Women's Bands in America is the first comprehensive exploration of women's bands across the three centuries in American history. Contributors trace women's emerging roles in society as seen through women's bands-concert and marching-spanning three centuries of American history. Authors explore town, immigrant,industry, family, school, suffrage, military, jazz, and rock bands, adopting a variety of methodologies and theoretical lenses in order to assemble and interrogate their findings within the context of women's roles in American society over time. Contributors bring together a series of disciplines in this unique work, including music education, musicology, American history, women's studies, and history of education. They also draw on numerous primary sources: diaries, film, military records, newspaper articles, oral-history interviews, personal letters, photographs, published ephemera, radio broadcasts, and recordings. Thoroughly, contributors engage in archival historical research, biography, case study, content analysis, iconographic study, oral history, and qualitative research to bring their topics to life. This ambitious collection will be of use not only to students and scholars of instrumental music education, music history and ethnomusicology, but also gender studies and American social history. Contributions by: Vilka E. Castillo Silva, Dawn Farmer, Danelle Larson, Brian Meyers, Sarah Minette, Gayle Murchison, Jeananne Nichols, David Rickels, Joanna Ross Hersey, Sarah Schmalenberger, Amy Spears, and Sondra Wieland Howe.
Chapter 1: Introduction Jill M. Sullivan Chapter 2: Helen May Butler and Her Ladies' Military Band: Being Professional during the Golden Age of Bands Brian Meyers Chapter 3: Town Bands, 1870-1920 Sondra Wieland Howe Chapter 4: "An Attraction of Unusual Merit," Women's Bands on the Vaudeville Stage Joanna Ross Hersey Chapter 5: All-Female School Bands: Separate Spheres and Gender Equality Jill M. Sullivan Amy Spears Chapter 6: Legacies of Leadership: Lillian Williams Linsey and Gladys Stone Wright Dawn M. Farmer David A. Rickels Chapter 7: A Survey of All-Female Drum and Bugle Corps featuring "The Hormel Girls" Danelle D. Larson Chapter 8: Mary Lou Williams's Girl Stars and the Politics of Negotiation: Jazz, Gender, and Jim Crow Gayle Murchison Chapter 9: Parading Women: Objectification and Commodification of Women's Military Bands during WW II Jill M. Sullivan Chapter 10: Into the Wild Blue Yonder: A History of the US WAF Band 1949-1961 Jeananne Nichols Chapter 11: Rockin' it Local: Conversations with All-Women Rock Bands in the Twin Cities Sarah Schmalenberger Sarah Minette Chapter 12: Blowing the Tradition: Women Forming Community and Military Bands in Mexico Vilka E. Castillo Silva Chapter 13: Conclusions and Recommendations Jill M. Sullivan
