Fadettes of Boston facts for kids

The Fadettes, ca. 1897

The Gartland March, by Victor G. Boehnlein, 1907"Featured from Coast to Coast with Tremendous Success by the Famous FADETTES WOMEN'S ORCHESTRA"

The Fadettes of Boston (1888-ca.1920) was an all-women orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, and directed by Caroline B. Nichols. "The original group of six expanded to twenty by 1898" with "a first violin and director, four additional first violins, four second violins, two violas, two violincellos, two contrabassos, kettle-drums and a bass, two flutes and piccolo, two clarinets, two cornets, two French horns, three trombones, snare-drum and 'traps,' and piano-forte." The group incorporated in 1895 as "the Fadettes of Boston."

In 1898 "vaudeville manager B.F. Keith booked them into his theatres all over the United States. According to Nichols, between 1890 and 1920 the Fadettes gave over 6,000 concerts, half of them as headliners in first-class vaudeville theatres." At a concert in Pittsburgh in 1902, for instance, the Fadettes played marches, waltzes, songs and arias by Frederic Field Bullard, Daniel Auber, Karl Michael Ziehrer, George M. Rosey, Victor G. Boehnlein and others. The group also performed at the Los Angeles Orpheum.

The performers "wore shimmery gowns." Among the musicians were Annie Andros Hawley, Mildred Rogers, and Lillian Thain (violin). Nichols "conducted the orchestra for thirty years and trained over six hundred women for professional careers as orchestral musicians."

Images for kids

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  Portrait of Carrie Nichols, conductor, ca.1897

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  Portrait of Ethel Atwood, orchestra founder, business manager and musician, ca.1893

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  Entrance to Keith's Theatre, Boston, with poster for the Fadettes, 1906

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  Newspaper spread about the Fadettes, Pittsburgh Press, 1909

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  Detail of promotional brochure, 1910. "Our watchword: 'advancement'"

Variant names