Stories from the Smithsonian

Jericho, VT Dec 26, 04
Prof S. P. Langley
Secretary Smithsonian Institution
Washington D.C.

I am deeply gratified that you are to act upon my suggestion, & will take & store five hundred copies, or positives, of my last snow & frost crystals. I am perfectly willing that the Smithsonian Institution should, if it wish, make negatives for publication, or any other purpose. The terms offered are entirely satisfactory, & I will prepare, if desired, a descriptive paper relating to them. I will go about the wok as – 

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soon as some work now pressing is out of the way. It will be necessary to make these positives somewhat more dense, than good lantern slides are, as otherwise the negatives made from them will be harsh, & lack perfect detail & harmonious modulation. But I will make the Institution a set of slides of some of the last ones, if desired. I am deeply grateful for your kindly help in thus placing my collection of snow photographs beyond all possibility of loss and destruction, through fire or accident.

Sincerely yours,
W. A. Bentley.