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Moon

1840
Not on view
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.
Draper, a physician and professor of chemistry at New York University, was the first to produce a successful daguerreotype of the moon. On March 16, 1840, he wrote in his laboratory notebook, "This evening I exposed a prepared plate to the moonbeams which had been conveyed by a double convex lens." In this plate, a halo-like vignette encircles the image of the moon, creating a crescent shape that evokes the lunar phases. Despite his accomplishment, Draper’s efforts received only modest recognition from his contemporaries; until recently his lunar daguerreotypes were believed to be lost.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Moon
  • Artist: John William Draper (American (born England), St. Helens 1811–1882 Hastings-on-Hudson)
  • Date: 1840
  • Medium: Daguerreotype
  • Dimensions: 3 1/4 × 2 3/4 × 3/16 in. (8.3 × 7 × 0.5 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: New York University Archives, New York (MC298, object 192)
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs