A journalist and former advertising executive, Robert C. Alberts was a Contributing Editor of American Heritage and wrote several books.
Alberts was primarily interested in 18th-century American history. His essay on a daring colonist who played a role in the British capture of Quebec during the French and Indian War was enlarged into a book, The Most Extraordinary Adventures of Major Robert Stobo (1965).
His other books included The Golden Voyage: The Life and Times of William Bingham, 1752-1804 (1970), the story of a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who played a prominent role in the Revolutionary War and The Good Provider: H. J. Heinz and His 57 Varieties (1973), about the founder of the company that bears his name.
Other books include Benjamin West: A Biography (1978), a highly regarded portrait of the first American painter to gain international recognition, and The Shaping of the Point: Pittsburgh’s Renaissance Park.