Ragtime: Cakewalk in Pianoland

Now available for pre-order! Coming this November

A fascinating fresh perspective on ragtime music, its authorship and enduring legacy

Drawing on materials from the John Davis Collection of Early Printed Musical African Americana as well as holdings at the Morgan Library & Museum and other collections, this catalogue focuses on ragtime, one of the first truly global popular music styles. Tracing the genre’s evolution from its roots at the intersection of West African and European musical traditions, through its roles in the development of jazz, Broadway, film, and 20th-century popular culture, and to its afterlives today in scholarship, contemporary art, and modern media such as video games, the catalogue explores ragtime’s vibrant legacy through rare printed music, archival materials, and technologies of musical transmission from manuscript to piano roll. Readers will encounter ragtime’s most influential figures, once famous and now largely forgotten or misunderstood, such as Ernest Hogan, Scott Joplin, Aida Overton Walker, and Sisieretta Jones.

Authors and co-curators Jesse R. Erickson, Robinson McClellan, and John Davis examine ragtime from complementary perspectives in their respective chapters. Erickson recovers the histories obscured by the appropriation of ragtime, reclaiming the contributions of Black entertainers who shaped American popular culture. McClellan traces the transformation of ragtime from improvisatory and virtuosic performance into a literate art form through its capture in the written score, demonstrating what is revealed and obscured by this translation. Davis brings a personal angle, reflecting on his experience as a collector and performer of early and understudied African American music.

Published by the Morgan Library & Museum.

This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Ragtime: Cakewalk in Pianoland on view at the Morgan Library & Museum from November 13, 2026, through June 20, 2027.