Chronological List of Women’s Bands and Orchestras
1862 Carter Zouave Troupe -brass band - girls 10 to 14 yrs. Location unknown
1868 Orton Bros. Ladies Silver Cornet Band
1881 Andrews, IN - Ladies Cornet Band
Albany, NY - Ladies Band
1884 Ladies Brass Band - Jno. Robinson’s Big Show Combined
1888 Audubon (IA) Ladies Band -120 piece band
1890 Clymer Ladies Band on Welsh Bros. Circus
Phillipsburg (KS) Girls Band
1898 Helen May Butler forms her first band - Providence, RI.
1910 Navassar Ladies Band - Mrs. August Dial, Dir.
1914 Barnum & Bailey Shows - Ladies Parade Band
Barberton (OH) Ladies Band
1917 Cora Corson Ladies Band
1920’s Conn Ladies Band - Elkhart, IN
Women’s Symphony of Mason City, Iowa
1925 Long Beach (CA) Women’s Symphony Orchestra
1930’s Orchestrette Classique NY, NY Concerts given in the Aeolian Hall, NYC.
1936 Earl Held’s All-Girl Band - Easton, PA
1940’s US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve Band
Women’s Army Air Corps Bands (2) - WAAC Band
Wave Drum & Bugle Corps - US Navy
SPAR Bands (2) - US Coast Guard
1947 Chicago Women’s Symphony Concert Band - Lillian Poenisch, Dir.
1951 US Women in the Air Force Band - Capt. Marybelle J. Nissly, Dir.
Boston Fadettes Orchestra ( ) Located in Boston and played at Keith Theaters. Caroline B. Nichols, conductor.
Phil Spitalny All Girl Orchestra in 1930’s and 1940’s.
Lafayette Ladies Orchestra - all African-American women
Gloria Trumpeters
The Peerless Trumpeters
Senff’s
Ladies Military Band ca. 1890’s.
Albany, Oregon Ladies Band
Andrew’s Ladies Cornet Band - ca. 1881 Indiana
Barberton Ladies Band - Ohio organized in 1914
Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania org. July 1918, still in existence in 1935
Boston Ladies Military Band 1890’s
Clymer Ladies Band 1890’s, featured on Welsh Bros. Circus (CWM)
Earl Held’s All Girl Band
The Milwaukee Girl’s Civic Band 1930’s
Myosotis Band ca. 1900, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ladies Band from Adam, Oklahoma 1901
Penn-Jersey All Girl Band
Mme. Bell’s Challenge Band from Clesoning, MI (CWM)