Mary Anna Draper

Some of the Harvard "computers" along with Mary Draper, seated in the center. (1891)
Credit: Harvard University Archives

Mary Anna Palmer Draper was born in Connecticut in September 1839. She is most notably known for her pioneering work in astrophotography alongside her husband, Henry Draper. At the time of their marriage in 1867, Henry was constructing a 28-inch reflecting telescope at his observatory in New York. It is at this location where the Drapers made their first photographs of a stellar spectrum, noting the unique pattern of lines created when a star's light is passed through a prism. The husband and wife team worked together for the next fifteen years (see this post for another husband and wife astronomy duo), focusing on observations, photography, and laboratory work.

After Henry's death, Mary donated a significant amount of money to the Harvard College Observatory to continue Henry's dream of scientific astrophotography (astronomers here had been building on the Drapers' pioneering photography of stellar spectra). This financial contribution led to the development of the Henry Draper Catalogue, a stellar catalogue listing the spectroscopic classifications of over 270,000 stars (astronomers Annie Jump Cannon and Williamina Fleming are two of the individuals who made contributions to this remarkable work). Mary continued to visit the Harvard College Observatory regularly, and she was also instrumental in the development of the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. Mary was also passionate about archaeology, owning a magnificent collection of ancient amulets, pottery, and other artifacts from the Near East, Italy, and Egypt.

After contracting pneumonia, Mary Anna Palmer Draper died at the age of 75 in her New York home in 1914. She left numerous benefactions in her will, one of them being a donation to the John S. Billings Memorial Fund "for the purchase of books, prints, and pamphlets for the Reference Department of the New York Public Library." What a stellar lady!