Snow crystals

Snow flakes by Wilson Bentley. (1865 – 1931)

Bentley was a farmer whose hobby was photographing snow flakes in Jericho, Vermont, USA.

Plate XIX of "Studies among the Snow Crystals ... " by Wilson Alwyn Bentley, "The Snowflake Man." From Annual Summary of the "Monthly Weather Review" for 1902.

In January 1885, Bentley took the first photomicrographs ever taken of a snowflake. He would photograph over 5,000 images of crystals in his lifetime.

"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. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind." Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley 1925 

Bentley published an article stating no two snowflakes were alike. This idea caught the public imagination and he published other articles in magazines, including National Geographic, Nature, Popular Science, and Scientific American.
Bentley wrote many books and articles about snowflakes including Snow Crystals a book by W. A Bentley; Snowflakes in Photographs a book by W. A Bentley; Bentley's snowflakes a book by W. A Bentley; Studies of frost and ice crystals a book by W. A Bentley and Studies among the snow crystals during the winter of 1901-2 : a book by W. A Bentley.