Albert Alexander, Graf von Pourtalès (10 September 1812 – 18 December 1861), was a Prussian diplomat and leading representative of the Wochenblatt Party.
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Early life
Pourtalès was born on 10 September 1812 in Paris into a family descended from French Huguenots that had first been ennobled under King Frederick II in 1750. He was a son of Count Friedrich von Pourtalès (1779–1861), Privy Councilor and Prussian Master of Ceremonies, and Louise de Castellane-Norante (1793–1881), the daughter of the French Lt.-Col. Michel Ange Boniface, Marquis de Castellane-Norante. His brother, Wilhelm von Pourtalès, was the father of Friedrich von Pourtalès.
The family was based in Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia. His grandfather Jacob Ludwig Pourtalès (1722–1811) built up a considerable fortune there as a merchant and landowner. His father, and his father's two brothers, were made Prussian Counts by King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1814.
From April 1832 to 1836, Pourtalès travelled around the United States. He was chaperoned by British traveler Charles La Trobe and treated to a Grand Tour meant to foster his maturation. On the boat ride to the U.S. they became friends with writer Washington Irving, with whom they would travel for the next six months. The three then visited New England, the White Mountains, and Niagara Falls. Soon after, they met Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, who brought them to Missouri, Arkansas Territory, and what is now Oklahoma to see lands claimed by the U.S. to be set aside for displaced Native nations after the Indian Removal Act.