Scott Joplin

CTL-E-6271 · Person · musician · 1867/68–1917

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07460 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6271.

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist known as the king of ragtime. He was born in Texas in 1867 or 1868, near Texarkana in the account given in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry essay, and took piano instruction as a boy, including from the German teacher Julius Weiss. He traveled the Midwest as a performer from the mid-1880s and played at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Settling in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1895, he studied music at the George R. Smith College for Negroes, and in 1899 the Sedalia publisher John Stark signed him to a royalty contract for the Maple Leaf Rag. Joplin followed Stark to St. Louis in 1900 and moved to New York City in 1907. His published piano rags, among them Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer, appeared from 1899 through 1909. His first opera, A Guest of Honor (1903), is lost. He published his second opera, Treemonisha, at his own expense in 1911; it received only one semipublic performance in his lifetime, was produced in Atlanta in the 1970s, and reached Broadway in 1975. Institutionalized in 1916, Joplin died in New York City on April 1, 1917. He was posthumously awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

The record

• Also known as: King of Ragtime

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Scott Joplin entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities); no Work records for Treemonisha or Maple Leaf Rag exist either. ID CTL-E-6271 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #2959. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American composer whose published rags defined ragtime and whose Treemonisha is a foundational Black opera; a first-rank gap in the graph's music constellation. Vital status: DECEASED — died April 1, 1917, New York City (Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Birth year shown as a conflict, not blended: Britannica (accessed 2026-10-16) gives 1867/68 and states the exact date and place of birth are unknown; the Library of Congress registry essay (accessed 2026-10-16) gives 'about 1867' near Texarkana. No single birth date is asserted. Registry facts (LOC): seven piano rolls cut in 1916 were added to the National Recording Registry in 2002; only three known photographs of Joplin exist. MEDIA: photo HELD (named candidate in media spec; no license claimed); chart staged in media spec; video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (person record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Scott Joplin (accessed 2026-10-16) — born 1867/68, Texas, exact date and place unknown; died April 1, 1917, New York City; known as the 'king of ragtime'; performed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893; settled Sedalia 1895 and studied at George R. Smith College for Negroes; moved to St. Louis 1900 to work with publisher John Stark; first opera A Guest of Honor (1903) no longer extant; New York 1907; Treemonisha published at his own expense 1911, one semipublic performance in his lifetime, Broadway 1975; 'Maple Leaf Rag' and 'The Entertainer' published 1899-1909; posthumous special Pulitzer Prize 1976 — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Scott-Joplin (build store)
• Library of Congress, National Recording Registry essay: Ragtime compositions on piano rolls — Scott Joplin, by Larry C. Melton (accessed 2026-10-16) — seven piano rolls Joplin made in 1916 added to the National Recording Registry in 2002; born near Texarkana, Texas, about 1867; piano instruction from Julius Weiss; attended the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago; royalty contract with John Stark for 'Maple Leaf Rag' in Sedalia, 1899; followed Stark to St. Louis in 1900; moved to New York about 1907 and pursued production of Treemonisha; no known audio recordings by Joplin; only three known photographs of Joplin exist — https://loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/RagtimeScottJoplin.pdf (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6271 · Combined Graph record U-07460 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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