Pupin, Mihajlo Idvorsky (1858-1935) (“Michael”). Serbian-American physicist and inventor. Born to a Serbian peasant family in the Austrian Empire, Michael Pupin emigrated to the United States in 1872. While doing menial work, he studied English, Greek, and Latin at night, entering Columbia College in 1879 and graduating with honors in 1883. He then studied at Cambridge University and the University of Berlin, where he earned his PhD under Herman von Helmholtz. Returning to the U.S. in 1889, he taught mathematical physics in the new Electrical Engineering department at Columbia. The 1894 invention of the Pupin coil helped make long distance telephoning possible and made him wealthy. He was also one of the first to work with X-rays in the U.S. Pupin was a popular speaker on both scientific and political subjects (he was active in Serbian affairs); his memoir, From Immigrant to Inventor (1923), won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize. It is unclear if Cather ever met Pupin, but she may have heard him speak or read one of his popular works.

Wiggins, Thomas Greene Bethune (1849-1908) (“Blind Tom”). African-American musician and composer. Born in Georgia, son of Charity and Domingo Wiggins, Thomas Wiggins and his family were bought by plantation owner James Bethune in 1850. Blind from birth, Thomas Wiggins early showed great ability in mimicking speech and sounds. After hearing his owner’s daughters playing the piano, he was able to play the same music, and subsequently any other music he heard. In the mid-1850s Bethune began touring with Wiggins, whom he renamed Thomas Greene Bethune. In 1860 Wiggins became the first African American to perform at the White house, playing for President James Buchanan. After the Civil War, the Bethune family obtained legal guardianship of Wiggins, who remained in their control for the rest of his life. Willa Cather reviewed a performance by “Blind Tom” in Lincoln, NE, in May 1894, praising his rendering of the music while commenting on his disquieting physical and mental traits. Although Cather later said she had no recollection of seeing “Blind Tom,” she gave the story of his early life to Blind d’Arnault in My Ántonia (1918).

Morris, Clara (1848-1925). American actress. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, daughter of Sarah Jane Proctor and Charles La Montagne, Clara was taken to Cleveland, OH, to live when she was three. When she was about ten she became part of the ballet company of the local Academy of Music, later playing small roles in theatrical productions. In 1869 she began playing with touring companies, then in 1870 she joined Daly’s company in New York. She became famous as an “emotional” actress in the 1870s and 1880s, playing title roles in Camille (1874), The New Leah (1875), Jane Eyre (1877), and The New Magdalen (1882), and touring extensively. Morris retired in the 1890s, when her style had become old-fashioned, and wrote memoirs, fiction, and a regular newspaper column. She married Frederick C. Harriott in 1874; he died in 1914. Cather reviewed Morris as Camille in November 1893, but may have seen her on tour in Lincoln, NE, a few years earlier; in My Ántonia Jim Burden is overwhelmed when he sees an actress based on Morris playing Camille.

Grey, Pearl Zane (1872-1939). American writer of Westerns. Grey was born in Zanesville, OH, a city founded by one of his ancestors. As a child he loved baseball, fishing, and writing; he attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, graduating in 1896. Like his father, he practiced dentistry, but he also wrote, persevering despite many rejections. His first published book, Heritage of the Desert (1910) was followed by his most popular novel Riders of the Purple Sage (1912). Many of his long string of popular novels were made into films. Grey and his family lived in California after 1918, but he travelled frequently to unspoiled places. Cather never met Grey but knew his reputation as a popular novelist of the American West.