Edwin Land was a physicist, manufacturing executive, and an inventor. He was born on May 7,1909 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He had a wife and two daughters. Edwin got his education at Norwich Free Academy and Harvard University. As a freshman at Harvard in 1926, Edwin became interested in polarized light. By aligning and embedding crystals in a plastic sheet, he developed Polaroid. At the age of nineteen, Edwin left Harvard in search for a laboratory. Together with other young scientists, he applied the polarizing principle to light filters, optical devices and motion picture processes. Edwin Land founded the Polaroid Corporation in 1937 where he adopted polarized materials for sunglasses, 3-D movies, and for other military use. From that point on he spent his whole life researching and developing optical devices.

     He developed the first modern polarizers for light, a sequence of posterior polarizers, as well as theories and practices for applications of polarized light. Edwin was remembered for his instant-photo film and cameras. For example, he created cameras and films that gave instant dry photographs in black and white. He also proposed the "retinex" theory for mechanism of color perception. In 1932 he created the Polaroid J sheet, which is cheap and simple to fabricate polarizing material. Edwin patented polarized light filters, which helped eliminate glare and reflections in 1934. During World War II, Edwin developed optical and other systems for the military. He invented infrared filter, dark adaptation goggles, and target finders. In the late 1940's Polaroid Corp. introduced the world to the first self-developing Polaroid Land Camera that produced photographs in seconds. This camera can also put out a microscope to view living cells in their natural colors. In 1947, he developed a single-step photographic process that enabled pictures to develop in sixty seconds. Edwin also introduced color film that developed photographs inside the camera in fifty seconds. Ten years later, 1973, he invented self-developing positive print. In 1960 he founded the Rowland Institute of Science. Then he retired from Polaroid in 1980. Edwin was awarded six honorary doctorates. For his many accomplishments, he received numerous awards, and honorary degrees. Edwin Herbert Land died on March 1, 1991.

• Polaroid Corporation
• Polaroid Cameras and Photography
• Pictures of Polaroid Cameras

• The World Book Encyclopedia
• http://www.invent.org/book/book-text/65.html
• http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0828754.html
• http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/land.html