Henry Draper Biography

1839 March 3rd, Henry Draper was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Henry Draper was born in a wealthy family, and was grateful for that his whole life. His father John William Draper was a well-established doctor and chemist at New-York University. Draper's mother was the former Antonia Coetana de Paiva Pereira Gardner. His family moved to New York when he was at the age of two.He was stimulated by his parent's amazing work. Henry Draper was stimulated by his parent's work. He pursued excellence and innovation, and even though he worked in the medical field, as did his father and brother, he actually desired to be an astronomer. He was  Henry Draper was a NAS member, medical doctor, and one of America's oustanding "amateur" scientists. In 1857, at age 20 he graduated  from New York University School of Medicine. Later he worked as a physician at Bellevue hospital. Then after working as a physician, he went on to become a professor and a dean of medicine at New York University. However he wanted to pursue astronomy, and became  one of the biggest pioneer's of astrophotography, and he specialized in a type of photography for recording images  of astronomical objects in the sky. Henry Draper married Anna Mary Palmer in 1867, and proved to be an excellent assistant to him and a hostess. In 1872 he took a stellar spectrum that showed absorption lines and many of his colleagues preceded him. One year later he resigned from his position at the medical department to continue in his own research on astrophotography. Another year later he directed an expedition to capture the transit of Venus and was the first person to photograph the Orion Nebula. Some of his more notable achievements and awards include: an honorary law of degree, a Congressional medal for directing the U.S. expedition to photograph the 1874 transit of Venus, and even having a small lunar crater named after him. In the fall of 1882 he resigned as a professor, so that he ensured himself free time to pursue in his studies. He embarked on a hunting trip two months later and was exposed to severe cold on the mountain. Five days later he died (1882) from a disease called pleurisy,which is a lung infection. After his death Henry's wife funded the Henry Draper medal in honor of his outstanding contributions to the astronomy world. Around 40 years later after his death, the Henry Draper Catalogue was created  giving spectroscopic classification for 225,000 stars and even later extended  in 1937 classifying over 350,000 stars! Henry Draper was a major contribution to the astrophysics world, and it would not be the same without him.

Resources:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Draper_Henry.html

http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/draper-henry.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/pyuywl8