JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER. 



Dom Pedro I. Though himself an Englishman Dr Gardner 

 had married into the celebrated de Piva-Pereira family of Portu- 

 gal, and this, their only daughter, had been brought to London 

 to complete her education. Within a few months they became 

 engaged, and in 1831, not long after the death of her father, in 

 Brazil, they were married. In 1832 Dr. Draper's father also died, 

 and his mother accompanied the newly-married couple across 

 the ocean to settle among the little Wesleyan colony in Vir- 

 ginia, where she died in the following year. It was to his ac- 

 complished wife that Dr. Draper owed much of the happiness 

 which characterized his married life. Six children were born to 

 them, one of whom died in infancy. The eldest son, John Chris- 

 topher Draper, was born in Virginia in 1835 and became his 

 father's successor as professor of chemistry in the medical de- 

 partment of the University of New York. He died on the 20th of 

 December, 1885. The second son, Henry Draper, was born in 1837 

 also in Virginia. He became professor of physiology in the univer- 

 sity and subsequently professor of analytical chemistry. He early 

 turned his attention in the direction of physical research, especially 

 in its application to astronomy, and was elected a member of 

 the National Academy in 1877. His early death in 1882 alone 

 prevented his rising to an equal eminence as an investigator 

 with that attained by his distinguished father. The third son, 

 Daniel Draper, is at present the director of the Meteorological Ob- 

 servatory in Central Park, New York. Dr. Draper's daughters 

 were Virginia, afterward Mrs. Maury, named for the State in which 

 she was born, who died in October, 1885, leaving three children ; 

 and Antonia, who is at present Mrs. Edward H. Dixon. 



Any record of the Draper family, however, which did not men- 

 tion Dr. Draper's elder sister Catherine would be quite incomplete. 

 As already mentioned, she accompanied the newly-married couple 

 across the ocean when they removed to America. Having shared 

 her brother's tastes for scientific studies, she became his assistant in 

 research and rendered him most valuable aid. Her portrait was 

 the first ever taken from the life by the daguerreotype process, and 

 the colored plates which illustrate his memoirs were the work of 

 her pencil. She was a constant inmate in his family, and during 

 the many years of Mrs. Draper's ill health she was as a mother to 

 the children. She has outlived her brother, and resides still at the 

 family mansion in Hastings. 



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