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!
#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
The Mysteries of Absinthe: Dancing With The Green Fairy
#400 Jacob Riis: 'The Other Half' of the Gilded Age
#399 The Changing Lower East Side: A View From Seward Park
#398 Marilyn Monroe in New York
Rewind: Birth of the Five Boroughs
#397 Ghost Stories of the Hudson River
Rewind: An Evening at Sardi's
#396 Samuel Tilden and the Presidential Election of 1876
#395 Jefferson Market and the Women's House of Detention
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