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WILSON A. BENTLEY (1865-1931)
An album with 25 photographs of snowflakes.
Gold-chloride toned microphotographs from glass plate negatives, each approximately 4x3 inches
(10.2x7.6 cm.), all but one with Bentley’s signature and many with his notation ARP or MBN, in
ink or in pencil, on verso; 2 also with a date, on recto or verso, and one of these with Bentley’s
notation “wonderful,” also on verso. Oblong 8vo, paper leatherette album with a tied binding, the
photographs arranged 2 per page in black photo corners. 1888-1927
[20,000/30,000]
This album was apparently compiled by a woman who lived in Jericho,Vermont and knew Bentley.
She was gifted these photographs and then, by descent, to the present owner.
Working at the prismatic intersection of art and science,Wilson “Snowflake Man” Bentley became
the first person to photograph a single snowcrystal in 1885 by adapting a microscope to a bellows
camera. Capturing over 5,000 images of snowcrystals in his lifetime, Bentley perfected the delicate
and time-consuming technique needed to capture the ephemeral crystals and created a valuable
record (including the now commonly understood fact that each snowflake is unique). He was also
the first American to measure raindrops.
Deeply committed to his work, Bentley wrote,“Under the microscope I found that snowflakes were
miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by
others. Each crystal was a masterpiece of design; and no one design was ever repeated [...] I became
possessed with a great desire to show people something of this wonderful loveliness, and ambition
to become, in some measure, its preserver.”
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(Lot 21)