Poster for Ragtime designed by Gail Anderson: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a poster for the Broadway musical Ragtime, with graphics designed by Gail Anderson. The poster depicts a man seated at an upright piano with his arms raised upwards. He wears a white shirt, dark pants and dark suspenders. The viewers only see him from the back. On top of the piano is a Statue of Liberty done in grey tones. Black diamond shapes emanate from her in a halo effect. Radiating from the upper half of the halo is a cacophony of images, including musical instruments, objects of clothing, an American flag, images of politicians, a gramophone, a movie camera, a locomotive engine, and various phrases. The seated man with the piano and its accompanying image takes up the top half of the poster. The bottom half has large letters in red and blue text across the page that read “RAGTIME / THE MUSICAL.” Below this is red text that lists the production information. Along the bottom margin is ticket and theater information.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1998
• Designed by: Gail Anderson, American, born 1962
• Illustrated by: Lorenzo Petrantoni, Italian, born 1970
• Subject of: Terrence McNally, American, 1938 - 2020
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 22 × 14 in. (55.9 × 35.6 cm)
• Place used: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Graphic design
• Topic: Mass media
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Object number: 2020.11.18
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gail Anderson
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © SpotCo Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.