Draper, Lyman Copeland

Draper, Lyman Copeland

(1815–91) historical scholar, librarian; born in Hamburg, N.Y. He interviewed surviving Western pioneers and collected materials illuminating their history, leaving his voluminous notes and acquisitions to the Wisconsin Historical Society, of which he was the longtime secretary (1854–86). He founded and was first editor of Wisconsin Historical Collections.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.