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!
#271 Counter Culture: Diners, Automats, and Luncheonettes in New York
#270 Heaven on the Hudson: A History of Riverside Park
#269 Harry Houdini and the Golden Age of Magic in New York
#268 The Astonishing Saga of the Atlantic Cable
#267 Broadway: The Story of a Street
#266 New York City during the Revolutionary War (1776-1783)
#265 Absolutely Flawless: A History of Drag in New York City
#264 The Landmarks of Coney Island
#263 Ebbets Field and the Glory Days of the Brooklyn Dodgers
#262 Secrets of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
#261 The Huddled Masses: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty
#260 Journey to Grey Gardens: A Tale of Two Edies
#259 Crossing to Brooklyn: How the Williamsburg Bridge Changed New York
#258 Tales from Tribeca History
#257 Frozen In Time: The Great Blizzard of 1888
#256 DUMBO: Life on Brooklyn's Waterfront
#255 The Rescue of Grand Central
#254 The Destruction of Penn Station
#253 Opening Day of the New York City Subway
#252 The Underground Railroad: Escape through New York
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