Thomas Moran was an American painter and printmaker of the 19th century’s Hudson River School in New York. Unlike other Hudson River School painters, who for the most part never ventured past the East Coast, Moran often painted landscapes and regions of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. A talented illustrator and colorist, Moran was hired as an illustrator at Scribner’s Monthly, a magazine that helped launch his career as one of the leading painters of the American landscape, in particular the American West.