Lunar Transparency
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.This enlarged photograph, sandwiched between panes of glass in a wood frame, would have been set before a window or flaming hearth to illuminate the image from behind. Like his father, John William Draper, who made the first successful lunar daguerreotype, Henry Draper was a physician and a pioneer of astronomical photography. After building an observatory at his family’s estate in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, the younger Draper produced this and other highly detailed images of the moon.
Artwork Details
- Title: Lunar Transparency
- Artist: Henry Draper (American, Prince Edward County, Virginia 1837–1882 New York)
- Date: 1863
- Medium: Albumen silver print in original wood and glass mount
- Dimensions: Image: 21 1/2 × 17 1/2 in. (54.6 × 44.5 cm)
33 1/4 × 22 1/2 × 8 in. (84.5 × 57.2 × 20.3 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: James and Abigail Draper, San Francisco
- Curatorial Department: Photographs