Henry Draper

Profession: Astronomer

Nationality:

Biography: Henry Draper was an American physician and amateur astronomer who made key contributions to astrophotography in the late 19th century. He is best known for capturing early photographs of celestial objects like the Orion Nebula and the spectrum of Jupiter.

Draper came from a family with a strong scientific background, as his father John William Draper was a respected doctor and professor at NYU who took the first photograph of the moon in 1840.

Henry initially followed in his father's footsteps, graduating from NYU School of Medicine in 1857 and working as a physician. Like his father, however, Draper had an interest in astronomy and increasingly turned towards this in the 1870s.

He ultimately resigned from his medical position at NYU in 1873 to focus on astrophotography, capturing groundbreaking images like the first photograph of the Orion Nebula in 1880 using an 11-inch telescope at his private observatory in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Draper's photographs provided valuable new insights into stars and nebulae, and his work was widely recognized by the scientific community. He received honorary degrees, a Congressional medal for directing a U.S. expedition to photograph the 1874 transit of Venus, and was elected to prestigious societies like the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1882, Draper died of pleurisy at the age of 45. After his death, his widow Mary Anna Palmer Draper funded the Henry Draper Medal for astrophysics, as well as a telescope which was used to create the Henry Draper Catalog of stellar spectra in his honor.

Born: March 7, 1837
Birthplace: Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA
Star Sign: Pisces

Died: November 20, 1882 (aged 45)
Cause of Death: Pleurisy