[1] Moran began his career as an apprentice with the Philadelphia printing firm of Herline & Hensel and worked briefly as a lithographer.
A painter in watercolor as well as oil, Moran specialized in bucolic eastern landscapes with animals as well as images of life in New Mexico.
His brother Thomas and his brother-in-law Stephen Ferris had participated in a lecture series at the School of Design the previous year.
Ferris continued his affiliation with the School of Design for nearly twenty-five years, teaching figure drawing and painting from live models and plaster casts of statues.
Peter Moran’s teaching career lasted thirty years: after his start as a lecturer in 1866, he was hired full-time in 1872 and taught etching as well as landscape painting in oil and watercolor until 1896.