The Texarkana Museums System will take the public on a drive-through bus tour featuring the history of ragtime musician Scott Joplin.
The Saturday, April 23 living history tour will run from the P. J. Ahern Home, 403 Laurel Street. It will visit the sites and neighborhoods where young Scott Joplin developed his extraordinary musical talent.
The first tour begins at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 each or $5 for TMS members.
Tour stops will include historic Orr School and a special living history performance at the Scott Joplin Historic Marker.
"Guests will have the chance to meet Scott Joplin in person," says TMS Curator Jamie Simmons. "Of course, I mean through a living history performer in the persona of Mr. Joplin."
Brian Matthews portrays Scott Joplin. Matthews is one of several volunteers who participate as actors in the Texarkana Museums System's Living History Program. This TMS program offers living history cemetery tours once a month and special activities throughout the year.
The tour and performance will focus on Joplin's childhood and youth in the context of the history of Texarkana in the 1870s and 1880s. The tour guide will narrate Joplin's early life and career against the backdrop of Texarkana's Original City and Quality Hill Historic Districts.
Refreshments will be served.
