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!
#206 The Lenape: The Real Native New Yorkers
#205 The Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold
#204 The Cotton Club: The Aristocrat of Harlem
#203 Nikola Tesla in New York
#202 The Lower East Side: A Culinary History
#201 GOWANUS! Brooklyn's Troubled Waters
#200 Jane Jacobs: Saving the Village
#199.5: Bowery Boys - Behind the Scenes
#199 Battle For The Skyline: How High Can It Go?
#198 Greenpoint, Brooklyn: An Industrial-Strength History
#197 Danger In The Harbor: The Black Tom Explosion of 1916
#196 Ready to Wear: A History of the Garment District
#195 Midnight in Times Square: New Year's Eve in New York City
#194 Nellie Bly: Undercover in the Madhouse
#193 St. Mark's Place: Party in the East Village!
#192 Haunted Landmarks of New York
#191 The Great Fire of 1776
#190 The Curious Case of Typhoid Mary
#189 TAXI: History of the New York City Taxicab
#188: The Murder of Stanford White
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