Motion Film Collection Highlight: Leon F. Urbain (1887-ca. 1980)
- Author
- Dawn Roberts, Collections Manager
- Date
- April 11, 2014
Leon F. Urbain, through his association with the Microscopal Society of Illinois, gave free classes for students in the 1960s at the Chicago Academy of Sciences' museum (the old Laflin Memorial Building). An architect by trade, he had a passion for photography, especially photomicrography, whereby he could bring the smallest worlds to life. His motion films include studies of minerals, plants, insects, aquatic life, and ecology. The Academy's collections include personal papers, photographs, motion film, and microscope slides from Urbain. Here is a sample of those tiny worlds Urbain captured and shared with others.
From Urbain's film, “The Regal: Rarest of Local Moths,” created in 1972:
Regal caterpillars
Regal moth face
Regal moth
Here are images from a time-lapse film of crystals growing under a microscope, titled "Crystals Growing," created in 1967:
Images from two films on moths, ca. 1958, "Cecropia" and "Luna Moth:"
Cecropia moths mating
Luna moth