Adam Emory Albright was born into a farming family in 1862 in Monroe, Wisconsin. After growing up in rural poverty, Albright left home at the age of eighteen with only thirty-five cents to his name. Eventually, Albright found a way to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (now the Art Institute of Chicago) under the tutelage of Thomas Eakins. Albright diverged from Eakins' stark realism to develop a more luminous, Impressionist style through which he often depicted country life, in particular, children playing or at rest.

Painting en plein air, Albright spent summers away, notably, in Brown County, Indiana. His hospitality and pricing strategy contributed to his success. Relocating to Warrenville, Illinois in 1924 with his wife, Clara, and their children, Albright remained active in the Chicago art community, serving as president of various cultural organizations, even as trends in the art world shifted more toward avant-garde modes of visual representation. Yet Albright's work garnered renewed attention during the Great Depression's American scene painting resurgence when Regionalism became widely popular in the 1930s.

Although Albright himself maintained a conservative style, his twin sons, Ivan and Malvin, gained prominence as modernist artists ironically. While Malvin was a sculptor of some renown, Ivan presented intensely macabre images in a magical realist manner, which contrasted with the idealized, bucolic scenes of his father. Despite these differences, the Albright family shared a studio in Warrenville and exhibited together.

Adam Emory Albright continued painting until late in life and last exhibited, with his sons, in 1950. A savvy businessman, Albright began selling his works on installment plans during his retirement so that he could support himself until he passed away at the age of ninety-five in 1957. The Warrenville Historical Society acquired the family's former studio in 1981 and, after extensive renovation, reopened the building as the Albright Studio Museum.