Fadettes of Boston

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. Between 1890 and 1920 Nichols claimed that 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 and Mildred Rogers. Nichols "conducted the orchestra for thirty years and trained over six hundred women for professional careers as orchestral musicians."