[1] He was born in Manhattan in 1841, one of six children of the English scientist, philosopher, physician, chemist, historian, and pioneer photographer John William Draper and Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira née Gardner.

[3] He was unable to serve during the American Civil War because he was partially deaf from having scarlet fever as a child.

[6] He helped his brother Henry Draper to construct the telescopes, grind the mirrors and build his observatory at Hastings-on-Hudson.

[1][3] Among others, he corresponded with such prominent scientists as Cleveland Abbe, Alexander Graham Bell, James McKeen Cattell, Gustave Eiffel, Valentine Mott, Charles Piazzi Smyth, and John Tyndall.

He was Professor Emeritus of English at West Virginia University as well as a prolific author of Shakespeare, Milton and Funeral Elegies.