Introduction
Early Years
Yellowstone
Green River
A Western Triptych
Moran and Photography
Turner's Influence
Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon: Late Views
From Long Island to Europe
Watercolors
Final Years

Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon: Late Views

Moran's trips to Yellowstone in 1871 and the Grand Canyon in 1873 allowed him to stake artistic claim to two of the most spectacular landscapes on the American continent. Shortly after he returned from Yellowstone, Moran adopted a new signature, incorporating the letter "Y" with the "T" and "M" of his given name, rechristening himself Thomas "Yellowstone" Moran.

Over the next five decades Moran traveled west many times, returning frequently to the Grand Canyon, where, as an older man, he often spent the winter months. Increasingly popular as tourist destinations, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon became even more attractive as subjects for pictures. Capitalizing on a market he had created, Moran produced a number of powerful late pictures of both sites--several of which acknowledge the arrival of the tourist. Bright Angel Trail, for instance, includes a group of tourists making their way up the canyon wall along an established trail that became one of the most popular in the park.