Background
Lambourne was born to William and Martha Wernham in Chieveley, Berkshire, England on the River Lambourn.
Lambourne was born to William and Martha Wernham in Chieveley, Berkshire, England on the River Lambourn.
The family emigrated to the United States when Alfred was a child. They first settled in Saint Louis, Missouri before moving to Utah Territory. During the trip from Saint Louis to Salt Lake City, Utah, Alfred kept a sketchbook of scenery along the way.
After arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of 16, Lambourne took work as a scenic artist for the Salt Lake Theatre.
In the same decade, Lambourne traveled the American West with photographer Charles Roscoe Savage, painting as Savage photographed, and explored the Wasatch range with H. L. A. Culmer, painting and naming features, and "painted a series of large canvasses representing his journey from the eastern coast of the United States to the Golden Gate" with Reuben Kirkham. He also visited Yosemite, Colorado and Arizona.
Later in life, Lambourne focused more on writing, sometimes illustrating his work, eventually writing 14 books In November, 1895, he began a year living in solitude on Great Salt Lake"s remote Gunnison Island, where he wrote Our Inland Sea.
In March 1896, a group of guano sifters came to the island, and Lambourne included musings about them in the book
In early Winter of 1896, Lambourne left the island, along with the guano sifters. Lambourne died June 6, 1926, in Salt Lake City.