In 1885, Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley became the first person to photograph a single crystal of snow. His astonishing work in Jericho, Vermont, is the basis of the theory that no two snowflakes are alike: he photographed more than 5,000 of them, slowing down the melting process by capturing the flakes on chilled velvet, revealing the uniqueness of each sublime jewel and flower-like “crystal treasure”.
The bulk of these magical images remain displayed in his hometown, while London’s Natural History Museum has the digital archive, and they are every bit as wondrous as they must have seemed more than a century ago. As Bentley said: “What a delight is in store for all future lovers of snowflakes, and of the beautiful in nature.”
