BERGER, Minnie

Minnie Berger was an early 20th-century American ragtime composer, best known for her contributions to the ragtime music genre during its golden age. Because historical records for many early female ragtime artists remain sparse, very little definitive biographical information—such as her exact birth date, city of birth, or date of passing—is verified in public music archives. However, her musical footprint is preserved through her published sheet music. Historical logs show that she had three distinct works published or cataloged around 1909, placing her active composition period right during the height of the American ragtime craze. She is recognized on historical databases tracking Female Composers of Ragtime, a group of women who broke into a heavily male-dominated turn-of-the-century music publishing industry.