A pioneering photography collection, now housed in the Smithsonian Institution Archives, captures how early innovations in microphotography helped shape our understanding of snowflakes. Wilson Bentley ...

In 1885, Wilson Bentley, a farmer in Vermont, became the first known person to photograph a snowflake. He would document 5,000 of them in his lifetime. In a new series for the first day of each month, ...

Is it true that two snowflakes can't be identical and if not, what are the odds? The specific number of snowflake types depends on who you ask. Photographer Wilson Alwyn Bentley took pictures of ...

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We all remember the saying "no two snowflakes are alike" but who made us all believe this and why? Wilson A. Bentley was a pioneer in the field of photomicrography, the science of photographing very ...

Surprisingly, the magic of snowflakes often begins with dust in the air. All it takes is for a cold drop of water to freeze on one of these particles, creating an ice crystal. Because every crystal ...