{"id":6380,"date":"2018-03-08T08:43:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T13:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=6380"},"modified":"2018-03-09T02:02:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T07:02:22","slug":"snowflake-wilson-bentley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/03\/08\/snowflake-wilson-bentley\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Snowflake Man,\u2019 A Tiny Performance About A Vermont Pioneer Of Microscopic Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During a snowstorm in January 1885, Wilson \u201dSnowflake\u201d Bentley, a Vermont farmer turned scientist, is said to have become the first person to photograph a single snow crystal\u2014more commonly known as a snowflake.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,\u201d Bentley said in 1925. \u201cEvery 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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/150333104\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>His life story is the subject of \u201cThe Snowflake Man,\u201d a show featuring Czech-style marionettes, miniatures, pop-up paper art, music and live storytelling by Sarah Frechette of PuppetKabob at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.puppetshowplace.org\/mainstage-shows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Puppet Showplace Theater<\/a> in Brookline from March 8 to 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a Vermonter, I\u2019m very prideful of my state. My grandfather when he passed, he had three snowflakes by \u2018Snowflake\u2019 Bentley that he purchased as a boy,\u201d says Frechette, who resides in Georgia, Vermont\u2014along Lake Champlain, up near the Canadian border\u2014and Portland, Oregon. She developed the show with her \u201cpartner in art and love\u201d Jason Thibodeaux.<\/p>\n<p>Frechette arrives on stage dressed as a 1920s flapper and carrying suitcases full of puppets and a large pop-up book of sets (painted by Vermont artist Bruce Lee). She tells Bentley\u2019s story via Czech-style marionettes\u2014rigged with rods from above plus strings attached to create detailed movements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI shrink down and become one of the puppet figures,\u201d Frechette says. \u201cI use puppetry to time travel.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6413\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6413\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/festival.casteliers.ca\/en\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6413\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2-1024x424.jpg\" alt=\"Advertisement\" width=\"900\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2-1024x424.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2-300x124.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2-768x318.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picFestivalDeCasteliers2018w-2-370x153.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6413\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Advertisement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6378\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6378\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6378\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w-1024x751.jpg\" alt=\"Wilson \u201dSnowflake\u201d Bentley photographs in springtime in \u201cThe Snowflake Man.&quot; (Sarah Flechette | PuppetKabob)\" width=\"900\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w-1024x751.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w-768x563.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w-370x271.jpg 370w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picSnowflakeMan2w.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6378\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilson \u201dSnowflake\u201d Bentley photographs in springtime in \u201cThe Snowflake Man.&#8221; (Sarah Flechette | PuppetKabob)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSnowflake\u201d Bentley grew up on a small farm with perhaps 10 cows in Jericho, Vermont, about a half hour drive from Burlington today. He was entranced by science, studying the natural world with a microscope his former school teacher mother had.<\/p>\n<p>Snowflakes became his favorite subject to study up close. At first, he tried drawing what he saw, but he was unsatisfied with his efforts to copy down the dazzlingly intricate patterns. So he asked his parents to buy him a camera.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6383\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6383\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picBentley332w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6383\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picBentley332w.jpg\" alt=\"Wilson Bentley photo of a dendrite star snowflake. (Smithsonian Institution Archives)\" width=\"660\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picBentley332w.jpg 660w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picBentley332w-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/picBentley332w-370x316.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6383\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilson Bentley photo of a dendrite star snowflake. (Smithsonian Institution Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThey spent everything in their savings,\u201d Frechette says. \u201cThey took a real chance. After three winters of standing outside in the show, he finally figured out how to configure a microscope and a camera to get a clear image of a snow crystal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of Bentley\u2019s challenge was to figure out how to record the snowflakes before they melted. He devised a method in which he would let snow fall on black velvet on a tray, then transfer the snowflakes onto a cooled glass slide to place under his viewer. He would photograph more than 5,000 snowflakes during his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe coined the phrase that no two snowflakes are alike,\u201d Frechette says. \u201cAnd it seems to be true.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a snowstorm in January 1885, Wilson \u201dSnowflake\u201d Bentley, a Vermont farmer turned scientist, is said to have become the first person to photograph a single snow crystal\u2014more commonly known as a snowflake. &#8220;Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,104,109,110],"tags":[220,316,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6380"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6410,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions\/6410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}