Sentence:  Significant are such canvases as `` Bleeker Street , Saturday Night '' , with its typically American crowd ( Sloan never went abroad ) ; the multifigure `` Traveling Carnival '' , in which action is vivified by lighting ; or `` Carmine Theater , 1912 '' , the only canvas with an ash can ( and foraging dog ) , although Sloan <WSD>was</WSD> a member of the famous `` Eight '' , and of the so-called `` Ash-Can School '' , a term he resented . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)