Scope and Content Note
The papers of John William Draper (1811-1882) and family span the years 1777-1951, but bulk largest in the period 1860-1882. The papers relate chiefly to the scientist and historian John William Draper and to his youngest son Daniel Draper (1841-1931). However, John William Draper's other sons, John Christopher Draper and Henry Draper, are also represented as are other members of the Draper, Maury, and Ludlow families. Included in the papers are family and general correspondence, subject files, speech, article, and book files, financial papers, and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized in four series: John William Draper Papers , Daniel Draper Papers , Other Draper Family Papers , and Oversize .
General correspondence in the John William Draper Papers includes many letters relating to his scientific and historical interests. Among his numerous scientific correspondents are Alexander Agassiz, F. A. P. Barnard, Edward Salisbury Dana, Benjamin Silliman, and John Tyndall. Information contained in correspondence with leading military officers aided Draper in writing his history of the Civil War published in 1867-1870. William T. Sherman, impressed with Draper's writing, volunteered his help after reading the preface to the first volume of the history. Other correspondents include George Bancroft, George W. Cullum, John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert Spencer, and William Jay Youmans.
Papers relating to Draper's nomination as president of the American Chemical Society in 1876, presentation of the Rumford Medal in 1875, and his work as president of the Medical Department of New York University are contained in a subject file of his papers.
The speech, article, and book file contains Draper's speech in 1860 at Oxford, England, before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, working manuscripts and notes for some of his books and articles, including a holograph copy of his Life of Franklin, apparently written in the mid-1870s and unpublished during his lifetime, and lectures delivered at New York University.
Household bills and receipts, account books, and canceled checks make up the bulk of John William Draper's financial papers . Miscellaneous items include his diploma from the University of London, biographical material, realty papers, genealogies, and printed matter.
The Daniel Draper Papers include family and general correspondence , a subject file , financial papers , and miscellaneous material that documents his career as a meteorologist with the New York Meteorological Observatory from 1868 to 1911. There are subject files and correspondence with such prominent scientists as Cleveland Abbe, Alexander Graham Bell, James McKeen Cattell, Gustave Eiffel, Valentine Mott, C. Piazzi Smyth, and John Tyndall.
Other Draper Family Papers are at the end of the collection. These papers consist chiefly of correspondence to and from a large number of family members. Of special interest are letters from John William Draper's sons, John Christopher and Henry, while serving with the army at Fort McHenry and Harpers Ferry in 1862. A letter in a series written by John William Draper from Oxford, England, to his sister, Dorothy Catherine Draper, and other members of the family concerns a paper from 1860 on the intellectual development of Europe that instigated the exchange between Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley on the Darwinian theory of the origin of species.
Other correspondents include Benjamin Alvord, Theodorus Bailey, George Bell, Schuyler Colfax, James Dwight Dana, William Darling, Charles Darwin, John Gibbon, W. E. Gladstone, William Babcock Hazen, John F. W. Herschel, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Benson John Lossing, Simon Newcomb, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Edwin McMasters Stanton, Gideon Welles, J. D. Whitney, and Thomas John Wood.