‘Mr. Polaroid’ Movie Night

Join us for a fun and nostalgic evening in Old City celebrating the magic of instant photography!

Our museum will stay open late for a special after-hours experience! Explore a collection of Polaroid cameras from across the decades, enjoy free movie snacks and popcorn, and strike a pose in our free pop-up photo booth, courtesy of Philly-based Pop Up Polaroid.

Settle in for a screening of , a PBS American Experience documentary that explores the remarkable story of the Polaroid camera and the visionary behind it, Edwin Land. Discover how this 1940s invention changed the world of photography—and how it helped inspire the tech culture we know today

Mr. Polaroid: Everything Changed in an Instant

Long before the iPhone, another inventive device allowed everyone to instantly chronicle their lives—the Polaroid camera. The product, and the company’s unique culture, would launch not only instant photography mania but also become the model for today’s Silicon Valley tech culture. It all began with the Polaroid Model 95, first offered for sale in the fall of 1948. Its revolutionary power to allow the photographer to see the picture then and there would change the country, then the world. Mr. Polaroid tells the little-known story of the man behind the camera, a Harvard dropout named Edwin Land. Over a half century ago, before the smartphone, Land was dreaming up “a camera that you would use as often as your pencil or your eyeglasses.” He would also come to believe his company was “on its way to lead the world—perhaps even to save it.” Hubris, technology, brilliance, and a billion photographs a year are all part of the rollicking Polaroid story.

Host or Publisher Science History Institute