Ragtime Words Post

Coon Songs- style of music popular in late 1800's-early 1900's, played for comedic purposes, used some Ragtime techniques with syncopation in melody. Often written and performed by white composers dressed up in black face, very stereotypical representation of black people at time, often cruel.
Gutenberg Bible on Vellum- The Gutenberg bible was the first book ever produced on a printing press, which was invented by Gutenberg. Vellum was a form of parchment for printing used in the 1500's.

Sarajevo- The capital city and largest urban center of Bosnia. It has a very big population and a large area.

Empire- A group of people or states united by a single ruling monarch.

Shtetl- A Yiddish term for a small town with a large Jewish population.

Trade Unions- an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions.

Tuskegee University- private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Charles Whitman- a student of the University of Texas at Austin who killoed 14 people and wounded 32 others in a shooting rampage on and near the campus.

Tateh - Tateh is a Jewish immigrant from Latvia. In the first part of the novel he lives with his daughter on the Lower East Side, working as a peddler and a silhouette artist. He later leaves with his daughter to travel to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he becomes a filmmaker. He marries Mother at the end of the novel.

Tarring and feathering- is a physical punishment, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance (compare Lynch law).

U-Boat:A German submarine, or "Unterseeboot" used in WWI and WWII. The U-Boat was typically used in economic warfare; they would be used to create a naval blockade to inhibit enemy shipping, interrupt shipping, and sink merchant ships.

Vaudeville: A genre of entertainment that was popular in the US during the time from the early 1800s to the early 1930s (it was particularly prevalent in the years following the Civil War). Vaudeville was staged variety show entertainment; an evening of entertainment would consist of a series of unrelated acts such as comedians, musicians, dancers, acrobats, trained animals, musicians, etc.

Socialism – A theory of political, social, and economic organization that focuses on the concept of collective ownership, production, and administration. Commonly it falls under the jurisdiction of the state. Modern socialism started in industrial countries and was promoted by Karl Marx as a means to promote social equality.

Stevedore – A dock worker. It originated in Spain and Portugal and was eventually used by sailors. In England they are commonly called dockers while in the U.S. and Canada they are called longshoremen from "man-along-the-shore".

Yiddish ~ A language spoken by (particularly) Jews all throughout the world that originated in Germany and is written with the Hebrew alphabet.

Tom Thumb ~ General Tom Thumb was the stage name of a famous midget named Charles Sherwood Stratton who performed in P.T. Barnum's circus. Stratton lived from January 4, 1838 to July 15, 1883 (45 years), and was married to another midget, Lavinia Warren. He achieved international fame, and 10,000 people attended his funeral. He was like the Britney Spears of the late 19th century.

Lawrence Mill Strike
• Lawrence, MA, January 11, 1912
• Maximum hours that people could work were cut, so the mill cut their wages
• Industrial Workers of the World get involved; demands met in March (New England-wide)

Lower East Side
• A diverse, working-class Manhattan neighborhood, that once had large German and Jewish populations.

Lusitania
• British luxury ocean liner, was sunk by a German submarine in 1906

Mamaroneck - a small town in New York State, on Long Island near NYC

Mass Production - the production of goods in large qualities, usually by machinery or assembly line

The McKinley Assassination - 25th President William McKinlney was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY

Kinde= Child in Yiddish

Kosher=fit, according to Jewish law.

Latvia= A country of north-central Europe on the Baltic Sea. Under Russian control from the 18th century, Latvia became independent after World War I but was annexed in 1940 by the USSR and known as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic until it declared its independence in 1990. Riga is the capital. Population: 2,260,000.

Minstrel Shows--
These were American shows that provided entertainment with comic skits, acts, dancing, and music. Usually, it was performed in blackface (white people painting their faces black and acting like an extremely stereotyped black person of the time period).

Morgan Library--
This was a museum and research library in New York City, founded in 1906. It was created in order to house J.P. Morgan's private library.

--Hayley Van Dooooooooosey

1. Moses in the bulrushes: When Moses got to big to hide he was placed in a basket of bulrushes and sent down the river.

2. If they landed in New York, they were processed at one of the following locations, depending on when they arrived: Aug 1, 1855 - April 18, 1890, Castle Garden April 19, 1890 - Dec 31, 1891...Barge Office, Jan 1, 1892 - June 14, 1897...Ellis Island

3. slum: a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.

4. North Pole:The end of the earth's axis of rotation, marking the northernmost point on the earth.

5. Our Gang: Also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children

6. Pantasote: When the West Virginia Ordnance Works was in operation from 1942 to 1945, it heavily polluted the ground with chemicals on 8,000 acres north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

7. Parasol: A canopy designed to protect against precipitation or sunlight.

8. Admiral Peary: was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole.

9. Philharmonic: devoted to or appreciative of music; "the most philharmonic ear is at times deeply affected by a simple air"

10. Mary Pickford (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979) was an Academy Award-winning Canadian motion picture star.

11. Prayer Shawl: (Judaism) a shawl with a ritually knotted fringe at each corner; worn by Jews at morning prayer.

12. Rabbi: spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation; qualified to expound and apply Jewish law

Ragtime Vocabulary

Chiara, Candice, Chelsea, Harriett, and Elyssia



Aeolian Piano- the Ludwid Piano Company, has been the best piano dealer since 1876



­Anarchism- belief that society should have no government, laws, police, or other authorities, originated in the 19^th century as a pacifist movement



Ashkenazi- Jews from Germany



Atlantic City-a city in New Jersey on the Atlantic Ocean, famous for its casino, gambling and boardwalk



Coon Songs- a popular style or writing popular from 1880-1920 that presented stereotypical and racist images of blacks, incorporated syncopation of ragtime



Gutenberg Bible on Velum- the Bible was the 1^st thing that was printed by Gutenberg’s printing press, widely circulated, printed on Velum (paper made of sheepskin)



Hammerstein’s Olympia- a block-wide complex on the east side of Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets, included 2 theatres, a concert hall, a roof garden, billiards and bowling facilities, and other attractions; built in 1895, bankrupted Oscar Hammerstein, failed project



Harlem- neighborhood in Manhattan, major African American cultural and business hub, Harlem Renaissance



Matthew Henson- (1866-1955) an African American arctic explorer, reached the north pole with coworker Robert Perry



Jim Europe, Clef Club- founded the Clef Cub, a society of African Americans in the music business; he was a band leader and composer; the Clef Club orchestra was the first jazz orchestra to play at Carnegie Hall; Jim Europe dies in WW1



Orchestra- a musical organization consisting of a group of instrumentalists including string players



Scott Joplin- (1868-1917) US composer who was the 1^st creator of ragtime to write down his music

I was in the same group as Jeff.
-Caroline