John William Draper

Henry and Daniel were two of his sons. Draper studied chemistry under Turner (who first interested him in the chemical effects of light) in London. Morse and Draper had collaborated in work towards the electric telegraph. Draper had been experimenting with photographic processes before Daguerre’s invention of photography, was quickly able to improve on aspects of it, took the first photograph of the moon, and opened a portrait studio in New York with Morse in 1840. His correspondents included Herschel, Darwin, Silliman, Spencer, Holmes, and Tyndall.