Today’s post is guest authored by Michelle Cadoree Bradley, a Science Reference Specialist in the Library’s Science, Technology, and Business Division.
On a search for early materials on physical education for women, I stumbled across a small green book with an intriguing title – Broom Tactics, or Calisthenics in a New Form for Young Ladies. This publication from 1883 led me to an unexplored aspect of calisthenics — marching drills — and a little known subject of the drill teams called broom brigades and broom drill societies, which flourished in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
This short work by Lt. Hugh T. Reed prompted me to find what else was available for these brigades. I found other titles scattered though the collections, largely under the subject of “marching drills.” One was The Loyal Legion Drill Manual Illustrated by Lt. Jos. H. Barnett, (First Infantry, I. N. G.), published by the Woman’s Temperance Publication Association, 1886. (Barnett published this manual in 1885 as Barnett’s Broom Drill, Brigade Tactics, School of the Company, and Manual of Arms), which was reprinted in several editions, including this one from 1890.
The Loyal Legion Drill Manual Illustrated contains a few of my favorite images, such as the Order-Rear View, showing a monogrammed dustpan carried on the back in place of a pack. These and other illustrations are re-used and available for view on HathiTrust in Barnett’s Broom Brigade Tactics and Fan Drill.
Other works on calisthenics from the 1880s also contained sections on “broom drill.” For example, this work by Alfred Beale, Calisthenics and Light Gymnastics for Home and School (1888), includes a “broom drill” section with many supporting illustrations.
Perhaps interest in broom brigades and drills will re-spark and again “sweep the nation” as a form of fun exercise. If so, here are some titles on Marching Drills that are a must for any library.
- The Broom Drill. Including the School of the Soldier, School of the Company, and Skirmishing (New York, 1882). It is also available in A Dream of the Centuries and Other Entertainments for Parlor and Hall by Geo. B. Bartlett and others (Boston, 1889)
- Dances, Drills & Entertainments by Gertrude Williams Lundgren. 2nd ed. (1920)
- Drills and Marches; Written Exclusively for this Work by E. C. and L. J. Rook (Philadelphia, 1890)
- Fancy Drills for Evening and Other Entertainments by Edna Witherspoon (London, 1894)
- Ideal Drills; a Collection of Entirely New and Original Drills, Marches, and Motion Songs arranged by Marguerite W. Morton (Philadelphia, 1900)
- Wilson’s Book of Drills and Marches for Young People and Small Children of Both Sexes by B. M. Wilson (New York, 1895)
Comments (7)
Interesting. Know of any modern books on this aspect of women’s culture and how these drills and exercises contributed to the women’s rights movement of the time? Thanks.
I’m thinking it is time for a broom brigade again…
@ MC Bradley – Thank you so much for your reply. The links are a great start.
( I am quite sad that I do not have physical access to this amazing library. )
I confess I was only looking at the books, not at a broader sociological movement. I did several searches in the literature but did not find anything on this subject in particular. You might wish to look at the broader impact of the sports/physical culture movement on suffrage and women’s rights. Or perhaps overall on how women’s clubs impacted the women’s rights movement?
https://lccn.loc.gov/93037145
Vertinsky, Patricia Anne, 1942- The eternally wounded woman : women, doctors, and exercise in the late nineteenth century / Patricia A. Vertinsky. Illini Books ed. Urbana [Ill.] : University of Illinois Press, 1994.
279 p. ; 23 cm.
GV482 .V47 1994
https://lccn.loc.gov/2015036724
The female tradition in physical education : ‘Women first’ reconsidered / edited by David Kirk and Patricia Vertinsky. London ; New York : Routledge, 2016.
xiii, 226 pages ; 24 cm.
GV439 .F37 2016
https://lccn.loc.gov/2015490385
Harvey, Jean (Professor) author. Sport and social movements : from the local to the global / Jean Harvey, John Horne, Parissa Safai, Simon Darnell and Sébastien Courchesne-O’Neill. London : Bloomsbury, 2015.©2014
1 volume ; 24 cm.
https://lccn.loc.gov/2013038444
Hentges, Sarah, 1976- Women and fitness in American culture / Sarah Hentges. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2014]
ix, 251 pages ; 24 cm
RA778 .H457 2014
Articles:
The Physical is Political: Women’s Suffrage, Pilgrim Hikes and the Public Sphere. International Journal of the History of Sport 27(7):1133-1153 ·
Empowering the Physical and Political Self: Women and the Practice of Self-Defense, 1890–1920. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era v. 13, no. 4: pp. 470-499.
Vertinsky, Patricia. “Feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Pursuit of Health and Physical Fitness as a Strategy for Emancipation.” Journal of Sport History 16.1 (1989): 5-26.
The U.S. Army’s Professional Bulletin, Military History, just published “‘Why can’t a girl be a soldier?’ The importance of female military organizations, 1875_1900”. It discusses the broom brigades in depth.
https://history.army.mil/armyhistory/AH-Magazine/2022AH_winter/AH122.pdf
Dear Ellen Terrell OR anyone,
I also stumbled on the subject of Broom Brigades. I was in a Navy Drill Team. I have a question maybe you can answer; I understand that the women’s Brigades were happening around the time of Women’s Suffrage (1848) OR?.
Do you have any idea when and where the first broom brigade started? PS I tried to look up Fan Brigade and a modern band keeps popping up. Sincerely Mike Ryan (Journalist)
Based on the books cited in the post it was earlier in 1882 and I did find something that indicates maybe not that much earlier – based on the first article from April 1881. This Lowell event was reported in the February 17, 1881 Lowell Courier (and re-reported elsewhere including the New York Times February 19. 1881) and must have been around the 15th or 16th but it isn’t explicit on date. With that said, I don’t know if that is the “first.”
You may want to search our Chronicling America project using broom drill (broom brigade got much fewer results and many didn’t seem to be relevant) – there were few articles prior to 1881 and they may have been false positives though I did find one from 1880 that seems related to some from the 1870s items, but I am not sure it was the same thing. Another from 1880 seems more like what is written in the post.
I did see another post elsewhere that expanded on part of the post (and cited out post) you might find interesting.