Dorothy Catherine Draper is a truly forgotten figure in American history. She was the first woman to ever sit for a photograph — a daguerrotype, in the year 1840, upon the rooftop of the school which would become New York University.
Catherine was the older sister of professor John William Draper, later the founder of the university’s school of medicine. The Drapers worked alongside Samuel Morse in the period following his invention of the telegraph.
The experiments of Draper and Morse, with Catherine as assistant, would set the stage for the entire history of American photography.
The legendary portrait was taken when Miss Draper was a young woman but a renewed interest in the image in the 1890s brought the now elderly matron a bit of late-in-life recognition.
To see the photograph of Draper and other early photography, visit our website.
This episode originally appeared on Greg’s podcast called The First which had a respectable run a few years ago. The feed for that show will be going away soon so we wanted to present some of that show’s greatest hits over the next few months, in between regular episodes of the Bowery Boys as bonus stories about American history. Enjoy!
#442 Urban Legends of New York City
#441 The Recluse of Herald Square: The Ida Wood Mystery
The Ghosty Men: Inside the Collyer Mansion (Rewind)
#440 When Longacre Square Became Times Square
#439 The Ticker-Tape Parade: A Very New York Celebration
#438 The Ramones at CBGB: Revolution on the Bowery
The Hidden World of Gramercy Park
#437 Haarlem, Breukelen, Utrecht: Exploring New York's Dutch Roots
#436 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Finding Peter Stuyvesant
#435 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Radical Walloons
#434 Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: Empire of the Seas
#433 New Amsterdam Man: An Interview with Russell Shorto
The Bowery Boys Adventures in the Netherlands TRAILER
#432 The Lenape Nation: Past, Present and Future
Rewind: History of the New York City Subway
#431 Park Avenue: History with a Penthouse View
#430 The Story of Flushing: Queens History, Old and New
#429 The Moores: A Black Family in 1860s New York
The Age of Innocence: Inside Edith Wharton's Classic Novel
#428 The New York Game: Baseball in the Early Years
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