Archives Puzzles: Let It Snow

Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.

Each Monday, sit back, relax, and ease into the work week with puzzles created from images in our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse these images as part of Smithsonian Open Access, launched in 2020.

We’ve got snow on the forecast this week in Washington, D.C. Did you know that Vermont farmer Wilson A. Bentley made the first successful photograph of a snowflake in 1885? A pioneer in photomicrography, Bentley patiently stood in the cold for hours. Using a feather, he carefully positioned the snow crystals under a camera connected to a microscope. In 1904, Bentley donated a collection of 500 of his snowflake photographs to the Smithsonian, all of which now live with us at the Archives.

The Original 

Snowflake with six, star points and six longer pointers out.

The Puzzle 

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