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Draper, Ruth, 1884-1956, American monologist, b. New York City. The author of 36 monologues, ranging from farce to tragedy, she played the various characters within each sketch with only a change of costume and props. Her delicate and sophisticated art gained her worldwide acclaim.

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Draper, Lyman Copeland

Draper, Lyman Copeland, 1815-91, American historical collector and librarian, b. Erie co., N.Y. He spent years traveling through an area ranging from New York to Mississippi, gathering the stories of old pioneers and documentary material on frontier history for a projected series of biographies of Western heroes. His extensive collection was deposited with the Wisconsin Historical Society at Madison, of which he was secretary and librarian (1854-86); there he built up one of the notable historical libraries of the country. He founded and edited the first 10 volumes of the society's Collections and wrote King's Mountain and its Heroes (1881, repr. 1967 and 1971), but never completed the intended biographies. His collection, valuable to many researchers, contains the George Rogers Clark papers and other manuscript sources.

See biography by W. B. Hesseltine (1954).

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Draper, John William

Draper, John William, 1811-82, American scientist, philosopher, and historian, b. near Liverpool, England, M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1836. In 1839 he became professor of chemistry at the Univ. of the City of New York. He helped organize the medical school of the university, became its professor of chemistry and physiology, and in 1850 succeeded as its president.

Draper's chief contribution to abstract science was research in radiant energy. His work on the spectra of incandescent substances foreshadowed the development of spectrum analysis, in which his son Henry Draper became a pioneer. Draper's research in the effect of light upon chemicals led him to take up photography. He was said to be the first in New York to use Daguerre's process, announced in 1839, improving it so much that by December of that year he made his first satisfactory photographic portrait. A picture he took (1840) of his sister is the oldest surviving photographic portrait. Draper also made (1839-40) the first photographs of the moon.

Most of his papers on radiant energy were republished in his Scientific Memoirs (1878). His Human Physiology (1856) was the leading textbook of the period in its field, and it contained his own admirable micro-photographs, the first ever published. In 1863 his History of the Intellectual Development of Europe was published, and in 1874 his History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, a rationalistic classic that aroused great controversy. His other works include History of the American Civil War (3 vol., 1867-70) and Thoughts on the Future Civil Policy of America (1865).

See study by D. H. Fleming (1950, repr. 1972).

His son, Henry Draper, 1837-82, was a physician by vocation, but he made major contributions in the field of astronomical photography and spectroscopy. He was the first to photograph stellar spectral lines.

See biography by G. F. Barker in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Vol. III (1895).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Tree, Sir Herbert (Draper) Beerbohm

(born Dec. 17, 1853, London, Eng.—died July 2, 1917, London) British actor-manager. A romantic actor with a gift for character roles and comedy, he made his London debut in 1878 and won favourable notice in The Private Secretary (1884). As manager of the Haymarket Theatre (1887–97), he directed and acted in lavish Shakespearean productions, which he continued as actor-manager of Her Majesty's Theatre (1897–1915). He produced notable stage versions of Charles Dickens's works. In 1904 he founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Draper, Ruth

(born Dec. 2, 1884, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 30, 1956, New York City) U.S. monologist. She began her career by writing dramatic sketches about people she had observed and performing them at parties. She made her New York debut (1917) in a series of one-act pieces. Her London debut (1920) established her as a master monologist. She performed worldwide, playing on a bare stage with few props and creating characters and settings by subtle modulation of feature, gesture, and voice.

Learn more about Draper, Ruth with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.