The Robert E. Nail Jr. Archives at the Old Jail Art Center was established to provide a historical memory and a genealogical resource of the people of Albany and the Shackelford, Stephens, Throckmorton, and Young County areas. The Archives also seeks to supplement the museum's fine arts collection with the personal/professional papers of artists whose work are in the permanent collection.
The Archives is open to the public: Tuesday - Friday 11:00-5:00 pm. To better assist researchers, appointments are encouraged. Please call 325.762.2269.
SPOKEN: Ardon B. Judd, Jr. Oral History Project
SPOKEN: Ardon B. Judd, Jr. Oral History Project has been established to record the stories and life histories of the people of Albany, Texas and its surrounding region. In memory of Old Jail Art Center Board member and archives supporter Ardon Judd, the project will preserve this rich history and make it accessible to visitors, students, and researchers.
Individual videos and full length interviews, along with their respective transcripts, can be found on the project page HERE.
Generously supported by Humanities Texas and Austin & Kellie Sherwood.
Sallie Reynolds Matthews wrote Interwoven so that her children and their children would know how their family and the Lambshead Ranch legacy grew on the Texas frontier. Far beyond her modest intentions, the book became a classic soon after its original publication in 1936.
As Robert Nail wrote in his introduction to the 1958 edition designed by the renowned bookman Carl Hertzog, “When you read her account of the day her family moved into a mysterious, abandoned ranch house on the very edge of the unconquered prairie and see, as her small girl eyes saw, the broken window glass littering the floor, the fang marks left by a wild animal on the door, you sense quite keenly what it must have been like . . . “