Polaroid Corporation records held by the Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate
Scope and Contents
This collection contains records of the Polaroid Corporation that were in the possession of the Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate after the 2008 bankruptcy. The records include Board of Directors agendas and minutes, shareholder meeting records, legal records, and patents.
The Board of Directors records date from the early 1950s to 2005 and include high level decision making that affected the direction of the company. The majority of the records were kept by Polaroid Counsel and Secretary, later Vice President, Richard deLima and a legal secretary, June A. Knowles. There are born-digital records that include Board of Directors meeting slides and presentations, meeting minutes, resolutions, and plans. The born-digital records fill in gaps that the paper records don't cover.
Shareholder meeting records include mailings, proxy votes, information related to outstanding shares, speeches given at shareholder meetings, annual reports, and financial information related to the company. There are transcripts for the Polaroid vs. Shamrock legal case where Shamrock attempted an unsuccessful corporate takeover of Polaroid.
Dates
- Creation: 1951-2005
Creator
- Polaroid Corporation (Organization)
Language of Materials
Materials entirely in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Materials stored onsite. Please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information on access procedures and reproduction services.
Users can request access to digital materials in this collection. See Series I notes for additional information.
Conditions Governing Use
In many cases, Baker Library does not hold the copyright to the materials in its collections. Researchers are responsible for determining copyright status and identifying and contacting any copyright holders for permission to reproduce or publish content from collections. Baker Library has included the names of third-party copyright holders at the folder and item level when known.
Extent
38 linear feet (91 boxes)3 Megabytes (7 born-digital PDF files)
Biographical / Historical
The records in this collection were created by the Polaroid Corporation, but were held by the Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate, a legal entity for closing out the liquidation of Polaroid's assets.
Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. After a series of takeovers and reorganizations by private equity companies, Petters Group Worldwide of Minneapolis, Minnesota acquired the Polaroid Corporation in 2005. Petters Group Worldwide sought to reestablish the distressed asset. In 2008, Tom Petters, CEO of Petters Group Worldwide, was charged with fraud and the Petters Group was revealed as a Ponzi scheme. As a result, Polaroid Corporation was again placed in receivership/bankruptcy in 2008, and a Trustee was appointed to recover its assets. The bankruptcy was finally complete in 2019.
Arrangement
Arranged by record type and roughly chronologically. Some records filed out of chronological order.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
This collection contains digital material. You may need specialized software to access, render, or use these files. Baker Library Special Collections and Archives can provide software that will render a majority of file types on a computer in the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room.
Physical Location
MANU
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Polaroid Corporation records held by the Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate were received by Baker Library Special Collections as a gift of Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate, 2019
Processing Information
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives (BLSCA) staff extracted digital materials from storage media when possible. Staff surveyed files and screened them for privacy and confidentiality concerns. Following internal policy, BLSCA staff did not retain deleted files, operating system and program files, or unallocated space data. The original storage media have been deaccessioned.
Processing Information
Floppy disks 15575775390_FD_0001 to 15575775390_FD_0006 and 15575775390_FD_0008 were reviewed and deaccessioned from the collection in 2022.
Creator
- Polaroid Corporation (Organization)
- Author
- Benjamin Johnson
- Date
- December 2021
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- bak01487
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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