Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation was an American company best known for its instant film and cameras, which now survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of his Polaroid polarizing polymer.[1] Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948.[2]
This section is about the company that pioneered instant film in the 20th century. For the company that currently produces Polaroid instant film and cameras, formerly known as Impossible Project, see Polaroid B.V. For other uses, see Polaroid (disambiguation).Company type
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.; 1937
2002
Brand sold to One Equity Partners;
changed name to Primary PDC, Inc.
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.
Worldwide
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Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,000 in 1978, and its peak revenue was $3 billion in 1991.[3]
Polaroid Corporation was declared bankrupt in 2001;[4][5] its brand and assets were sold off.[6] A new Polaroid company formed,[4][6] and the brand assets changed hands multiple times before being sold to Polish billionaire Wiaczesław Smołokowski in 2017. This acquisition allowed Impossible Project, which had started producing instant films for older Polaroid cameras in 2008,[7] to rebrand as Polaroid Originals in 2017, and eventually as Polaroid in 2020.[8] Since the original company's downfall, Polaroid-branded products in other fields, such as LCD televisions and DVD players, have been developed and released by various licensees globally.[9][10]
Controversy[edit]
In 1970, Caroline Hunter and her co-worker, future husband Ken Williams, discovered the involvement of their employer, Polaroid, in the South African apartheid system as the producer of the passbook photos used to identify Black individuals in South Africa. To pressure Polaroid to divest from South Africa, Hunter and Williams created the Polaroid Revolutionary Worker Movement (PRWM).[49] Through the PRWM, Hunter and Williams organized a boycott against the corporation.[50] Consequently, Polaroid banned all sales to the government, including the military and police, and promised to raise wages and increase job training at its distributors. The plan did not pacify the PRWM, however, and, in 1971, Hunter testified before the United Nations advocating a boycott of Polaroid products. Polaroid proceeded to fire both Hunter and Williams. As a result of protests, a community group in Boston donated $10,000 it received from Polaroid to South African liberation movements. In 1977, it became public Polaroid film was being sold by the distributor Frank and Hirsch to the South African government for use in the "passbook" in violation of Polaroid's policy. This ended Polaroid's relationship with its distributor and all direct sales to South Africa.[51]
