Womein in Music Timeline

TIME LINE

WOMEN IN MUSIC AND

THEIR STRUGGLE

FOR EQUAL RIGHTS

Maud Powell voting
in the New York State election, 1919.

"I was raised in an atmosphere charged with the then radical spirit of woman suffrage. . . . Through my girlhood years there persisted an undercurrent of thought that urged me ever onward - to try to prove that a woman could do her work as thoroughly, as capably and as convincingly as a man. Indeed throughout long years I fought my battle against prejudice, even as Camilla Urso - revered be her memory - fought the battle before me. In my early days, the names of Mrs. Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were household words. I remember with affection the gentle, honest nature of that good woman 'Susan B.' who took a real interest in my future career, even giving me my first nest-egg, a gold sovereign, toward buying a 'Cremona' violin. Both women wanted the little American girl to show the world that a woman could 'fiddle as well as a man.'" -- Maud Powell

YEAR	EVENT
1833	Oberlin College founded, first to admit qualified female students
1838	Wilma Neruda, later Lady Hallé, born in Moravia
1842	Camilla Urso, violinist, born, Nantes, France
1843	Adelina Patti, Italian opera singer, born
1844	Amy Fay, American pianist, born
1848	Seneca Falls NY Convention, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott, formal organization of women's struggle for equal rights
1850	Camilla Urso becomes first female violin student admitted to the Paris Conservatoire
1851	Susan B. Anthony meets Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1852	Camilla Urso begins U.S. tours
1852	Antioch College admits women
1855	U. of Iowa founded, first state university to admit women
1857	Julia Rivé-King, American pianist, born Lillian Nordica (Norton), American opera singer, born
1858	Marcella Sembrich, opera singer, pianist, violinist, born in Poland
1865	Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler, American pianist, born Emma Eames, American opera singer, born
1867	Maud Powell born in Peru, IL
1867	Amy Beach, American composer and pianist, born in Henniker, NH
1867	Geraldine Morgan, American violinist, born
1867	Margaret Ruthven Lang, American composer, born in Boston
1867	Kansas State referendum upholds law denying women suffrage
1867	Clara Bauer (1835-1912) founds Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
1868	Julius Eichberg appointed Director of the Boston Conservatory. Teaches women violin students.
1871	Louise Homer, American opera singer, born
1872	U.S. Supreme Court upholds denial of Mrs. Myra Bradwell's right to practice law in Illinois because she is a woman, despite the fact that she was a practicing attorney in another state.
1874	U.S. Supreme Court upholds Missouri's denial to women of the right to vote in Minor v. Happersett
1876	Sara B. Hershey founds Hershey School of Musical Art, Chicago
1878	Eichberg String Quartette, first professional female quartet led by Lillian Shattuck, a graduate of the Boston Conservatory, pupil of Julius Eichberg
1879	Belva Lockwood becomes the first woman lawyer to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court
1879	Leonora Jackson, American violinist, born
1882	Pianist Olga Samaroff (Lucy Hickenlooper) born in Texas
1882	Geraldine Farrar and Alma Gluck, opera singers, born
1885	Maud Powell makes U.S. debut
1885	Jeanette Thurber founds National Conservatory of Music in New York City
1885	Amy Beach, pianist, makes U.S. debut with Boston Symphony Orchestra
1888	Fadette Women's Orchestra of Boston established, Caroline B. Nichols, conductor
1890	Kathleen Parlow, Canadian violinist, is born
1890	Jeanette Thurber organizes first American Composers' Concert, Lincoln Hall, Washington, DC, includes music by Margaret Ruthven Lang
1893	World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago -- Women's Musical Congress - Powell and Urso speak on Women's Role in Music Profession, Beach and Powell perform together
1893	Los Angeles Women's Symphony established
1894	Maud Powell String Quartet, first to be led by a woman with male players
1896	Amy Beach's Gaelic Symphony premiered by Boston SO
1898-1899	Lady Hallé tours U.S.
1899	Women's Philharmonic Society of NY, established by Melusina Fay Peirce
1900	Amy Beach performs in premiere of her Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, op. 45
1900	Elinor Remick Warren, composer, born in Los Angeles
1902	Camilla Urso dies
1903	Olive Mead String Quartet formed
1903	NY Musicians Union joins the American Federation of Labor, opening union membership and orchestra jobs to women in NY
1903	Harriet Gibbs Marshall (1869-1941) founds Washington Conservatory of Music
1911	Lady Hallé dies
1911	Mary Cornwall Davenport Engberg forms & conducts Bellingham, Washington Orchestra of men/women players
1912	Woman's Suffrage Movement Parade in NY
1913	English suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst speaks at Madison Square Garden, NY
1916	First woman member of U.S. House of Representatives elected
1917	New York State grants women right to vote
1917	Janet Daniels Schenk founds Manhattan School of Music in New York
1919	Maud Powell votes in New York State election
1919	Congress passes 19th Amendment to U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote
1920	Maud Powell dies
1920	Nineteenth Amendment ratified
1923	Mary Cornwall Davenport Engberg conducts Seattle Symphony Orchestra in 5 concerts
1924	Mary Louise Curtis Bok (1876-1970) founds Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
1925	Alfred Hertz hires first female string players, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

Women in Music Timeline