Mr. & Mrs. Albee Turner of Albion, New York

 

Here is another example of a popular sub-category in husband and wife carte de visite photographs - the musician and his spouse - Albee Turner and wife Mary Jane Turner from Albion, New York. This style of photo seems to record the subject's occupation and their pride in an artistic skill. This is certainly a family photo and not intended  for promotional advertising.
See a later period one at my post: 
Mr & Mrs. X from Meriden, CT 
 
With the clear names on the back of the cdv, and the mark:  Geo. P. Hopkins, Photographer, Albion, N.Y.  there are some very good clues for research.

George P. Hopkins was born in NY around 1815 and his occupation in the 1850 census was Joiner. But with a wife and 6 children, carpentry work may have had too little profit, and in the 1860 Albion NY census, he is a Daguarean Artist. He is found as a photographer in the 1862 tax records and a seller of pianos in  1866. By 1880, Hopkins moves his photography studio to Lockport, NY.

Albee Turner is Albert D. Turner, born in New Hampshire in 1839 and the son of a farmer in Clarendon, NY. Albion and Clarendon are in Orleans County, next to Lake Ontario. The name Albert Turner is frustratingly common, but amazingly the 1870 census shows him with Mary J. and his occupation: musician. They do not seem to have had children. A reference then popped up in an Orleans County history book, as Mary Jane's first husband, when she re-married and became Mrs. David  N. Pettingill.   Albee died in 1877.

Albee holds an unusual civil war era instrument, an over-the-shoulder E-flat cornet with top action rotary valves. This is the high instrument for brass bands of this time. Compare his instrument with a bell-up version in another photo: Soprano Saxhorn.

Albee's is similar to one found at the National Music Museum , and also this one from the website of the Excelsior Cornet Band, which is a New York authentic Civil War brass band specializing in musical performances on antique brass instruments. They have a wonderful website with lots of other photos and history, and notice that Mr. Hopkins used Excelsior as his motto too.

When the civil war began in 1861, the number of military bands was expanded by Congress, and by 1862 there were 26 regular regimental bands and as many as 213 volunteer bands in the Union Army. A report that year gave the average annual cost of $9,161.30 to maintain an artillery or cavalry band, and $13,139.40 for a larger infantry band, so it is no wonder that as the war dragged on, Congress made changes for economy and abolished the volunteer bands. Albee Turner was the right age to play in such a band, but his name is only on a New York draft record for 1863, and there is no Union army service record for him. But he certainly considered himself a professional by 1870.

The over-the-shoulder brass instruments. also called Saxhorns, were an important development in the early 19th century. They were designed so that the band could be at the head of the parade, and their sound went backwards toward the marching troops. I found this YouTube video of the  Federal City Brass Band out of Baltimore out of Baltimore, MD which demonstrates the effect. 

My contribution to Sepia Saturday