This is the only over-the-shoulder horn in the collection, with the bell pointing back over the player’s left shoulder. Typically, these instruments were used in military marching bands where the musicians were in front of the soldiers. The backwards pointing bell allowed them to easily hear the music while marching. These types of horns were common during the Civil War, and are noted to have been manufactured significantly until the 1880s.

John F. Stratton (1832-1912) was one of the most prominent American makers of brass instruments in the late 19th century. Though originally working as an apprentice to a machinist, he left a few years later to open a music store in Harford, CT, where he also led and conducted the Hartford Cornet Band. In 1857, Stratton moved to NYC, where he worked as a musician and conducted his own Stratton’s Palace Garden Orchestra. He opened his brass instrument factory 1859, which proved to be a quick success. He sold lots of instruments to Union army soldiers under contract from the federal and state governments during the Civil War, as well as to various instrument distributors and stores throughout the United States. In 1866, Stratton opened a factory in Markneukirchen, Germany, where nearly all of his instruments after the year 1866 are thought to have been made. He died in 1912, and the company was carried on by his son until 1914.