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Allison C. Meier

@allisoncmeier.bsky.social
1.3K followers 553 following 232 posts

Writer on art, culture, history & other wonders. Editor at Fine Books & Collections. NYC-based, Oklahoma born. 'Grave' book is out now from Bloomsbury! (she/her)

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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Zines this Saturday in Williamsburg! Looking forward to bringing my library of zines on topics from cemeteries to manhole covers to witch bottles to this gathering at Pete's Candy Store presented by the great Quimby's NYC. The excellent flier by Ayun Halliday is inspired by Quimby's shop cat Gracie.
Pete's Mini Zine Fest: Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Saturday, September 19, 2026, 2pm-7pm. FREE!
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Reposted by Allison C. Meier
The Art Newspaper @theartnewspaper.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Selma’s long-abandoned Edistone Hotel, witness to 170 years of African American history, was recently saved by a non-profit devoted to protecting Black historical sites. buff.ly/u3yDAjQ
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Explored what we can learn from the Revolutionary War dead for @myhnn.bsky.social
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I realize its time had been up for a while, but still a little sad to see the Guggenheim Bandshell at Lincoln Center turned to dust with little fanfare. The teardrop of concrete was by Eggers & Higgins and built in 1969. Glad I got a photo of it from its last winter
Pile of concrete at a demolition site
Curve of concrete at night in the snow
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
So exciting to receive copies of my forthcoming @3313books.bsky.social book on Woody Guthrie's 'Dust Bowl Ballads'! I think this 1940 album on ecological collapse; police brutality; mistreatment of migrants; & making art despite it all is as timely as ever www.bloomsbury.com/us/woody-gut...
Hand holding a copy of 'Dust Bowl Ballads' by Allison C. Meier on a beach with rides in the background
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
If you want to learn where cemetery symbols came from, what they mean, and why some are spookier than others, I'm reviving my Speak with the Dead online class this August with @morbidanatomy.bsky.social www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/p/sp...
morbidanatomy.org
Speak with the Dead: Understanding Cemetery Symbolism with Cemetery Expert Allison C. Meier, Begins August 2 — Morbid Anatomy
Four week class taught online via Zoom Sundays, August 2 -23, 2026 6:00 - 8:00pm ET (NYC time) $125 Paid Patreon Members / $145 General Admission Classes will be recorded and archived for s...
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Reposted by Allison C. Meier
The Art Newspaper @theartnewspaper.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Designed by the American Modernist architect Herb Greene, the Prairie House in Oklahoma is the subject of a new preservation campaign. buff.ly/mp1xNiM
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I'll be talking cemeteries, trains, trolleys, and more at this happening tonight in Queens. Free to stop by, have a drink, enjoy!
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I visited NYC's oldest library to see what's new after their latest revamp. It was full of writers writing when I stopped by!
theartnewspaper.com
New York City’s oldest library refreshes its historic home
The 272-year-old New York Society Library’s patrons have included the likes of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New book alert celebrating my home and the great city of New York!! I authored ‘An Opinionated Guide to New York Architecture’ for the fantastic Hoxton Mini Press, with write ups on over 70 sites I think represent the diverse history of local design. Available now in the UK & for preorder in the US
hoxtonminipress.com
An Opinionated Guide to New York Architecture
An Opinionated Guide to New York Architecture – Your refreshingly opinionated guide to the best buildings in The Big Apple. By Allison C. Meier, from Hoxton Mini Press.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This year's list of America's Most Endangered Places highlights those threatened by federal erasure of history and the opening of public lands to oil
theartnewspaper.com
Stonewall monument targeted by Trump administration among the US’s most endangered historic places
The latest edition of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list spotlights federal erasure and rollbacks to public land conservation
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Rescheduling this to June 13 due to the rainy forecast! (And my catching the terrible cold going around NYC.) Hoping for bluer skies ahead.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I'm trying out something new this Saturday with a walk on the hidden muses of NYC sculpture, coinciding with the recent release of the Women's History of NY map I authored. Stop by! I'll have maps on hand, too www.eventbrite.com/e/hidden-mus...
eventbrite.com
Hidden Muses of New York Sculpture Walk
Recover the histories of the women who modeled for NYC's public art
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Emerging from winter hibernating and back to the events. I have an online talk with @morbidanatomy.bsky.social tonight on the art of the dance of death! Seems timely to talk about how we return to this image of mortality in times of crisis www.morbidanatomy.org/events-ticke...
morbidanatomy.org
Online Talk · The Art of the Dance of Death with Writer & Researcher Allison C. Meier — Morbid Anatomy
7pm ET (NYC time) Monday, April 20, 2026 PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be sent out to ticket holders after its conclusion. It will also be archived for our Patreon members. Become a Member HERE. Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before th
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Tell me your well loved book tales! I’m collecting options for our reader comments in the winter issue.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Some new reporting on the oldest cave art in North America, climate change & a community that doesn't want to return a human made lake to its natural state because it irrigates a golf course www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/31/p...
theartnewspaper.com
Protecting North America’s oldest cave art after an historic flood raised new alarms
Dunbar Cave, home of numerous petroglyphs and pictographs dating back at least 800 years, was submerged by a flood in February—the art was fortunately undamaged, but how can we save it from inevitable...
