Belle Cole was a well-known American contralto

Contralto

Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

.

She first achieved success while on a transcontinental tour of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 with Theodore Thomas in 1883. She later sang in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, performing at The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...

 and many other venues. In 1901, she toured Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is said that musical ability ran in her family. Belle Cole was born Lucetta Belle Weaver Cole to Philander Weaver and Mary Ruth Ann Harford, the ninth of eleven children. She was married to J. Calvin Cole.

External links

• A poster of Belle Colle in the British Library collection