Daniel Draper
Born2 April 1841
New York City, US
Died21 December 1931 (1931-12-22) (aged 90)
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, US
Alma materNew York University
Known forinventing multiple key weather measurement devices
Scientific career
Fieldsmeteorology
InstitutionsNew York Meteorological Observatory

Daniel Draper (2 April 1841 – 21 December 1931) was an American meteorologist and inventor who served for more than forty-two years as the official meteorologist for the city of New York and who attained worldwide distinction in the fields of science relating to astronomy and the weather.[1]

Early life

He was born in Manhattan in 1841, one of six children of the English-born American scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian, and pioneer photographer John William Draper and Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira née Gardner. Daniel Draper began his schooling at the NYU primary department, but was mainly homeschooled by his aunt Dorothy Catherine Draper[2] and studied science with his father.[1] Later as his father's assistant in chemistry and physiology, he prepared the amanuensis for his father's Intellectual Development of Europe and other works. Draper attended New York University, of which his father was a founder, and took his Ph.D. there in 1880.[3] He was unable to serve during the American Civil War because he was partially deaf from having scarlet fever as a child.[2]

Career

Draper established the New York Meteorological Observatory in Central Park in 1868 and was its first and only Director until 1911.[4] Draper also invented a number of important weather measurement devices including a self-recording wind direction and velocity instruments, self-recording dry and wet bulb thermometers, a hygrograph, a self-recording rain gauge, a sun thermometer, and a weighing mercurial barograph,[3][5] thus beginning the 150-plus-year Central Park climatological record that continues to this day.[6] He helped his brother Henry Draper to construct the telescopes, grind the mirrors and build his observatory at Hastings-on-Hudson. He was for many years an official of the New York Health Department.[1][3]

Among others, he corresponded with such prominent scientists as Cleveland Abbe, Alexander Graham Bell, James McKeen Cattell, Gustave Eiffel, Valentine Mott, Charles Piazzi Smyth, and John Tyndall.[7]

Personal life

His niece was Antonia Maury, the American astronomer, while his brothers included the chemist and surgeon John Christopher Draper and the doctor and amateur astronomer Henry Draper. His aunt was Dorothy Catherine Draper, the subject of the oldest daguerreotype taken in America.[8][9][10][11]

Daniel Draper died of heart disease[1] in 1931 at the Draper family home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He was buried with his wife Nancy Maury née Ludlow in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County in New York.[12] Their daughter Harriett Maury Draper (1890-1932) was killed in a motor accident. In her will she left her estate to her caretaker to look after her pets.[13] Another daughter was Dorothy Catherine Draper (1888-1972), named after her great-aunt, and who married Berthold Hintz Nye (1886-1943).

The archive of Daniel Draper is among the John William Draper Family Papers held by the Library of Congress.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 DR. DANIEL DRAPER, WEATHER MAN, DEAD; On Retirement in 1911 He Had Served City for 42 Years as Official Meteorologist. INVENTOR OF INSTRUMENTS Many of His Recording Devices Used at Central Park Observatory-- Father Was a Founder of N.Y.U. Studied Science With Father. Health Department Official, The New York Times, 22 December 1931 (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 Bouhassira, Elza. Daniel Draper:Pioneering Meteorologist in a Family of Scientists, Hastings Historian, Vol. 30, No. 2, A Publication of the Hastings Historical Society, Spring/Summer 2020
  3. 1 2 3 Death of Dr Daniel Draper, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Volume 13: Issue 5, 1 May 1932, p. 91
  4. ↑ Draper Family Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution database
  5. ↑ Daniel Draper, The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, University of Harvard
  6. ↑ Donegan, Brian. New York City arguably has the most unique weather observations in America, Fox Weather, 5 November 2021
  7. 1 2 John William Draper Family Papers, A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress
  8. ↑ Portrait of Dorothy Catherine Draper, National Museum of American History
  9. ↑ H. W. Lanier, The Marvels of Photography. The World's Work, Vol. XI, No. 3, Jan. 1906, pp. 7163-7173.
  10. ↑ Joan Marans Dim and Nancy Murphy Cricco. The Miracle on Washington Square: New York University, Lexington Books (2001), p. 64 Google Books
  11. ↑ R. Derek Wood and E. D. Shoreland, "The Daguerreotype Portrait of Dorothy Draper," Photographic Journal, vol. 10 (December 1970): 478–82.
  12. ↑ Do You Know Who's Buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery?, Westchester Magazine
  13. ↑ PETS' CARETAKERS GET DRAPER ESTATE; Weather Man's Daughter Left Everything to Protect Her Cats and Dogs. SHE WAS KILLED BY AUTO Only Provision for Relatives in Will Is Reference to Legacy From Her Grandfather The New York Times, 11 November 1932, p. 15 (subscription required)
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