hildren, and when a mere child was put to work at the
loom, the humble vocation of his father who, the same as his ancestors
had been for several generations, was a hand-loom weaver. Already while
so employed the child was frequently caught sketching with charcoal on
the white fabric in his loom instead of continually plying the shuttle.
Whence and how he derived this inborn talent is one of those unsolvable
problems which seem to set at defiance all the accepted canons of
heredity. At all events, his talent was recognized by a local village
celebrity, a decorator, who guided the child, then only nine years of
age, in a crude way to a development of these artistic instincts, in
consequence of which it is related that he was soon able to "cut
marvellous figures from paper and afterwards draw their outlines on
walls and fences."

The hardship of their pursuit, offering little hope of a brighter future
for their large family of growing children, induced the parents about
the year 1844 to join the tide of emigration to that land of golden
promise, the United States, in immortalizing whose history and in
furthering whose artistic development through his glorious marine
pictures, the little Edward was destined to play so important a part.
The family settled in Maryland, and in the struggle for existence soon
awakened from their golden dream of a new Eldorado and returned to
their old vocation. Edward again found employment at the loom, until the
spirit of adventure and the desire of following the artistic bent of his
mind impelled him one day, without a dollar in his pocket, to walk all
the way to Philadelphia, where the boy hoped to find better
opportunities. There also, however, he was disappointed, and after
employment in various capacities, first with a cabinetmaker, then in a
bronzing shop, and then at house painting, he finally returned to the
loom at the munificent salary of six dollars per week. While so employed
he attracted the attention of the proprietor, who one day surprised him
while engaged in a superb drawing, stealing time for this purpose from
his work. The intelligence of this man in recognizing young Moran's
exceptional talent, and, as a result, advising him to quit mechanical
labor, and introducing him to one of the then famous landscape painters
of Philadelphia, Mr. Paul Webber, was the turning point in his career.
Subsequently another artist, James Hamilton, guided him in his
particular bent of marine p