About

Cartoon by Bob Eckstein for the New Yorker of my pet cemetery tour

Allison C. Meier is an Oklahoma-born, Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and researcher focused on visual culture, architecture, and overlooked history: I believe in writing about the arts and heritage of our world in an accessible, engaging way.

I am the author of Grave (2023, Bloomsbury) in the Object Lessons book series and the editor of the Great Trees of New York (2021), Art Deco New York (2018), and Concrete New York (2017) maps from Blue Crow Media.

Previously, I was a staff writer at Hyperallergic and the senior editor at Atlas Obscura. My bylines include the New York Times, Hyperallergic, Atlas Obscura, CityLab, Curbed, National Geographic, the Public Domain Review, Wellcome Collection, the New Inquiry, Lapham’s QuarterlySmithsonianMental Floss, SlateArtDesk, Raw Vision Magazine, Reasons to Be CheerfulJSTOR Daily, Urban OmnibusChicago Magazine, the OffingARTNews, Narratively, Nineteenth Century magazineCollectors WeeklyBunk HistoryAFAR, Dilettante ArmyGlasstire, Artsy, Nightingale, 1stdibsDeath in the Afternoon Podcast, Fine Books MagazineBrooklyn Based, 20×200GOOD, the Order of the Good Death, and the Oklahoma Gazette.

As a researcher, I have contributed to A&E Biography Channel’s Bio Shorts series, turning up intriguing facts and stories about famous and overlooked figures from pop culture and history. I regularly edit and copyedit for publications.

I moonlight as a cemetery tour guide at New York burial grounds and I am a licensed New York City sightseeing guide. I’m on a mission to see all the city’s Greatest Trees. I am forecasting the weekly NYC Microseasons in a regular newsletter. I always make time for zines.

A woman in a black dress picked up a lantern. “Welcome to Green-Wood Cemetery,” she said. “My name is Allison Meier.”
The New Yorker (2014)