author
Henry Draper
1837–1882
A physician with a scientist’s curiosity, he helped turn the night sky into something cameras could capture and study. His experiments in photographing stars and spectra opened new paths for modern astronomy.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on March 7, 1837, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Henry Draper became an American doctor and one of the early pioneers of astrophotography. He studied medicine at New York University, where his father, John William Draper, was also a prominent scientist, and he carried that mix of medicine, chemistry, and astronomy into his own work.
Draper is especially remembered for using photography to investigate the heavens at a time when that was still a bold new idea. He produced notable photographs of the Moon and made landmark spectroscopic observations, including an early photograph of a stellar spectrum. He also photographed the Orion Nebula, work that helped show how photography could become a powerful scientific tool rather than just a way of making pictures.
He died in New York City on November 20, 1882, but his influence lasted well beyond his lifetime. His name lived on through the Henry Draper Memorial, which supported major stellar cataloging work at Harvard and helped shape the development of astrophysics.