Portrait of Edwin H. Land

Birthday profile

Edwin H. Land

Edwin H. Land, American scientist and inventor, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (died 1991)

Born
May 7, 1909
Died
March 1, 1991
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1909

About Edwin H. Land

Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and the retinex theory of color vision. His Polaroid instant camera went on sale in 1948 and made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in one minute or less. Land received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the IRI Medal in 1965, the Perkin Medal in 1974, the Harold Pender Award in 1979, and the National Medal of Technology in 1988. He was also renowned outside of his home country, being a member of England's Royal Photographic Society, Royal Institution, and Royal Society (receiving Fellowship of the latter). There he invented the first inexpensive filters capable of polarizing light, which he called Polaroid film.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Edwin H. Land was born

Edwin H. Land was born in 1909. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1909

  • Best-selling book"The Inner Shrine" – Basil King

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentHonus Wagner leads Pittsburgh Pirates to World Series victory
  • Top headlineRobert Peary claims to reach the North Pole
  • Technology milestoneBakelite (first fully synthetic plastic) invented
  • Notable inventionBakelite plastic
  • World population~1.69B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
  • U.S. population88.8M

1909 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Edwin H. Land's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19092026
Population88.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.