Thirteen Chapters of American History / represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen Historical Marine Paintings

Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro.
By THEODORE SUTRO 1905
NEW YORK: THEODORE SUTRO, 280 BROADWAY AND THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. PUBLISHER'S AGENTS, 33-37 East 17th Street.
$1.50 net.
Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro
To My Dear Wife FLORENCE
THROUGH WHOSE STEADFAST FRIENDSHIP FOR MR. AND MRS. EDWARD MORAN AND LOYAL DEVOTION TO ME, I WAS LED TO CHAMPION, AND ENCOURAGED TO PERSEVERE IN ESTABLISHING, THE RIGHTS OF THE WIDOW TO THESE MASTERWORKS, WITHOUT WHICH THE OCCASION FOR PENNING THESE PAGES WOULD NOT HAVE ARISEN—THIS LITTLE WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED, ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR MARRIAGE, October 1st, 1904.
T. S. M.
The Thirteen Paintings, to a history and description of which (and incidentally to a brief memoir of their creator, Edward Moran) these pages are devoted, are monumental in their character and importance. Mr. Moran designated them as representing the Marine History of the United States. I have somewhat changed this title; for even the untraversed Ocean and the landing of Columbus in the new world represent periods which necessarily affect the whole American Continent.
The conception of these pictures was in itself a mark of genius, for no more fitting subjects could have been chosen by the greatest marine painter in the United States than the heroic and romantic incidents connected with the sea, which are so splendidly depicted in these thirteen grand paintings. That their execution required over fifteen years of ceaseless labor and the closest historical study is not surprising. The localities, the ships, the armament, the personages, the costumes, the weapons and all the incidents connected with each epoch are minutely and correctly represented, in so far as existing records rendered that possible. And yet, interwoven with each canvas, is a tone so poetic and imaginative that stamps it at once as the offspring of genius and lifts it far above the merely photographic and realistic. The series is the result of a life of prolific production, careful study, unceasing industry and great experience.