Thomas Moran was born in Bolton, England,his family moved to America seeking economic opportunity in a new land. Moran became an apprentice at a Philadelphia engraving firm but later began working in the studio of his older brother who began to establish himself as a marine painter.Moran had a life-long interest in the work of English artist J.M.W. Turner and was described by contemporaries as the "American Turner". His trip to Yellowstone in 1871 marked the turning point of his career. He continued to return to the Grand Canyon and more extensively in Arizona and New Mexico, producing a number of striking paintings of the pueblos at Acoma and Laguna. Extraordinarily productive, both as a painter and an etcher, Moran continued to work well into his eighth decade. At his death in Santa Barbara, California, he was memorialized as the "Dean of American Landscape Painters."