RootsChat.Com

Hello,

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Make a simple list of what you have and then take a few photos of groups of documents/artifacts to illustrate it. Don't worry about the visibility of the details of documents as the purpose is just to get across the scale of what you have/what is available.

Scan a select few items and share them along with what you know, the impression you had of the people you knew, the stories you were told of those who had gone before.

S_L

Using tools, advanced search, I tried your first set of criteria and the search was reformatted as
[Longmans "J W Allen" -Shakespeare]

Does that help return your original results?

S_L

Well done Trish!

S_L

The inscription states where the sword was made and when.
Manufacture Nationale at Châtellerault in March 1872

Link below gives more details including other small stamped marks that may be present.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210421102505/http://users.skynet.be/euro-swords/chatellerault.htm

S_L

The digital collection of the University of Wisconson has a few sheet music examples if you search for cakewalk. There's also a female student's scrapbook from c. 1906 that includes the music played at dances and a programme for a multi-ring grand circus show (put on at a cost of $100000!) though no mention of ragtime that I could see.
https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/digital

If you're lucky you may be able to take a sheet music title and look up the Discography of American Historical Recordings and find mention of a recording of it along with a sound file you can play.
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/

If you do find recordings mentioned but no sound to play back then it's worth trying the title and artist in youtube. There's a couple of library of Congress historic film examples of cakewalks as well.

I appreciate that doesn't answer your query of whether it would have reached the less urban areas or how it was perceived/received. There is someone at the University whose research may be relevant as they refer to it here:
https://ls.wisc.edu/news/the-mad-bad-world-of-ragtime
There's a photo of a cakewalk couple at the bottom.

S_L