Haunting History Double Feature
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Taught by Allison C. Meier and J.R. Pepper
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
JR Pepper is a lecturer, photographer and self described 'professional eccentric'. She holds both a BA and an MA in art history specializing in Surrealism and spirit photography. Her artwork has been seen in various gallery shows and publications including Haunted America: FAQ by Dave Thompson, Vice.com and Musee Magazine. She has spoken at New York Anime Festival, New York Comic Con, Tokyo in Tulsa, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, The Odd Salon, The Dead Ladies Show and is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College. She currently works as digital imaging specialist at The Burns Archive and is a tour guide at Green-wood Cemetery. Her book Buried Boston: America's Revolutionary Necropolis, documenting Boston's burying ground and cemeteries is due out in 2024.
image credit: Bill Wadman
Spend your evening at the Brooklyn Brainery for these back-to-back talks from two local scholars on the obscure and spooky, from strange tales from the Victorian age to the meaning behind cemetery symbolism.
Cemetery Symbols
Have you ever walked through a cemetery and wondered about the many symbols on the tombstones? Although the grim significance behind a skull or hourglass may be clear, others like gesturing hands, carefully chosen flowers, guardian animals, and secret society emblems are more arcane.
This class will explore the meaning behind the symbols commonly found in cemeteries, along with their history in mortuary art, highlighting symbols found in NYC and beyond, so that the next time you go for a stroll in the necropolis you can decipher their hidden meanings. It will also highlight how symbolism has been informed by the life around it and how it continues to change and develop to this day.
Fashionably Strange: A History of Victorian Creepiness
There’s a general consensus in film and media that Victorians were a bit… odd to say the least. But what did they do that made them so odd, so strange, so creepy?
From professional mourning clothing, taxidermy, and an obsession with death to bizarre photography and fashionable communication with the spirit world, there’s no doubt that the Victorians were decidedly creepy. In this talk we will explore what made the Victorians the true masters of the macabre.
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