Black history ‘gap filler’ set to fetch millions at auction

A massive personal collection that traces the history of black Americans and ranges from rare civil rights posters to Muhammad Ali’s shoes is set to hit the auction block in late February.

For more than 60 years, 90-year-old former teacher Elizabeth Meaders has amassed the collection that fills her New York home. The items document the African-American experience.

“This collection was designed as a patriotic healing and teaching instrument, and it’s vitally, critically needed because as a further insult to a people, our history was actually left out of the history books of America,” said Meaders, who says she traces her ancestry back to one of the first black families to live on Staten Island.

People far more knowledgeable than I have been amazed at the extent of this collection, made all the more remarkable given Ms Meaders put it together as a teacher, on a teacher’s salary.

—  Arlan Ettinger, Guernsey's Auction

“So this collection is a gap filler,” she said.

Guernsey’s Auction, based in New York, is selling what it says is more than 20,000 items of black history memorabilia and artefacts.

“There are several detailed appraisals of this collection produced over the years by highly qualified individuals ... and they ranked this collection in the sort of $7m to $10m (about R108m to R154m) range,” said Guernsey’s president, Arlan Ettinger.

“People far more knowledgeable than I have been amazed at the extent of this collection, made all the more remarkable given Ms Meaders put it together as a teacher, on a teacher’s salary,” Ettinger said.

Other objects include items relating to the horrors of slavery, such as branding tools and shackles, newspapers and memorabilia celebrating civil rights demonstrations, letters from segregationists and sporting, military and other awards won by black Americans.

The online auction for the collection, which is being sold as a single lot, is set for February 28.

— Reuters