Ernest G. Draper

Ernest G. Draper became a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on March 30, 1938. He retired at the end of his term on September 1, 1950.

Draper was born in 1885 in Washington, DC. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.

After completing his degree, Draper worked as a clerk in New York City. In 1912, he became president of American Creosoting Company. He served in the US Navy during World War I, and then became treasurer and vice president of the Hills Brothers Company in 1920. In 1935, Draper was named assistant secretary of commerce at the US Department of Commerce, where he remained until his appointment to the Board of Governors.

As a member of the Board, Draper focused on the role of small business. He published “Small Business and Its Credit Problem” in the Washington Post and “Goods and Dollars in World Trade” in the 1944 Federal Reserve Bulletin. He frequently represented the Board before Congress, trade and other groups, and in academic settings.

Draper participated in a number of civic and professional activities throughout his career. He was a member of the New York State Commission on Unemployment, the National Labor Relations Board, and the President’s Commission on Crop Insurance as well as a member and president of the American Association for Labor Legislation. He also was a member of the American Economic Association and the Academy of Political Science.

Draper wrote a book called Navigating the Ship (1920) and co-authored another, Can Business Prevent Unemployment (1935). The Library of Congress has a collection of Draper's papers from 1919 to 1955.

Draper died in 1954.

Written by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. See disclaimer.