WRITE TEAM: 'Snowflake' Bentley captured beauty of snowflakes

So much is lost to time. Names and faces pass away. Entire oceans advance and subside. It is simply the nature of things. I suppose one of our fondest illusions is that we will be remembered at all. But if I might, I'd like to resurrect a name you may not know, but one well worth remembering. On Feb. 9, 1865, (just 10 days after the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified abolishing slavery), a boy was born on a small farm in Jericho, Vermont. To be perfectly honest, I knew nothing of the boy until just recently, when I found myself rummaging through the magical book room of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The book I found, Jacqueline Briggs Martin's "Snowflake Bentley," introduced me to this boy who would inadvertently change the photographic world.

From his earliest years, William Bentley was a great lover of nature. Growing up in the rugged hill and farm country of northern Vermont, he had ample opportunity to engage his passions. Bentley loved all aspects of nature and spent long afternoons capturing butterflies and collecting flowers. But of all his passions, the beauty of snow interested him most of all. With the help of his mother’s microscope, he began to discover the intricate beauty of each flake. Their crystalline patterns intrigued him and at the age of 15 he began making drawings of hundreds of snowflake forms. In his journals he wrote, “I found that snowflakes were masterpieces of design. No one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted… just that much beauty was gone, without leaving a record behind.” Finding crystals melting before they could be properly drawn, he decided to use photographic technology to record their symmetries. After purchasing, with his father’s help, a large format camera, he was able to fabricate and attach a microscope lens to the front. Gathering falling snowflakes on a black velvet board, he would use a feather to manipulate the snowflake into position in front of the lens. After long days and hours of trial and error, Bentley was finally able to reach his goal. On Jan. 15, 1885, he made his first snowflake photograph. He was delirious.

Of course, at the time, no one (including his father and brother) saw the value of what he was doing. Many in his community considered Bentley a bit strange, as is often the case with impassioned people. Nonetheless, Bentley continued to photograph over 5,000 images in his lifetime and authored the idea that “no two snowflakes are ever alike.” Bentley eventually went on to be a contributor to Encyclopedia Britannica and National Geographic. He once said, “Oh, for a thousand hands, a thousand cameras, to preserve more of this exquisite beauty so lavishly scattered over the Earth.” Sadly, but not surprisingly, “Snowflake” Bentley died of pneumonia on Dec. 23, 1931, after walking home six miles in a blizzard.

In Chuck Smith’s 2009 short film about Bentley, a childhood friend remarked on the commitment Bentley put to his work, “It’s not the same kind of world that we had in those days. I don’t think people would want to spend that amount of time.” That may or may not be true, but for all the winter humbugs in the room, perhaps we need to take a moment and recognize the “exquisite beauty” falling all around us.

PAUL WHEELER grew up in Oak Lawn and now lives with his wife in the Ottawa area. He is a paraeducator in Ottawa. He can be reached at tsloup@shawmedia.com.