Album of snow crystal photomicrographs, ca. 1931
Processed by Jane Carpenter with assistance from Simon Elliott; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
© 2013
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Album of snow crystal photomicrographs
Date (inclusive): ca. 1931
Collection number: 94/183
Creator:
Bentley, W. A. (Wilson Alwyn), 1865-1931, photographer.
Physical Description:
1 album (200 photomicrographic prints) : b&w, ^^ x ^^ cm (albums)
Photographs are mounted on squares of black paper, arranged four to a page on recto and verso of leaves of heavy dark gray paper, each of which is slipped between recto and verso of each of 25 double leaves; photomicrographs are visible through corresponding cut-out windows on both sides of each leaf.
Bound in dark brown pebble-grain leather; gold-stamped cover title in upper left corner, "Photographs;" manufacturer's label on back pastedown of Ward's Stationery of Boston.
Spec. Coll. copy: in modern beige cloth-covered clamshell box, with spine title "Bentley snow crystal photomicrographs." Laid in album are two envelopes of newspaper clippers and offprints of articles relating to snow crystals, and their photographing by W. A. Bentley and other scientists.
Photographs are mounted on squares of black paper, arranged four to a page on recto and verso of leaves of heavy dark gray paper, each of which is slipped between recto and verso of each of 25 double leaves; photomicrographs are visible through corresponding cut-out windows on both sides of each leaf.
Bound in dark brown pebble-grain leather; gold-stamped cover title in upper left corner, "Photographs;" manufacturer's label on back pastedown of Ward's Stationery of Boston.
Spec. Coll. copy: in modern beige cloth-covered clamshell box, with spine title "Bentley snow crystal photomicrographs." Laid in album are two envelopes of newspaper clippers and offprints of articles relating to snow crystals, and their photographing by W. A. Bentley and other scientists.
Abstract: Album, probably prepared around 1931, containing 200 photomicrographs of snow crystals by W.A. Bentley, which were used to
illustrate his book,
Snow crystals / by W.A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1931.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Language of the Material:
Materials are in English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Albert Boni.
[Identification of item], Album of snow crystal photomicrographs (Collection 94/183). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233582
World authority and photographer of snowflakes. Wilson Alwyn Bentley, born in Jericho, Vermont on Feb. 9, 1865, began his
love affair with snow crystals as a young boy of fifteen, when he viewed snowflakes from the first snowfall of 1880 through
a small microscope which his mother had given him for his birthday. By 1884 he had learned how to successfully photograph
the crystals, and from then on, took photos of snowflakes from every snowstorm. His collection numbered 5,000 designs, no
two of which are exactly alike. He remained on the family farm in Jericho his whole life, as he found the cold dry climate
there produced the most perfect crystals for his work. In 1898, his photographs were discovered by Professor G.H. Perkins
of the University of Vermont, which led to national and world attention, not only by scientists and meteorologists, but also
by lacemakers, fabric and jewelry designers, and even cookie-makers who wanted to use his crystals in their work. Bentley
wrote many journal and encyclopedia articles on snow and frost, and, with W.J. Humphreys, produced the book
Snow crystals (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1931, reprinted 1962), which contains many of his photographs.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Snowflakes --Photographs.
Photomicrographs.
Photographic prints.
Photograph albums.
Part of the
Photograph Album Collection (Collection 94)
in UCLA Library Special Collections.
For additional information, cf. Wilson A. Bentley, 1865-1931: photographer of snow crystals / Douglas Prior. Tempe, Ariz.
: School of Art, Arizona State University, 1984.