Ethel Atwood

The Fadettes (ca.1897)

Born in Fairfield, Maine in 1870, her parents were Yankees. After spending the first 15 years of Atwood's life in Fairfield, she moved to Boston. Atwood began the study of the violin when eight years old.[1]

Atwood and Caroline B. Nichols organized the Fadette Ladies' Orchestra,[1] with four pieces. Atwood immediately had the name of her orchestra copyrighted and, renting an office, she put out her "shingle". Finding that prompting was essential to success in dance work, she went to one of Boston's best prompters and learned the business thoroughly. An elocutionist taught her to use her voice to the best advantage. She then became the only lady prompter in the U.S. Business increased rapidly in the next few years, growing the regular members of the orchestra to 13 young women.[2]

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: F. E. Willard's A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (1893)

• Mitchell, Jon Ceander (10 December 2014). Trans-Atlantic Passages: Philip Hale on the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1889-1933. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-44444-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Willard, Frances Elizabeth (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 34.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)