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
If you want to read all about why cemetery ledgers matter, the people keeping metal type making alive, the joys of collecting well-worn books, medieval fragmentology & much more, pick up the fall issue of @finebooks.bsky.social , edited by me! store.finebooksmagazine.com/autumn-2025/...
Cover of Fine Books & Collections magazine with a black and white photo of a woman standing among ruins
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
If you want to lift your spirits by having a drink & perusing excellent zines, the Pete's Mini Zine Fest is tomorrow at Pete's Candy Store hosted by Quimby's! I'll be bringing my zines on cemeteries, manhole covers, spirit photography & more. www.instagram.com/p/DOtlLgVEZx...
Pete's Mini Zine Fest: September 20, 2025, 2pm-7pm, Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Delightful surprise to open a Brooklyn Public Library book & find it was once Pete Hamill’s! (And inscribed to him by Max Gordon of the Village Vanguard.) Love that this is just part of the circulating collection.
Ex Libris of Pete Hamill in a bookTitle page for Live at the Village Vanguard by Max Gordon with inscription by Gordon to Hamill
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
I don't think Lee Hays has got his due as compost burial pioneer, with his last wishes for his ashes to be mixed with a compost pile. He even wrote a farewell poem about it: "If I should die before I wake, / All my bone and sinew take: / Put them in the compost pile / To decompose a little while.
en.wikipedia.org
Lee Hays - Wikipedia
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I remember getting two pitches from this "author" this year & naively responded to the first until there was a weird question about Paypal payments. But I feel like this is only the tip of what most editors are seeing of AI pitches, it's such a waste of time & burying everything else
theguardian.com
Wired and Business Insider remove articles by AI-generated ‘freelancer’
At least six publications have taken down articles under the name Margaux Blanchard that were AI-generated
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The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
#SundayReads: For more than half a millennium, the dance of death in European visual art has imagined a tango between the quick and the dead. @AllisonCMeier explores: publicdomainreview.org/essay/our-mo…
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Some new reporting by me on the preservation of Black churches
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Just want to celebrate that the NYPL Performing Arts Library has an incredible offering of album liner notes that you can examine in their research collections! Saved me a lot of time/money tracking things down.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
I've spent much of this year on a Folk Art Museum project rethinking biographies for "outsider" artists & I'm proud these are now coming online! It was inspiring in this time of undervaluing human creativity to commune with those who made their own paths collection.folkartmuseum.org/search/meier
collection.folkartmuseum.org
Search meier (Artists) – Search – American Folk Art Museum
eMuseum is a powerful web publishing toolkit that integrates seamlessly with TMS to bring dynamic collection content and images to your website, intranet, and kiosks.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
The summer issue of @finebooks.bsky.social I edited is out, with tales of literary Portugal, people who love endpapers, poisonous books, Route 66 maps & more! Get a copy now in beautiful print www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue
Hand holding a magazine titled Fine Books & Collections with a woman driving a car on the cover
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Never not a weird time to promote projects these days but I am proud of this brand new Modernist NYC Map I authored for Blue Crow Media! Has over 50 sites for you to wander actoss the five boroughs bluecrowmedia.com/products/mod...
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Did some reporting on very old house news
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
The Matta-Clark roses are now blooming!
Red roses blooming within a cage
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
This Thursday my online deep dive on cemetery symbols begins! We'll discover the ancient rites, memento mori meaning, and often overlooked art of how we express the afterlife on our graves. Join live or on your own time: www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/p/sp...
morbidanatomy.org
Speak with the Dead: Understanding Cemetery Symbolism with Cemetery Expert Allison C. Meier, Begins May 8 — Morbid Anatomy
Four week class taught online via Zoom Thursdays, May 8 - 29, 2025 7 - 9 pm ET (NYC time) $125 Paid Patreon Members / $145 General Admission Classes will be recorded and archived for studen...
