole saga of African American history, from the scourge of slavery to the struggle of civil rights, to Black soldiers in all of our wars from the Revolution through Vietnam,” Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s, told the Times.
A descendant of the last enslaved person to be freed on Staten Island, Meaders’ roots in the New York borough run deep. For a time, she even taught history at the middle school named for her grandfather, William A. Morris, founder of Staten Island’s branch of the N.A.A.C.P. as well as the owner of an auction house in the area. Clearly having inherited her grandfather’s eye for treasures, Meaders’ collection began with a hunt for Jackie Robinson memorabilia, during which she frequently encountered other rare pieces of Black history. Recognizing the worth of these items, she began cataloging relics from every era since 1619, all arranged by theme.
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“Now, I have documented practically the entirety of the African American experience,” she told ABC7NY.
That includes a section she refers to as “civil rights and civil wrongs,” which doesn’t shy away from the darkest elements of the fight for freedom in the last century—like the Nazi flag captured by Black soldiers in World War II as well as a number of artifacts of the Ku Klux Klan, which Meaders characterized as “a cult.”
While ABC7 estimated there were about 50,000 items in Meaders’ collection in 2019, the New York Times placed that number closer to 20,000. What is not in dispute is the rarity of her finds, the Times reports.
Source: ‘The most comprehensive Black History collection in the world’ up for auction
