122 South Ninth Street 

"The Hare and  the Tortoise"

1937

1873-1958

Albert was born in Concordia, Kansas, but after the death of his father the family moved to their mother's home in Clyde, Kansas. Reid thought he might pursue either art or music and was talented in both. He audited courses at the University of Kansas as he could afford them, teaching at local colleges to pay tuition. He eventually went to work for a bank in Clyde after being turned down for artist positions with various newspapers.

On September 11, 1896, Albert T. Reid sold his first political cartoon to the Topeka Mail and Breeze. A Cloud County native, Reid longed to pursue an artistic career. After this first cartoon, his work began to appear regularly in the Kansas City Journal, Kansas City Star, Chicago Record, and the New York Herald as well as several national magazines including the Saturday Evening Post.

Reid was a successful businessman, a staunch supporter of the American farmer, a composer, a painter of murals and a teacher of art. The art school which he started with George Stone in Topeka was the beginning of Washburn's Art Department. Reid left Kansas for good in 1919 when he accepted a position to become director of pictorial publicity for the Republican campaign of 1920.