Heritage, 2011, Volume 3 Page: 4
39 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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4. - ARenovation to Expand Texas
Ranger Hall of Fame Facilities
The $1.1 million expansion of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame
and Museum in Waco is underway and will quadruple the size
of the venue's archive library.
For 35 years the center has collected service records, corre-
spondence, photographs, criminal case files, and books related
to the Texas Rangers. Currently, the research facility, which is
visited by more than 3,500 guests a year, is 900 square feet andbursting at the seams. The larger facility will have improved
storage and exhibit space, reading rooms for researchers, and
enhanced infrastructure to safeguard the archives.
The expanded library, designed by Texas Historical Founda-
tion director and architect James McBride will be named the
Tobin and Anne Armstrong Research Center. McBride donat-
ed his services, amounting to $100,000, in the name of the
THE Construction is expected to be completed by April 2012.
Photographs above provided by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Mu-
seum in Waco.Former Texas State Artist and Preservationist Ronald Thomason Dies
Former Texas State
Artist (1973) and his-torical preservation-
Sist, Ronald Thoma-
son, died peacefully
at his home, The Art-
ist's Eye, in Harper,
Texas, on August 4,
his 80th birthday.
Thomason was a
studio and design
artist specializing in
egg tempera and dry
brush watercolor, but
he also worked as a
book and technical
illustrator, lithogra-
pher, and art teacher. After a personal request from Texas-born
actress Mary Martin, Thomason created a life-size bronze stat-
ue of Peter Pan, which stands today in Weatherford, honoring
the legendary role that Martin made famous.
Thomason studied at the University of Nagasaki and later
at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he had in-dividual instruction with painter John McCoy, a member of
the Wyeth family. When he returned to Texas, he painted the
imagery of the state: windmills, cowboys, and the old buildings
of the faded Lone Star frontier. His artwork helped preserve
these pieces of Texas so that they could be remembered and en-
joyed by generations that might not have the chance to see and
experience them. These images and others have been shown at
The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Fort Worth Art Center
Museum, The Grace Museum in Abilene, the Wichita Falls Art
Museum, and numerous galleries around the state.
Though Texas was his base, Thomason's artwork can also
be found in many national venues. His painting, "The Fed-
eral City," a bird's-eye view of Washington, D.C., with the
dome of the nation's Capitol in the foreground, hangs in the
National Archives, not far from the original Declaration of
Independence. The painting was also used on the cover of
the bound-and-boxed book, The Federal City, which Thoma-
son and President Gerald Ford both autographed at a White
House reception in 1976.
Thomason is survived by his wife, Sherra, and three daugh-
ters. The family has asked that memorial donations be made
to the Texas Historical Foundation, P.O. Box 50314, Austin,
TX 78763.4 TEXASHERITAGE I Volume 3 2011
T
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, 2011, Volume 3, periodical, 2011; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth254222/m1/4/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.