Thomas Moran\nBorn February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926\nEducation apprentice to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer\n\nThomas Moran began his artistic career as a teenage apprentice to the Philadelphia wood-engraving firm Scattergood & Telfer. Moran found the engraving process tedious and spent his free time working on his own watercolors. By the mid-1850s he was drawing the firm\'s illustrations for publication rather than carving them. At that time, he encountered illustrated books that included examples of the work of British artist J. M. W. Turner, who was to be a lasting influence on Moran\'s work.\n\nMoran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist. He was a younger brother of the noted marine artist Edward Moran, with whom he shared a studio. A talented illustrator and exquisite colorist, Thomas Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner\'s Monthly. During the late 1860s, he was appointed the chief illustrator for the magazine, a position that helped him launch his career as one of the premier painters of the American landscape, in particular, the American West.\n\nThomas Moran\'s vision of the Western landscape was critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In 1871 Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, director of the United States Geological Survey, invited Moran, at the request of American financier Jay Cooke, to join Hayden and his expedition team into the unknown Yellowstone region. Hayden was just about to embark on his arduous journey when he received a letter from Cooke presenting Moran as \"an artist of Philadelphia of rare genius\". Funded by Cooke (the director of the Northern Pacific Railroad), and Scribner\'s Monthly, a new illustrated magazine, Moran agreed to join the survey team of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 in their exploration of the Yellowstone region. During forty days in the wilderness area, Moran visually documented over 30 different sites and produced a diary of the expedition\'s progress and daily activities. His sketches, along with photographs produced by survey member William Henry Jackson, captured the nation\'s attention and helped inspire Congress to establish the Yellowstone region as the first national park in 1872. \n\nHonors\nMoran was elected to the membership of the National Academy of Design in 1884\nSociety of Illustrators 1999 Hall of Fame Inductee\n\nonline gallery: https://www.thomas-moran.org/

Thomas Moran History of American Illustration