Elizabeth Meaders: The Retired Teacher Who Turned Her Home into One of America’s Largest Black History Museums

It began with a single keepsake — and became one of the largest private collections of African American history in the United States.

Elizabeth Meaders, a retired New York City schoolteacher, has spent over 60 years transforming her Staten Island home into a living, breathing museum filled with more than 20,000 artifacts documenting the full scope of the Black experience in America — from the horrors of slavery to the triumphs of civil rights and beyond (The New York Times).

Now 90 years old, Meaders has decided it’s finally time to pass the torch. Her life’s work, known as The Elizabeth Meaders Collection, went up for sale through Guernsey’s Auction House in Manhattan this past March 15. It is one of the largest collections of Black memorabilia ever offered at auction in U.S. history (Smithsonian Magazine).

“I can’t go any further — the collection is outgrowing the house and pushing me out,” Meaders said. “It has to be transferred into competent hands that can take it to the next level… Each piece deserves a chance to sing its own song.”

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A Lifelong Labor of Love

Meaders’ fascination with history began in childhood. As a young girl, she collected trading cards of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Her interest deepened when she discovered memorabilia from other legendary Black athletes like Joe Louis and Wilma Rudolph. But it was a small image of Crispus Attucks — the first American killed in the Revolutionary War — that truly changed her life.

“Little by little I just expanded, and it became a labor of love,” Meaders explained.

From that point on, she became a woman on a mission — tracking down rare and overlooked items that together form a sweeping visual timeline of African American life. Her collection now fills every corner of her two-story home, where hallways and staircases are lined with artifacts, photographs, and handwritten letters. The house itself has effectively become a Black history museum, with sections dedicated to slavery, the Harlem Renaissance, the military, sports, and civil rights.

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A Priceless Collection on a Teacher’s Salary

What makes her achievement even more extraordinary is that Meaders built her collection entirely on a teacher’s modest salary. “She had to go toe-to-toe with some pretty serious collectors,” said Diane DeBlois, an appraiser and co-owner of aGatherin’ ephemera sellers. “She raised money through bake sales, school raffles — any way she could.”

Over the years, Meaders refinanced her home several times and often worked multiple jobs to fund her acquisitions. “I’ve never been wealthy,” she said, “but I borrowed against my house and used installment plans just to keep the dream alive.”

Her collection was appraised twice — first in 2009 by Randy F. Weinstein, founder of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, who valued it at $7.5 million, and later by DeBlois, who estimated it at $10 million (NPR).

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A Home Full of Untold Stories

Among her prized pieces are a pair of Muhammad Ali’s boxing shoes, medals from Black Civil War soldiers, and even a Ku Klux Klan grand dragon robe, now displayed under a chilling but powerful exhibit titled “Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs.”

Other items include letters from Harriet Tubman’s contemporaries, photographs of early Black suffragists, and a musket believed to have belonged to a Black Union soldier — tangible reminders of the courage and resilience woven into the nation’s past (The Washington Post).

“No other private collection of this size focusing on Black history has ever come to auction before,” said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s. “Crammed into this simple Staten Island home is a collection that tells the entire saga of African American history — from the scourge of slavery to the modern struggle for equality.”

Historian and appraiser Wyatt Houston Day echoed that sentiment: “What makes her collection so valuable is the connective tissue — the small, everyday items that fill the gaps left in other archives. They bring humanity to history.”

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A Legacy Beyond the Auction Block

Though her two daughters have chosen not to take on the collection, Meaders hopes it will live on publicly — perhaps through a university, museum, or cultural institution that will preserve it for future generations. “I hope someone sees what I’ve seen all these years — that every piece tells a story worth saving,” she said.

Her dream is for the collection to become the foundation of a dedicated African American museum in New York City, something she believes is long overdue. The sale, she added, is not the end of her work — only its next chapter.

“I’ve struggled to tell a history that’s been ignored or told incorrectly,” she said. “The more I found, the more I wanted. It became a giant puzzle I had to finish — to educate, to heal, to inspire, to empower.”

Meaders’ passion for preservation runs in her blood. She is the granddaughter of William A. Morris, who owned one of Staten Island’s earliest auction houses and helped found the local NAACP branch. That lineage of community advocacy and curiosity lives on in her every action.

Even now, Meaders jokes that her collecting days aren’t truly over. “I think even when I’m in my coffin, if something comes up for auction, I’ll probably toss a bid out,” she laughed.

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A Treasure of National Importance

Historians and museum curators have compared Meaders’ home collection to the early archives that later became the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. (Smithsonian Magazine). Her artifacts, meticulously labeled and contextualized, fill historical gaps that few institutions have ever managed to close.

“Elizabeth Meaders’ collection is more than memorabilia,” one historian said. “It’s a mirror of America’s conscience.”

With her legacy firmly established, Meaders has ensured that future generations will have the opportunity to witness — and learn from — the triumphs, tragedies, and resilience of Black history.

As she puts it: “This is America’s story. It just happens to be told through Black eyes.”