Judge — October 20, 1917 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A 'Rag' Doll" This October 1917 *Judge* cover depicts a woman in a pinstriped jacket holding a ukulele, captioned "A 'Rag' Doll." The satire likely plays on the simultaneous popularity of two musical trends: "rag" music (ragtime and jazz) and the ukulele craze sweeping America in the 1910s. The woman's fashionable, somewhat masculine pinstriped attire suggests the "modern woman" of the era—independent and culturally engaged with contemporary entertainment. The title's double meaning—conflating the woman with both "rag" music and a plaything—may mock how popular culture commodified and trivialized women, reducing them to fashionable objects rather than serious participants. The ukulele, still novel to American audiences, symbolizes the era's musical modernism and cultural borrowing from Hawaiian culture.