The Polaroid Newsletter: “On Our Way at Enschedé”

The Enschedé factory, 1965. (Click to enlarge.)

My depressing visit to Waltham last week resulted in photos of a half-demolished plant that once made Polaroid film. In the latest installment of curios from The Polaroid Newsletter, I’ve got photos of a factory that had a considerably happier turn in the 21st century. It’s the plant in Enschede, the Netherlands, that supplied Europe with film, and whose equipment was saved from scrapping in 2009 by The Impossible Project. In the issue of February 4, 1965, you can see that same factory as it was just coming into being.

Especially cute: The  pronunciation guide to the city’s name (very approximate; it doesn’t get the gargled “sch” that only Dutch speakers seem able to produce), and the fact that the accent mark on “Enschedé” was hand-drawn on the mechanicals before printing. You don’t see that much these days—I don’t care how analog-inclined you are.