New York: City of the Dead
Taught by Allison C. Meier
Allison C. Meier is a writer specializing in contemporary visual arts and overlooked history who moonlights as a cemetery tour guide. She is the author of 'Grave' (2023) in Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. Her bylines include stories in the New York Times, National Geographic, Hyperallergic, CityLab, Curbed, Wellcome Collection, and others. Find more about her here: allisoncmeier.com
New York City is dense with the dead. From the sprawling acres of Green-Wood in Brooklyn and Woodlawn in the Bronx, to the hidden urban corners of the New York Marble Cemetery in the East Village and Trinity Church Cemetery on Wall Street, the eternal New Yorkers are a silent, but considerable, population. But much more than just places of morbid curiosity, the cemeteries of New York City are cross sections of the city's history, and are the final homes of its most significant citizens.
This one-session class will give an overview of the evolution of cemeteries in New York City, their place in its history, as well as a look into some of the "secret" cemeteries hidden all around us. (For example, did you know there is a potters field under Washington Square and a Quaker Cemetery in Prospect Park?)
This is a classroom session and not a walking tour.
