Broom brigade
{{Short description|Military team}}
File:BroomBrigadeTwain1883.jpg
A broom brigade was a type of military-style women's drill team that marched with brooms instead of rifles. Drilling was a popular form of exercise at the time, when participation in sports was largely restricted to men. They were popular in America during the late 19th century. They were mentioned in Mark Twain's book "Life on the Mississippi".{{cite news|last=Hale|first=Whitney|title=Sesquicentennial Series: The Charge of the Broom Brigade|url=http://uknow.uky.edu/content/sesquicentennial-series-charge-broom-brigade|access-date=5 February 2013|newspaper=UKNOW|date=August 31, 2012|location=LEXINGTON, Ky.}}
Brigades
- St. Louis Ladies Broom Brigade Michigan (1870s){{cite news|title=Mid-Michigan History: St. Louis Ladies Broom Brigade|url=http://www.themorningsun.com/article/20121008/LIFE01/121009731/mid-michigan-history-st-louis-ladies-broom-brigade|newspaper=Morning Sun|access-date=5 February 2013|date=8 October 2012}}
- Ladies of the Russian Broom Brigade of St. Louis, MO (1882){{cite web|author2=Minn (composer)|author1=A. M. Shuey (composer)|title=Russian Broom Brigade Triumphal March. In the Palace Ballroom Car Over the River Bank Route of the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.|url=http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/20282|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140207125246/http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/20282|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 7, 2014|access-date=5 February 2013|year=1882|publisher=JScholarship}}
- The Woman's Relief Corps (1883) women's auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic.
- Hamilton Broom Brigade (1884){{cite web|title=Hamilton Broom Brigade|url=http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~butlercounty/broombrigade.html|publisher=Rootsweb|work=Butler County Historical Society|access-date=5 February 2013|year=2000}}
- Company Q, (1888) University of Minnesota.{{cite journal|last=Brady|first=Tim|title=The Broom Brigade|url=http://www.minnesotaalumni.org/s/1118/content.aspx?sid=1118&gid=1&pgid=1613|publisher=University of Minnesota Alumni Association|access-date=5 February 2013|date=September–October 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305080258/http://www.minnesotaalumni.org/s/1118/content.aspx?sid=1118&gid=1&pgid=1613|archive-date=5 March 2016|url-status=dead}}
- Broom Brigade, Union (1889){{cite web|last=Allen|first=Craig|title=Broom Brigade of Union, 1889|url=http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=B6BB754A-D69B-8E6C-CA24357497974682|work=Oregon Historical Society|access-date=5 February 2013|year=2005}}
- Kilbourn Broom Brigade, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin (1888){{cite web|author=Bennett, H. H.|author-link=H. H. Bennett|title=Kilbourn Broom Brigade on the Alexander Mitchell|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullRecord.asp?id=26191&qstring=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisconsinhistory.org%2Fwhi%2Fresults.asp%3Fsubject_narrow%3DUniforms|work=Wisconsin Historical Society.|date=December 2003 }}
- Breckenridge Broom Brigade, Caldwell Co., Missouri, ({{circa|1890}})[http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~livcomo/images/brigade.html Breckenridge Broom Brigade]
Current usage
Currently, the term refers to citizens who volunteer to clean up their neighborhoods.{{cite news|title=Britain vows to restore order to quell riots|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/britain-vows-to-restore-order-to-quell-riots-1.1102092|access-date=5 February 2013|newspaper=CBC|date=Aug 9, 2011|quote=A 'broom brigade' gathers Tuesday at the site of rioting in Clapham to volunteer in cleanup efforts. (photo caption)}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Gary A. Mitchell, [https://web.archive.org/web/20220218152320/https://history.army.mil/armyhistory/AH-Magazine/2022AH_winter/AH122.pdf "Why Can't A Girl Be a Soldier? The Importance of Female Military Organizations, 1875-1900], Army History (Winter 2022): 30–39.
- [https://archive.today/20140207125323/http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/29218 Broom Brigade March.] The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Edward Wittich (composer) 1883
- {{cite book|last=Barnett|first=Joseph H.|title=Barnett's broom brigade tactics and fan drill: suitable for school, church, social, or military entertainment for boys and girls|year=1978|publisher=M & M|pages=69 pp|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjgEAAAAYAAJ|edition=5th reprint|no-pp=yes|orig-year=1890}}
- [http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainlife/ill250.html Illustration] from "Life on the Mississippi". (Ch 44)