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39. Draper, "First Portrait," 3-4; see also Draper to Committee, 3 May 1858.

40. Draper, "First Portrait," 4; Draper, "Process," 222; Henry Hunt Snelling, "Some Facts Connected with the Early History of Photography in America," Photographic and Fine Art Journal 7 (December 1854): 382; "Dr. Draper Dead," World; see also John William Draper, miscellaneous draft notes ca. 1881-82, Draper Papers; see also the discussion of Draper's first portrait in Howard R. McManus, "It Was I Who Took The First," Daguerreian Annual 1996, 70-100.

41. What might reasonably be considered the "first portrait?" If a portrait is simply a picture of a person, the camera achieved some result almost from the inception of the process. Morse likely viewed the first when he visited Daguerre's apartment in March 1839. Prime, Life of Morse, 401, quoted his description:

Objects moving are not impressed. The boulevard, so constantly filled with a moving throng of pedestrians and carriages, was perfectly solitary, except an individual who was having his boots brushed. His feet were of course compelled to be stationary for some time, one being on the box of the bootblack, and the other on the ground. Consequently his boots and legs are well defined, but he is without body or head, because these were in motion.

This was not the "portrait" desired in 1839. Everyone dreamed of improving Daguerre's process to permit a close portrait of the human face, in the same manner such as an artist like Morse would paint. On 22 or 23 September 1839 Draper must have been among the first in the world to accomplish this object.

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