Hannah Elmer

A historian of medieval and early modern Europe, Hannah is originally from Seattle and has traveled extensively, exploring the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest and much of the United States as a child and teenager, discovering New York City in college and graduate school and investigating historical sites and contemporary culture while living in Europe. She combines scholarly research with firsthand exploration and enjoys sharing her discoveries with a wide range of audiences.

As an undergraduate at Barnard College, she majored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, studying old Germanic languages and literature while learning about manuscripts, early printed books and archaeology. She then moved to Vienna, Austria, on a Fulbright grant, where she continued her work with Middle High German and Old Norse and traveled throughout the former territories of the Habsburg Empire. Her studies later took her to Berlin, where she completed a master’s degree in Early Modern History at the Free University and explored Germany and Poland. Returning to New York, she earned a Ph.D. in History at Columbia University. She also began leading historical walking tours of NYC, discovering an interest in teaching history through the natural and built environment. Now back in Germany, she continues her research, currently focused on the early modern history of science, and works as an editor on academic and popular projects.