1882.] '^"^ [Barker. 



with a few personal friends as invited guests, sitting at table. But Dr. 

 Draper's overwork now told upon hiui ; slightly indisposed as he had been 

 before, he was unable to partake of food, and a premonitory chill seized 

 him while at the table. As soon as the dinner was over, he took a hot 

 bath, thuiking thus to throw it ofl". But while in the bath a second and 

 severer chill of a decidedly congestive type attacked him, and it was only 

 with the greatest difficulty that he could be carried to his bed. His warm 

 friend and former colleague. Dr. Metcalfe, was at once summoned and 

 pronounced the attack double pleuritis. The best of treatment and the 

 most careful nursing seemed for two or three days to be producing an 

 effect for the better. But on the Sunday following, heart complication 

 developed and he died about 4 o'clock in the morning of Monday, the 

 20th of November. 



Viewed from whatsoever standpoint, the life of Henry Draper appears 

 as successful as it was earnest, lionest and pure. His devotion to science 

 was supreme ; to him no labor was too severe, no sacrifice too great, if by 

 it he could approach nearer the exact truth. The researches he had 

 already made, and much more those he had projected, involved the largest 

 expenditure of his time and means. But such was his delight in his sci- 

 entific work, and his enthusiasm in carrying it on, that he was never 

 happier than when hardest at work in his laboratory, never more cheerful 

 than when most zealously laboring with his superb telescopes. Moreover, 

 he was as eminent as a teacher of science as he was as an investigator. 

 His lectures were simple, clear and forcible. They held the interest of 

 the class and awakened their enthusiasm while they enriched the stu- 

 dent's store of knowledge and strengthened his powers of observation and 

 of reason. In the laboratory he was keen, thorough and impartial, while 

 at the same time considerate and helpful ; ever striving to encourage hon- 

 est endeavor and to assist the earnest M'orker. 



Still another [sphere of labor, however, made demands upon his time. 

 In 1867, he married Marj^ Anna, the accomplished daughter of C'ourtlandt 

 Palmer, of New York. Upon Mr. Palmer's death, in 1874, Dr. Draper 

 became the managing trustee of an immense estate and, with his charac- 

 teristic energy and efficiency, entered at once upon the task of reducing it 

 to a basis of maximum production with the minimum amount of attention. 

 The responsibility which thus rested upon him, the harassing demands of 

 tenants, the endless details of leases, contracts and deeds, and the no less 

 annoying complications of necessary law suits, worried him incessantly. 

 And had it not been for his unsurpassed business capacity, he might have 

 failed. But he w^as equal to the demand upon him, and within a few 

 years, order had come out of confusion, and a few hours at his office daily 

 enabled all to flow along smoothly. 



To indicate the esteem in which Dr. Draper was held by his confreres 

 in science, the following passages maybe quoted from an excellent biogra- 

 phical notice of him written by Professor Young, of Princeton : "In per- 

 son he was of medium height, compactly built, with a pleasing address, 



