William A. Coulter

William A. Coulter, born William Alexander Coulter (March 7, 1849 – March 13, 1936), was an American painter of marine subjects. Coulter was a native of Glenariff, County Antrim, in what is today Northern Ireland. He became an apprentice seaman at the age of 13, and after seven years at sea, came to settle in San Francisco in 1869. In the late 1870s, he went to Europe to study with marine artists Vilhelm Melbye, François Musin, and J. C. Jacobsen. In 1896, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Call. Between 1909 and 1920, he painted five 16-by-18-foot murals for the Assembly Room of the Merchants Exchange Building. Coulter resided in the San Francisco Bay Area until his death at the age of 87, in his Sausalito home. During the course of his life, his paintings chronicled the history of shipping and navigation in the San Francisco and San Pablo bays.