Edwin H. Land

AKA:
Dr. Land
Birth Name:
Edwin Herbert Land
Birth Date:
May 7, 1909
Birth Place:
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Death Date:
March 1, 1991
Place of Death:
Prospect Hill, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Age:
81
Cause of Death:
Undisclosed
Cemetery Name:
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Science
Edwin H. Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation and the inventor of instant photography. “Dr. Land,’’ as most people referred to him, left Harvard College before graduation to start inventing in a Cambridge garage. In 40 years, Land built up a company that did about $1.4 billion of business all over the world in 1979 with over 20,000 employees. He stuck to his guns, never diversified into other businesses, never sold out to another company, and never borrowed money on a long-term basis. Land was awarded more than 500 patents, and other Polaroid researchers hundreds more. The Polaroid company was a juggernaut of innovation. In modern terms, Polaroid was the Apple of its time with a brilliant leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the CEO for several decades. But the company suffered a long decline starting in the ’80s leading to bankruptcy in the 2000s.

Fun Fact

When Edwin died on March 1, 1991 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, upon his specific instructions his trusted personal assistant destroyed all his personal papers and his notes. Oddly enough shortly after his death his historic Cambridge mansion burned to the ground.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Mount Auburn Cemetery

580 Mount Auburn Street

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts
Map of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts

Grave Location:

Aronia Path, Lot 10123, Space 1

Grave Location Description

The the intersection of Pond Road, Bradlee Road, Willow Pond Path and Aronia Path take a short walk up Aronia Path just past the Butternut Path and look to your right and you will see the final resting place of the brilliant Dr. Land and his wife about 50 feet from the path.

Grave Location GPS

42.36758888, -71.14714891

Photos:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

Read More About Edwin H. Land:

Videos Featuring Edwin H. Land:

See More:

Eugene Wigner

popular name: Eugene Wigner

date_of_death: January 1, 1995

age: 92

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner was a Hungarian theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He obtained American citizenship in 1937, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles". Wigner and Hermann Weyl were responsible for introducing group theory into physics, particularly the theory of symmetry in physics. Along the way he performed ground-breaking work in pure mathematics, in which he authored a number of mathematical theorems. In particular, Wigner's theorem is a cornerstone in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics.

Kurt Gödel

popular name: Kurt Gödel

date_of_death: January 14, 1978

age: 71

cause_of_death: Malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: Kurt Gödel was a prominent Austrian/American logician, mathematician and philosopher who is mentioned as most likely autistic (Asperger's Syndrome) in Genius Genes by Michael Fitzgerald and Brendan O’Brien, in Asperger Syndrome – A Gift or a Curse? by Michael Fitzgerald and Viktoria Lyons. He is known in particular for Gödel's incompleteness theorems, Gödel's completeness theorem, the consistency of the Continuum hypothesis with ZFC, Gödel metric, Gödel's ontological proof and Gödel–Dummett logic, Among notable awards he has won are the Albert Einstein Award (1951), the National Medal of Science (1974) and ForMemRS (1968). He was also a Fellow of the British Academy. Looking back over that century in the year 2000, TIME magazine included Kurt Gödel (1906–78), the foremost mathematical logician of the twentieth century among its top 100 most influential thinkers. Gödel was associated with the Princeton University Institute for Advanced Study from his first visit in the academic year 1933–34, until his death in 1978. He was Professor in the School of Mathematics from 1953 until 1976, when he became Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Henry Murray

popular name: Dr. Henry Murray

date_of_death: June 23, 1988

age: 95

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Science

best_know_for: As the Director and Chief Researcher of the Psychological Clinic Annex on the campus of Harvard University, for 3 years beginning in 1959 Dr. Henry Murray was responsible for the unethical, immoral and horrible experiments in which he used 22 Harvard undergraduates as research subjects in psychological torture. The unwitting undergraduates were submitted to what Murray called "vehement, sweeping and personally abusive" attacks while strapped into a wooden chair with electrodes attached to their bodies. One of the subjects for the entire 3-year period was Ted Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber who was responsible for killing 3 and maiming 23 other victims through his series of mail bombs.

Back to Top