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After the show, audience members will also have the opportunity to explore all the main building has to offer. They will be able to visit the museum exhibits including “Peopling of America: 1550s - 1890,” and “The Journey: New Eras of Immigration.”

The audience will re-board the ferry at Ellis Island, headed for Battery Park.

As a capstone of the evening, Miss Freedom will make a simple one-minute detour to sail directly past the Statue of Liberty, fully lit against the New York night sky.

A SCENIC DEPARTURE

Audience will be seated in the Registry Room as Ragtime begins. Ragtime opens with the prologue, introducing us to the social and political climate of the United States in the early 20th century by meeting a parade of celebrities and citizens of the time including, a well-to-do white family in New Rochelle, Coalhouse Walker, Jr. – a ragtime pianist – and his admirers in Harlem, and Immigrants arriving on Ellis Island, featuring Tateth and his Little Girl. To read a complete summary of Ragtime’s plot, click here.

Miss Freedom will pull into the Ellis Island ferry slip. After disembarking, patrons will enter the main building, continue upstairs, and settle in the Registry Room.

The Registry Room is the grand hall on the second floor of Ellis Island’s main building. Between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants passed through this room as they were inspected and registered by immigration officers. The room’s gaping windows provide views of the city skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

A HISTORICAL ARRIVAL

Audience boards a private ferry, ‘Miss Freedom,’ at the Statue Cruises dock at Battery Park. 

On the way to Ellis Island, the audience can explore the ferry’s three decks, shelter from rough weather, and view from countless points the NYC skyline, Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island.

The Experience

SHOWTIME

ALL ABOARD

In the Registry Room on Ellis Island, millions of immigrants from around the world redefined themselves as Americans. Ragtime is a portrait of this turning point in American history, exploring the stories of those who took on that identity despite incredible obstacles and tumultuous change. The questions of what it means to be part of an immigrant narrative are just as prevalent now as they were in 1902, and in asking those questions in the very room where so many of our ancestors discovered the answers, Ragtime on Ellis Island offers an unprecedented opportunity to bring history to life in new ways. 

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