An appraiser on the popular PBS television program “Antiques Roadshow,” Philip J. Merrill will teach a fall semester class for Montgomery College’s Lifelong Learning Institute.  Merrill, a nationally known collector of Black Memorabilia, author and historian specializing in African American  history, is the owner of Nanny Jack & Company, located in Baltimore, Md.

The class, entitled “Black Memorabilia as the Storyteller of African American History,” will examine specific artifacts and their individual stories.  The underlying theme of the course is that Black Memorabilia—defined as artifacts or objects that accompanied Africans and their descendents along their journey to and throughout America—can be a source of learning about African Americans and their joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, accomplishments and contributions, in ways that no history book can.  The individual and collective history of African Americans, as told by the objects that shared history with them, is a unique way of telling a general history through specific means.

The four-session class will be held Wednesday evenings, 7 to 9 p.m. from Oct. 19 to Nov. 9, 2005, at the college’s Rockville campus.  The class, a non-credit continuing education class (ILL371), costs $128; Maryland residents age 60 and over only pay the $64 fee.  All non-Maryland residents must pay an out-of-state fee of $120.  For further information, contact Gary Hong, 301-353-7869.

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Montgomery College is a public, open admissions community college with campuses in Germantown, Rockville, and Takoma Park/Silver Spring, plus workforce development/continuing education centers and off-site programs throughout Montgomery County, Md.  The College serves nearly 50,000 students a year, through both credit and noncredit programs, in more than 100 areas of study.

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