The Howes Brothers were early entrants into the world of commercial photography who enjoyed a vibrant career in the years after the American Civil War. Growing up in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the oldest brother, Alvah, born 1853, was the first to take up photography sometime in the mid-1880s after time spent as a farm laborer. He brought his brother Walter into the profession and together they began taking and selling photographs in southern New England and the Hudson Valley. In 1888 they set up a studio in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and occasionally employed their youngest sibling, George.