Not long after the invention of the daguerreotype, Dr. John W. Draper made additional improvements on the device’s photographic process. Draper saw its usefulness for portraits and made history by taking the first photograph of a woman. The woman was his sister, Dorothy Catherine Draper, and he took this image in 1839 or 1840 in Draper’s studio at New York University. Without blinking, Dorothy sat motionless for 65 seconds to take this historic photo.
