A history of Albert Lea,
since 1855
Postcards, papers and photographs of Albert Lea from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The city is named after Albert Lea Lake, which was named after Albert Miller Lea, a topographer from Tennessee with the United States Dragoons, who surveyed southern Minnesota and northern Iowa in 1835, including the current site of Albert Lea. Captain Nathan Boone, a son of Daniel Boone, was the scout for Lea's Dragoon unit. Lea later served the Southern rebellion as an engineering officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Albert Lea’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view1912postcardEpiscopalChurchAlbert…, 1912: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Albert Lea
See all 37 →
Albert Lea, decade by decade
![Albert Lee [sic], Minn](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/8859/8d23f92c0de4b6ea0567-s.jpg)
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as 1898ProclamationMayorAlbertLeaMN (1898) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via WikidataFrom Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (4) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.