The first female helicon bass player?

In the course of my research, I often stumble upon some really significant things that I wasn't even looking for, and such was the case this morning.

While trying to find the earliest reference to John Philip Sousa expressing his displeasure with the helicon bass, which is what led to his idea of creating a new instrument that was dubbed a "Sousaphone," I discovered what might be the very first woman to play a helicon professionally.

Her name is Emma Louise Adams, and she was part of the Chelsea Woman's Brass Band, based in the Boston area, which was featured in the February 15, 1903 edition of The Boston Globe:

The band was led by gifted trombonist Lenna Claire Howe, who had been inspired to take up that instrument as a young lady after hearing the great Frederick Innes. Not surprisingly, given the times, her decision did not meet with much support, as she shared in the article that accompanied the photos shown here: "Everyone laughed at me, and I rather fancy I made life miserable for the neighbors. However, I mastered it."

Howe was playing trombone professionally by 1889, and four years later "she was a member of the Boston ladies' symphony which played with Sousa's band at the time of the Columbian festival" and, "After that, she organized one of her own [a ladies' orchestra]."

While I haven't been able to confirm this yet, Howe may have been part of the Boston Ladies' Military Band, which toured the country in 1897-98, and appears to have had at least one woman playing a small tuba (or is that a euphonium, or even, perhaps, that same small helicon shown with Adams above - middle row, on the right, next to the bass drum?):

Regardless, around 1901 (according to the Globe article), Howe formed the Chelsea Woman's Brass Band, which apparently toured the west and northwest shortly after being launched.

Recruiting ladies for her band was said to have been a challenge, especially for certain instruments, like the bass. In the article, it was reported that "the lady who plays the helicon [vowed] that she'd 'play it or bust it,' and she did - played it, of course." And it goes on to say that "the helicon player, Miss Emma Adams, whose home is in Huntington av. is believed to be the only woman in the United States who plays the instrument."

In October of 1903, when the band was touring the northeast and called Howe's Ladies Band and Orchestra, the press made a big deal about Adams, declaring her to be "the only woman helicon soloist in the world" (Oct. 7, 1903 edition of the Montpelier Evening Argus):

But we have to keep in mind that we're talking, what, 117 years ago, when women were still 17 years away from gaining the right to vote, and the idea of women playing professionally, especially in a brass band, was viewed as a novelty at best. The Globe article made that clear, revealing the sexism that was ubiquitous but largely undetected at that time:

Miss Howe has an infixed belief that women are capable of as excellent work with band instruments as ever was credited to the best performers among men. They practice carefully, conscientiously, and are so sensitive to disapproval that they will exert themselves more than men to become proficient. Some of them might achieve fame, but there invariably comes a time of wedding presents, the flinging of rice and old shoes [turns out that was a thing back then!], and then - well, it's all off then. Household cares and tooting a tuba don't jibe.