Edwin Land, born in 1909 in Connecticut, invented Polaroid, the world's first polarizing material for commercial use, in 1929.

[4] With venture capital from railroad tycoon W. Averell Harriman and merchant banker and part-time songwriter James P. Warburg, Edwin Land, George Wheelwright, and Julius Silver incorporated Polaroid Corporation on September 13, 1937.

[6] Although sales rose to $1 million in 1941, the company's 1940 losses had reached $100,000, and it was only World War II military contracts that saved Land and his 240 employees.

[7] At the beginning of its history Polaroid produced polarized sheets to be used for the elimination of automobile headlight glare.

Polaroid is the major sponsor of a series of 10K road races, which take place each June over various courses in west Dunbartonshire.

In the 1980s, Polaroid launched aviator styles with interchangeable lenses in collaboration with tennis star Boris Becker.

The outcome was that within ten months, most of the business (including the "Polaroid" name itself and non-bankrupt foreign subsidiaries) had been sold to Bank One's One Equity Partners (OEP).