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!
A Gilded Age Tour Up the Island of Manhattan
Rewind: The Deadly Draft Riots of 1863
The Making of the Pledge of Allegiance
#412 The New York Parking Wars
#411 Miss Subways: Queens of the New York Commute
#410 The Roeblings: The Family Who Built The Brooklyn Bridge
Rewind: The Birth of the Broadway Musical
#409 The Great New York City Pizza Tour
#408 The Titanic and the Fate of Pier 54
#407 New York by Gaslight: Illuminating the 19th Century
Rewind: When The Irish Came To New York
#406 How Wall Street Got Its Name
#405 Mona Lisa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
#404 Nighthawks and Automats: Edward Hopper's New York
#403 The Fulton Fish Market: History at the Seaport
Rewind: A Bar Named Julius', New York's Newest Landmark
#402 Treasures from the World's Fair
Side Streets: Good Diners, Great Pizza and Mars 2112
#401 The World Before Wordle: Talking Puzzles With AJ Jacobs
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