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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27 - WILSON BENTLEY
Yesterday I discussed why "no two snowflakes look alike," but few people will
ever try to test this idea as passionately as did a Vermont farmer named Wilson Bentley.
Back in 1885, Bentley was the first person to photograph a single crystal of
snow. And he devoted much of the rest of his life, at least during the winter, to
finding and photographing different
In 1931, Bentley published a book of his photos with help from the U.S. Weather
Bureau. The book was titled simply "Snow Crystals," and in it he showed off more
than 2000 of his pictures. More than any other event, this book introduced the
world to the complexity, beauty and uniqueness of individual
snow crystals. That
was 70 years ago, so by modern standards, the quality of his images is low, but
most experts agree that his
photographs remain some of the best ever taken.
Recently, there's even been a children's book written about Wilson Bentley. It's
called "Snowflake Bentley," and in 1999 it won the Caldecott medal, an award given
each year to a distinguished American picture book for children. You can find out
more about Wilson Bentley on the web at, appropriately,