The Polaroid Land camera or, as it is now known, the instant camera, is the most commonly recognized invention of Edwin H. Land. A chemist and physicist, he revolutionized the amateur and professional photography industries by inventing and producing a camera that incorporates its own processing lab, producing finished prints in less than a minute.

The inspiration for his invention came in 1943 during a family vacation, when Land snapped a photograph of his daughter. The three-year-old was impatient to see the results, and even as Land was explaining that she would have to wait, he was formulating the first plans for his instant camera.

Normally, once film is exposed, it must then be developed, rinsed, fixed, washed, dried, and printed. The instant camera eliminated several of these steps, delivering a finished print. The key to Land's instant camera was actually...