Instant Photos

700 Main Street, Cambridge

This is one of the most storied sites in Cambridge’s industrial history—a nexus for advances in everything from railroad car manufacturing to telephony to photography to biotechnology. Our audio guide focuses on just one of 700 Main Street’s tenants, Edwin Land and his company Polaroid. Working in this building in the 1940s, Land and other engineers and scientists at Polaroid figured out how to, in essence, build an entire darkroom’s worth of chemistry into a multilayered photographic medium. The first black-and-white Polaroid instant camera went on sale in 1948 and was a massive success, ultimately leading to a color version in 1972. For decades, Polaroid was one of the dominant employers in Cambridge, only to decline into bankruptcy after the development of competing technologies such as one-hour film processing, videotape camcorders, and digital cameras.

During business hours Mon-Fri, the LabCentral lobby at the back of the building is open to the public and includes a display about the building's history. When facing the building, walk down the sidewalk on the left side. Restrooms are also available.

Guest speaker

Victor McElheny, Founding Director, MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program; author, Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land (1998)