Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from all of us in the Eton College Collections
These images of snowflakes were created by the experimental scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703). A former research assistant to Robert Boyle OE, Hooke was a dazzlingly prolific experimentalist and participant in the intellectual disputes of the 17th-century scientific revolution, and was appointed Curator of Experiments by the Royal Society two years after its foundation in 1660. He created and improved a wide range scientific instruments including clock mechanisms, navigational equipment, and lenses, including telescopes and one of the earliest compound microscopes.
Through his microscope, Hooke recorded his observations in a series of detailed descriptions and meticulous drawings, which he had engraved under his supervision for his seminal book Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and Inquiries thereupon (London, 1665), the first work entirely dedicated to microscopy, and the first on the subject in English.
The full engraving, showing the magnified view of snowflakes as in the detail shown, with other examples of ice crystals, and Hooke noted the hexagonal structure of the ice crystals. This opening from College Library’s copy of Hooke’s Micrographia (ECL Ab.3.03) is currently on display in the exhibition Elemental, where it illustrates the solid state of Water.