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Cemetery walk season returns this weekend! I'm leading the spring tree wander at Green-Wood in Brooklyn, hopefully giving time to think about our connections to trees and death www.green-wood.com/event/buds-a...
green-wood.com
Buds and Blossoms: A Spring Walk at Green-Wood - Green-Wood
Spring is here, and it’s time to experience Green-Wood’s stunning transformation! The Cemetery bursts into a bouquet of colors as hundreds of flowering trees and plants come to life in a dazzling disp...
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
This Saturday night! I'm leaving my home to co-host a storytelling event at Chinatown Soup as part of the Goblin Market. Please join & bring any tales you would like to share of Uncanny Journeys. My zines will also be among the market's wares from March 21-30 www.eventbrite.com/e/goblin-mar...
Green square with text for the Goblin Market by Interesting Editions: March 21-30, with text from Christina Rossetti's poem
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
If you want to join any of my spring cemetery happenings, in person in Brooklyn and Buffalo to talk trees and grave history, and online to talk symbolism, I have a new newsletter for you mailchi.mp/ab8d89c57e2d...
mailchi.mp
As Winter Fades, Cemetery Events Revive! 👻 🌸
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I love a glimpse of the human hand behind marvels!
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Made a zine of my photos of guiding angels in Green-Wood Cemetery, looking at how they depict Victorian women & children at a time when pregnancy was not a choice. Selling them for $20 incl. shipping to give the profits to the Roe Fund of Oklahoma, send a DM or reach out allisoncmeier.com/contact/
Hand holding a zine that says "Follow Me: Angel Guides of the Victorian Cemetery" in front of a statue of an angel and a soldier
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
I had not heard that Most Holy Trinity with its distinctive metal markers—a choice to make everyone equal in death—has had a major increase of memorials stolen recently, likely destroyed as scrap. Too many NYC cemeteries have little attention to their care outside of volunteers like this stepping in
nytimes.com
When Grave Markers Are Stolen, He Speaks for the Dead
To Michael Hirsch, the desecration of hundreds of graves was a shanda, a shame, a ghoulish crime. He wanted to do something about it.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
There's such a density of garbage news that only through my brother in Memphis did I hear of this giant supercomputer that supposedly needs to run polluting gas turbines 24/7 & is offering its community zero transparency www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/...
commercialappeal.com
Elon Musk's xAI wants to use gas turbines long-term at Memphis site, documents show
xAI has filed for a permit with the Shelby County Department of Health that would allow for 15 gas turbines to operate 24/7 at its Memphis site.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I reported for @theartnewspaper.bsky.social on the recent identification of a cemetery for enslaved people at Andrew Jackson's plantation, where overgrowth and absence from historic records obscured it from visibility www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/02/14/c...
theartnewspaper.com
Cemetery for enslaved people rediscovered at Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee plantation
Long-obscured and forgotten, the burial plots of more than two dozen people enslaved by the seventh president of the US are located and honoured
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Beautiful to see a simple kindness for each other
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
I never get tired of the city snow
A couple walking on a snowy street
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Didn't anticipate how timely Woody Guthrie's words would feel when I pitched my book project: "Fascism would like for you to weep and hang your head and cry and get so mixed up in your thinking that you'd walk into one of its own churches looking for some kind of a personal salvation."
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
This will surely be wonderful to learn research techniques with Bess!
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
It was standing room only tonight at Roulette for a performance of the Long String Instrument, a drone instrument with 50-foot strings. Much appreciation in this week of dread for seeing people just really excited to witness giant, weird instruments.
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Not enough good stuff on the tables of the world! Love this distribution idea
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Sometimes I make myself feel bad for spending time on zines as opposed to “real writing” (whatever that means these days) but it’s fun to walk by the wonderful Quimbys in Williamsburg & see my little NYC Epitaphs zine among the cool DIY publications
Shelf of zines and magazines outside a store
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Finally caught the ‘Imaginary Books’ exhibit at the Grolier Club & the attention to detail in making the books real in their time & place is great. We have an article about this collection of imaginary books in the latest @finebooks.bsky.social: store.finebooksmagazine.com/winter-2025....
Book with The King in Yellow on the cover
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
The Center for Book Arts has a cool exhibit about “blooks,” or book-shaped objects! From book lighters to marble book memorial objects
Lighter shaped like a bookMarble sculpture shaped like a bookDrink set shaped like a bookBook made of wax
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Radiant sunset witnessed tonight (as seen in Prospect Park)
Two people sit watching a sunset by a frozen lake
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Always into a small highly specific publication and this new one on the gravestones of type designers is top notch. (By Gavin Morrison and Scott Myles with Katherine Small Gallery) ksmallgallery.com/blogs/events...
Hand holding a publication reading Last Words
Jan Tschichold gravestone image
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Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
As always, seeing all the people out in Prospect Park after a snowfall raises the spirits
People walking on a snowy landscape with a tree at center
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