Several major exhibitions have included Adams's work: Five Hoosier Painters in Chicago, Illinois, in 1894; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair) in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1904; the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, in 1915; and the first Hoosier Salon in Chicago in 1925.

The family moved to Franklin shortly after his birth, and then to Shelbyville, where Alban worked as a local merchant and part-time farmer.

In 1869, when Adams was eighteen years old, he visited the Indiana State Fair, where he saw Still Life with Watermelon, an early work by William Merritt Chase.

Although Adams had limited finances, he enrolled at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana,[2][4] but attended classes for only two years.

A standard part of his training, and a typical exercise for most art students in London, was to paint reproductions of the masters at the National Gallery.

[1][5] On October 1, 1898, Adams married Winifred Brady, a still-life painter and one of his former art students in Muncie, Indiana.

Brady, who was twenty years younger than Adams, attended Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and the Art Students League of New York.

[6][7] In 1874, after completing his art studies in London, Adams returned to the United States to earn a living as a portrait painter.

Adams worked for a local photography studio, most likely tinting photographs to add color to the images, to supplement his income.

Other American artists in Munich at the same time included William Forsyth, J. Frank Currier, and Benjamin Rutherford Fitz, among others.

After Forsyth's return from Germany in 1888, he commuted from his home in Indianapolis to help Adams teach art classes at Muncie and Fort Wayne.

[19][20] In 1889, with financial support from fourteen local businessmen, Adams and Forsyth formed the Muncie Art School and served as its instructors.

As a result, the five Indiana men (Adams, Forsyth, Gruelle, Stark, and Steele) were identified as the Hoosier Group of painters.

[21] Adams spent the fall of 1896 painting with Steele and others at Metamora, Indiana, and returned to the area known as the Whitewater Valley in 1897.

Adams and Steele bought property a half-mile from Brookville, Indiana, on the eastern fork of the Whitewater River in 1898.

In addition, Adams rented studio space in downtown Indianapolis with Steele and Gruelle to exhibit their work.

[32] Although his health began to fail, Adams continued to paint to the end of his life, exploring new landscapes beyond his home in Indiana.

In 1915, following orders from his doctor, Adams spent several months south of Saint Petersburg, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico.

[33][34] During the summer, Adams and his family spent time at their cottage in Leland, Michigan, and at the Hermitage, near Brookville, Indiana, which served as a gathering place for his fellow artists and friends, including Stark, Steele, Forsyth, Lewis Henry Meakin, and George Jo Mess.

He also taught many other students, including Dorothy Morlan, Helen McKay Steele, and Julia Graydon Sharpe.

[37] Adams's years in Muncie coincided with the community's growing interest in the arts, especially among its prominent citizens during the period 1870 to 1892.