Thomas Moran

Biography

Thomas Moran came to the United States from England as a child and trained as a wood engraver. That job taught him to think in detail and in print.

In 1871 he joined the Hayden survey of the Yellowstone region as the expedition artist. He made field sketches of country almost no American had seen. His paintings and watercolors went to Washington and helped convince Congress to protect the place. Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872, the same year Congress paid him 10,000 dollars for the big Yellowstone canvas.

He spent the rest of his career painting the West, often for railroad companies who wanted people to buy tickets.

How Thomas Moran Worked

Moran did not pretend to be a camera. Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River was painted in 1882 from a visit to the Green River area a decade earlier. By 1882 there was a town there. He left the town out and painted riders on horseback instead, with a thunderstorm behind them. That is a choice, and it is the kind of choice the Smithsonian record spells out plainly.

What Backs This Record

Museum catalogue records at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, federal survey records from the 1871 Hayden expedition, and a congressional purchase recorded in 1872.

Moran died in 1926, so the work itself is out of copyright. The Smithsonian American Art Museum marks the Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River record free to use, which covers the museum image as well.

• Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River, Wyoming Territory, Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Smithsonian Institution

Documented Work