original One Step camera
Date: 1947
Inventory Number: 2004-1-0051a
Classification: Camera
Subject:
Maker: Edwin H. Land (1909 - 1991)
Maker: Polaroid Corporation (1937-present)
Maker: Eastman Kodak Company (1881-present)
Maker: Graflex, Inc. (1946 - 1955)
Maker: Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH (founded 1913)
Associate Name: Rowland Institute (founded 1980)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
camera in box: 46 x 38 x 48 cm (18 1/8 x 14 15/16 x 18 7/8 in.)
storage box: 53 x 52 x 52 cm (20 7/8 x 20 1/2 x 20 1/2 in.)
Description:
Camera with mechanical rollers and parts in plywood box, which looks shop made.
In Collection(s)
Signedon camera body label: MANUFACTURED IN U.S.A. FOR / EASTMAN KODAK CO. / BY / GRAFLEX, INC. / ROCHESTER 8, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
on objective lens cell: Schneider-Kreuznach
on objective lens cell: GERMANY
on objective lens cell: Schneider-Kreuznach
on objective lens cell: GERMANY
Inscribedon camera body label: KODAK VIEW CAMERA / No. 2-D
on lens cell: Schneider-Kreusnach Weitwinkel Anastigmat Angulon 6,8 / 21 cm D.R.P.a.
on lens cell: Schneider-Kreusnach Weitwinkel Anastigmat Angulon 6,8 / 21 cm D.R.P.a.
Historical AttributesThis is the first One Step Camera that was complete and demonstrated by Edwin Land himself at the Optical Society Meeting on February 21, 1947.
Land first thought of making an instant photography system in 1943, when on Christmas Day, his three-year-old daughter asked to see the photographs her father had taken earlier in the day. By early 1946, Land and Polaroid scientists were hard at work on the system of peel-apart film, but nowhere near completion. With some bravado, Land announced that he would demonstrate the instant camera at the winter meeting of the Optical Society of America the following February. He made good on his word.
The photograph he took of himself developed itself within a minute. The image of Land peeling back the negative paper made front page news in the New York Times and caused an international sensation.
According to this historical website:
"It was an additional nine months before the camera was offered to the public via Jordan Marsh, Boston's oldest department store. The original camera, which weighed five pounds when loaded, sold for $89.75; film cost $1.75 for eight sepia-toned exposures. On the first day the camera was offered, demonstrators sold all 56 of the available units, and the cameras kept selling as fast as the factory could produce them. First-year photographic sales exceeded $5 million. By 1950 more than 4,000 dealers sold Polaroid cameras, when only a year earlier Kodak had virtually monopolized the U.S. photography market."
Land first thought of making an instant photography system in 1943, when on Christmas Day, his three-year-old daughter asked to see the photographs her father had taken earlier in the day. By early 1946, Land and Polaroid scientists were hard at work on the system of peel-apart film, but nowhere near completion. With some bravado, Land announced that he would demonstrate the instant camera at the winter meeting of the Optical Society of America the following February. He made good on his word.
The photograph he took of himself developed itself within a minute. The image of Land peeling back the negative paper made front page news in the New York Times and caused an international sensation.
According to this historical website:
"It was an additional nine months before the camera was offered to the public via Jordan Marsh, Boston's oldest department store. The original camera, which weighed five pounds when loaded, sold for $89.75; film cost $1.75 for eight sepia-toned exposures. On the first day the camera was offered, demonstrators sold all 56 of the available units, and the cameras kept selling as fast as the factory could produce them. First-year photographic sales exceeded $5 million. By 1950 more than 4,000 dealers sold Polaroid cameras, when only a year earlier Kodak had virtually monopolized the U.S. photography market."
Curatorial RemarksRetrieved from the Rowland Institute in 2004.
ProvenanceEdwin H. Land; gift to CHSI from the Land family, 2004.