Guerry was born in Sumter County and attended school in Spartanburg at The St. John's School. At age 14 he produced a portrait of U. S. Senator William C. Preston. This early portrait showing Preston with a cane, and a later one of Preston with a crutch are included in the Wofford College collection. William M. Wightman in Leonard Auditorium may be a copy by Albert Guerry of that painted by Thomas Wightman. Evidently they had difficulty raising all the funds, so gave Guerry permission to exhibit the portrait in Charleston in the spring of 1882.
Tradition has that the school eventually helped to complete the purchase.
Perhaps Guerry's masterpiece, a full-length seated portrait of President James H. Carlisle, was painted in the year before his death. Carlisle is seated with the towers of the college seen through an open curtain. In his time Guerry was an important portrait painter, and not only in the South, though Southern politicians formed the bulk of his work. These last three portraits are in the collection of the White House. Two of Guerry's paintings have some additional local significance.