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  • Overview
  • Family of Painters
  • Hayden Expedition
  • Painter of Yellowstone
  • Western Landscapes
  • All Image Gallery
Image banner with Portrait of Thomas Moran in Foreground and painting titled Green River in the background
Thomas Moran


The Moran Family

Family of Painters

Hayden Expedition

Hayden Expedition

All Image Gallery

All Image Gallery

Painter of Yellowstone

Painter of Yellowstone

Western Landscapes

Western Landscapes



Overview

This exhibit celebrates Thomas Moran (1837 - 1926), preeminent nineteenth century American landscape painter. A member of the Hudson River School, Moran's luminous artwork captured the grandeur of the West and unusual natural features of the Yellowstone region.

Moran's powerful images were critical to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, and subsequently to the founding of the National Park Service in 1916. By the time of his death in 1926, the artist had painted many other Western landscapes that would become national parks or monuments. Thomas Moran's works will be forever associated with Yellowstone National Park and the grand vistas of the American West.

Link to the Campaign for Yellowstone Lesson Plan

Teaching with Museum Collections Lesson Plan
"The Campaign for Yellowstone"




Explore Thomas Moran's Diary: Experience 1870s Yellowstone through an artist's eyes.

Thomas Moran's Diary




Museum Management Program

National Park Service

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