For more than 50 years, Grace Albee worked in the demanding technique of wood engraving, producing images that one reviewer described as "superlatively controlled [and] meticulously observed. Few artists have understood this medium so well." Born on a Rhode Island farm, Grace Thurston Arnold started drawing at three. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1910 to 1912, and the next year she married the mural painter Percy F. Albee, with whom she had five sons. The family moved to Paris in 1928.

Long regarded as simply a technique for reproducing oil paintings, wood engraving as a fine art enjoyed a revival during the early 20th century. As a child Albee had become fascinated with the engraved illustrations in her grandfather's books; as an adult, she made this medium her specialty.

During her five years in France, Albee developed a lifelong interest in depicting the urban and rural landscapes around her. Albee's works were exhibited at several Paris Salons and received positive reviews; she had her first one-woman exhibition in France in 1932. The following year the Albees moved back to the United States, settling in New York City, where Albee's detailed, evocative prints continued to be praised for their technical mastery. In 1937 the family bought a summer house in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This region provided the material for much of Albee's subsequent work. By the 1940s her reputation was well established; the first article on Albee's work was published in 1946, the same year she was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design.

Albee won numerous awards and honors; the Brooklyn Museum held a major retrospective of her prints in 1976; and she was still working actively well into her 90s.