In 19th century rural Vermont, winter snowstorms were a big deal. At the age of 19, Wilson Bentley produced the world's first photo micrographs of snow, which he described as "tiny miracles of beauty".
A stunning album of 355 original prints by the man who came to be known as Snowflake Bentley was bought by London's Natural History Museum in 1899 and is now available to view online
The library special collections manager at the museum said they are beautiful. His obsession was formed when he saw the natural formations.
He was born into a farming family in Vermont. At the age of 15, his mother gave him a microscope that he used to study snow. The snow crystals were too complex to be recorded before they melted.
His father gave him a bellows camera, which he was able to attach to the microscope, and he took his first snowflake on January 15th, 1885.
It would have been difficult for the farming community in the winter. If he missed a snowstorm and the chance to get more snow for his collection, he would be upset.
In the woodshed on the farm, he set up his kit and whenever a snowstorm came, he would take a picture of the snow on a black board. He would sweep away the ones he didn't want with a turkey feather.
A splinter of wood from a broom would be used to transfer the crystals onto a glass slide.
His notebooks show a deep scientific obsession that was intended to uncover the secrets of snow through methodical persistence. He meticulously noted the temperature, wind direction and other meteorological details of snowstorms that could reveal any environmental influences on the nature of snow. He recorded everything.
His magazine articles show his poetic turn of phrase, as he was also enamored by the images. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design. He wrote in a 1925 report that the design of a snowflake was lost when it melted.
Hart said that people became fascinated with it and would like the pictures for sewing. There is a tradition of cutting paper snowflakes at Christmas.
He was obsessed with natural water formations. He took 5,381 photos of snow crystals over the course of 47 winters. He was one of the first cloud physicists. He died of pneumonia at the age of 66 after walking through a snowstorm.
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