WIlson Bentley's biography:
Wilson Alwyn Bentley was born on February 9th, 1865, in Jericho, Vermont. His mother was a former teacher, and home schooled his brother and him. His father taught him how to farm. A farm boy's life is close to nature, which well-suited Bentley because he loved nature and the weather. He was very curious, especially about snow. For his 15th birthday, his mother gave him a microscope. Looking at snow crystals through his microscope, He tried to make detailed drawings of magnified snow crystals, but the snow melted before he could finish. Frustrated but determined to capture the exquisite geometrical intricacies of snow crystals, he decided to try photography.
During the late 19th Century the camera was an expensive new technology. Bentley's father considered a camera an unnecessary luxury and would not buy him one--he did not understand why Bentley wanted such an expensive "toy". Fortunately, Bentley's mother helped change his father's mind, and when Bentley was seventeen he got a camera and new microscope.
It took Bentley two years of painstaking trial and error, but on January 15, 1885, at the age of 19 years, he made the world's first photomicrograph of a snow crystal.
To the villagers of Jericho, Vermont, Bentley was considered odd, and was known to many of them as the "Snowflake Man" because of his quiet nature and unusual preoccupation with his snow photography. But Bentley was a sensitive, thoughtful man; a gifted and intuitive scientist who was also a talented musician. He played the piano, organ, clarinet, coronet, violin, and composed music for a community marching band. Though it was never confirmed that he stood barefoot in the street playing his violin as snow fell from the gray sky, he would occasionally entertain villagers by imitating the sounds of animals and birds with his violin. Frequently, however, the people of Jericho would watch as he hurried past them, camera under his arm, notebook in hand, running to capture freshly falling snow.
In 1898, at the age of 33, he began to publish articles of his findings and images. He published 49 popular and 11 technical articles about snow crystals, frost, dew, and raindrops, including the entry on "snow" in the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He lived to see Snow Crystals a book of his snow crystals images, published in 1931, but died of pneumonia that same year, after walking home through a blizzard.
--The description above is credited by the Buffalo Museum of Science.
During the late 19th Century the camera was an expensive new technology. Bentley's father considered a camera an unnecessary luxury and would not buy him one--he did not understand why Bentley wanted such an expensive "toy". Fortunately, Bentley's mother helped change his father's mind, and when Bentley was seventeen he got a camera and new microscope.
It took Bentley two years of painstaking trial and error, but on January 15, 1885, at the age of 19 years, he made the world's first photomicrograph of a snow crystal.
To the villagers of Jericho, Vermont, Bentley was considered odd, and was known to many of them as the "Snowflake Man" because of his quiet nature and unusual preoccupation with his snow photography. But Bentley was a sensitive, thoughtful man; a gifted and intuitive scientist who was also a talented musician. He played the piano, organ, clarinet, coronet, violin, and composed music for a community marching band. Though it was never confirmed that he stood barefoot in the street playing his violin as snow fell from the gray sky, he would occasionally entertain villagers by imitating the sounds of animals and birds with his violin. Frequently, however, the people of Jericho would watch as he hurried past them, camera under his arm, notebook in hand, running to capture freshly falling snow.
In 1898, at the age of 33, he began to publish articles of his findings and images. He published 49 popular and 11 technical articles about snow crystals, frost, dew, and raindrops, including the entry on "snow" in the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He lived to see Snow Crystals a book of his snow crystals images, published in 1931, but died of pneumonia that same year, after walking home through a blizzard.
--The description above is credited by the Buffalo Museum of Science.