Henry Draper Observatory

About

The Henry Draper Observatory, also known as Draper Cottage and incorrectly as the John William Draper House, is a historic house and local history museum in Draper Park off US 9 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States. Its core is an astronomical observatory built about 1860 for Henry Draper (1837–1882). It was here that he made astrophotography history, taking some of the earliest photographs of the Moon to include identifiable features through a telescope in 1863.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975, on the mistaken belief the building was a residence of Henry Draper's father, John William Draper (1811–1882). The elder Draper was in his time a noted scientist, active in a variety of disciplines, who was best remembered for improvements he made to the daguerreotype process of photography. He was influential in his lifetime, and was one of the last generation of general natural scientists before specialization within fields became common.