RAGTIME
HISTORICAL FIGURES
RAGTIME is a work of historical fiction. While the main characters - Mother, Coalhouse, and Tateh - are all fictional, there are many characters based on real people from the Progressive Era. Hover over or click the images below to learn more about the historical figures in RAGTIME.
Born in 1869 to an Orthodox Lithuanian Jewish family, Goldman immigrated to the United States in 1885 where she became a political activist. An anarchist who opposed capitalism, she advocated for women’s rights, sexual freedom, and workers’ rights through her rousing speeches and writings until her deportation to Russia in 1919.
Emma Goldman
Born into slavery in 1856, Washington was freed during the Civil War and went on to pursue higher education in Washington D.C. When he was 25 years old, he was appointed the founding principal of Tuskegee Institute and went on to greatly expand the institution. He believed that Black Americans would achieve racial progress through vocational education and skills development, which is what he advocated for in his 1895 “Atlanta Compromise” speech. His emphasis on slow progress and vocational education drew criticism from other Black leaders, like W.E.B. DuBois, who disagreed with Washington’s accommodationist approach.
Booker T. Washington
Born Erik Weisz in 1874 Hungary to a Jewish family, Houdini immigrated to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1878. He made his name as a stage performer in New York City, where he became the most famous escape artist and magician in the early 1900s.
Harry Houdini
Discovered at 14 years old, Florence Evelyn Nesbit was a model, actress, and media sensation. She was involved in the 1906 "Trial of the Century” when her husband, Harry K. Thaw shot and killed her former lover and benefactor, architect Stanford White. White was 31 years older than Nesbit and had begun their relationship by sexually assaulting Nesbit when she was 17. Their relationship continued for a year but was over by the time Nesbit and Thaw married. Thaw, a millionaire who was addicted to drugs and had a history of abusive behavior, was jealous of White. At the trial, Thaw was found to be insane and sent to a state hospital for the criminally insane.
Evelyn Nesbit
Known for founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and for bringing the pioneering Model T automobile to market, Ford was an American industrialist and businessman. He is credited with revolutionizing car manufacturing via the assembly line, which lowered production costs and made cars more accessible to the middle class. However, Ford also held deeply troubling beliefs. He was antisemitic, racist, anti-union, and wanted to “Americanize” his immigrant employees. He set up a “Sociological Department” at his factory that inspected workers’ homes: if they weren’t living in ways that Ford deemed appropriate, he docked their pay. He violently put down union protests, had his Black employees work the most dangerous jobs at his factory, and spread conspiracy theories about Jewish people through a newspaper he published.
Henry Ford
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier and investment banker during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1870s-1920s), known as a key leader in Wall Street’s corporate finance industry. He was a driving force behind the creation of prominent corporations like U.S. Steel and General Electric, making him a symbol of wealth and power in his era.
J.P. Morgan
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and US Navy officer, known for his many expeditions to the Arctic from the late 1800s to early 1900s. He famously claimed to have reached the North Pole on a 1908 expedition.
Admiral Peary
Matthew Alexander Henson, born in 1866 Maryland to free sharecroppers, was a Black American explorer. He was best known for accompanying Admiral Peary on his many expeditions to the Arctic, including their 1908 trip to the North Pole.