Titled 'On the Construction of a Silvered Glass Telescope, fifteen-and-a-half inches in Aperture, and its Use in Celestial Photography', Smithsonian Institution, 1864, pp55, 47 illustrations, 33cm x 24.5cm, folio, half calf with gold lettering to spine and front board, the book with with an Underwood & Underwood stereoview albumen photograph 'Full Moon from the negative taken by Prof. H Draper with his silvered glass telescope'

Henry Draper (1837-1882), although a doctor, was most well-known for being an amateur astronomer. Among his contributions to the field of astronomy, Draper took the first photograph of the spectrum of a star in 1872 and the transit of Venus in 1874. Later, in 1880 he was able to photograph the Orion Nebula, a first for astronomers. Today, the Harvard Observatory hold a collection of stellar spectra images named after him. Among his memoirs, Draper included instructions on the set-up and management of an observatory, including guidance on the proper care of the equipment.