Sydney M. Laurence (1865-1940) was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1865, and died in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1940. Laurence studied under famed maritime artist Edward Moran and the Art Student League of New York. Laurence lived in Cornwall, England artist colony at St. Ives from 1889 until 1898. Exhibited: Royal Salon of British Artists and Paris Salon, 1890,1894(honorable mention), 1895. Laurence was an artist-correspondent in the Spanish American War and for Black and White in South Africa. In search of gold he arrived in Alaska in 1904. Laurence spent his time between Alaska, Los Angeles, California and the Seattle/Tacoma Washington area. He is considered Alaska's foremost historical painter. An entire gallery is dedicated to him at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Laurence paintings hang in museums in Alaska, New York, Vermont, Washington and in the White House in Washington DC.