Calendar of Events

Our world is filled with countless peoples, cultures, histories, and stories. The Placerville Library wants to help tell those stories with its new series “One World, Many Stories.” Join us as we kick off this free series with the African American traveling history exhibit and lecture “Looking Back at Black.” 

Esther Roman, a cultural historian of African American memorabilia, did not start out to be a collector. In fact, she refers to herself as an “accidental collector.” Esther became interested in African American memorabilia after being given an old 6” wooden ruler with the name “G.A. Morgan” stamped on it. After researching the name, she became intrigued by the history that surrounded the piece. This led to over twenty years of collecting African American cookie jars, household items, records, sheet music, dolls, photographs, ephemera, toys, sports and political memorabilia, as well as numerous miscellaneous artifacts. For her, collecting African American memorabilia has been fascinating and gives people a glimpse back at African American history. She believes that these artifacts all have a story to tell—many through the evolution of the black image—and she has decided to take on the job of helping them to tell it.