Winthrop Heritage Services

At Winthrop we are in the forefront of developing fresh new ways to tell your story. We combine well researched historical data with innovative use of archival materials. Then we use technology to depict your story in original ways. Whether for an individual or large corporation we can tailor the outcome to your specific needs.

                                                                              

                  Family Histories & Genealogical Services                                                 Interactive Maps and Timelines                        

Winthrops program to examine the histories of families                                Chart your story with the power of a database.                     and individuals. Winthrop takes your family data                                       The database allows for a level of interactivity                          and creates a compelling story to pass on to                                                                 unattainable until now.                                                                           future generation.

                                                                             

                                                                                                 Digital Deliverables

                                                              Make your story and historical materials readily available
                                                                                   on a curated and customized platform.

Our Approach

Winthrop’s approach is simple, consistent, and effective.

Listen to your challenges.   We gather information through a rigorous assessment of your archival collections and structured interviews about the audience, purpose, and objectives of any historical work.

Evaluate your concerns.   We analyze the results of that preliminary study in light of your specific organizational or individual circumstances.

Recommend solutions.   We recommend a range of options and solutions best suited to your challenges and concerns.

Tailor to your needs.   We tailor your chosen solution to be sure it meets your needs.

Deliver results.   We work with you, collaboratively and interactively, to meet or exceed your expectations.

Career Opportunities

Winthrop is always seeking talented and dedicated archivists and historians interested in opportunities to work at corporations, nonprofits, foundations and a variety of other organizations. Check here for information about current openings.


CURRENT OFFERINGS:

ARCHIVIST – Rockville, MD

ARCHIVIST – Rockville, MD

The Winthrop Group is seeking an experienced Archivist to establish the archives program for a mission-driven nonprofit that has been a leader in social enterprise for over 120 years. This full-time, salaried position is expected to begin in May 2025 and will last for 12 months. Work will take place at the nonprofit’s headquarters in Rockville, MD and at a nearby offsite storage facility.

The Archivist will work closely with a client liaison and Archives Committee, providing monthly updates and bi-annual reports. The role also involves close collaboration with an Archives Intern, Winthrop Digital Archivist and Senior Archivist, the latter of whom will oversee the project and provide both onsite and remote support from New York City.

Responsibilities

Archives Governance

Collection Management & Other Tasks

Required Qualifications

Candidates for this role should possess the following qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications

The following will also be considered:

Compensation & Benefits

Application Instructions

To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and contact information for three references to careers@winthropgroup.com with the subject line: “Archivist – Rockville, MD.”

About The Winthrop Group

Founded in 1982, The Winthrop Group provides professional archives and history services to non-profits, businesses, foundations, museums, educational institutions, performing arts organizations, families, and individuals. We help our clients capture, organize, preserve, and learn from their pasts, creating valuable resources of knowledge and insight with a multitude of practical applications.

EEO Statement

Winthrop welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and experiences, and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, veteran status, or ability. Members of communities historically underrepresented in the archival profession are encouraged to apply.

Representative Client List


In over 30 years, Winthrop has accumulated a long and distinguished list of clients, with some client relationships lasting two decades or more. This list is a testament to the value we deliver and the integrity with which we work.

Our Vision and Values

A sophisticated understanding of the past is one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping the future.

At Winthrop, we specialize in the strategic application of history.  We use proven historical and archival methodologies and extensive knowledge of organizational change and development to help you:

Nothing could be more practical.  Armed with a sophisticated understanding of past experience, you can redefine corporate culture, shape public perception, sharpen vision and strategy, and inspire innovation.  you will always have access to a treasure trove of stories too---stories of survival, perseverance, and triumph over adversity that you can use to instill in people a sense of identity and purpose.  Most of all, you will have a potent framework for thinking about the future.  As the historian of business strategy and organization, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., never tired of asking his Harvard Business School classes, “How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been?”

As important as our vision are the values that guide us.

Client Service. We listen carefully to understand our clients’ needs and develop options and solutions tailored specifically to address them. Then we work with them, collaboratively and interactively, to ensure that we meet or exceed their expectations.

Professionalism. We are professional historians and archivists with advanced degrees in our fields. With a deep knowledge of business and economic history, broad industry and functional expertise, and an international network of consultants, we produce superior work of enduring value for clients around the world.

Teamwork. We work in teams to deliver projects on-time and on-budget. This collaborative approach further enhances the quality of our work by enabling us to leverage the knowledge and expertise of other Winthrop professionals.

Integrity. Our clients entrust to us one of their most valuable assets: their legacy. We repay that trust by adhering to the highest professional and ethical standards, which ensures that our work has credibility.

Reputation. With an unrivalled list of distinguished clients, we have earned the confidence of senior leaders and the respect of our fellow professional historians and archivists. We know that our reputation is our most valuable asset, so we strive to earn our clients’ trust every day.

Passion. We love history: the stories it has to tell and the insights it has to offer.

Impact. We help our clients capture and capitalize on their experience, giving them the tools they need to shape the future.

Our Story

In 1982, five Harvard-trained historians in Cambridge, Massachusetts founded The Winthrop Group on what their professional colleagues thought was a rather shaky premise. The founders referred to their work as “applied history.” Their mission: To help organizations “capture experience and put it to work.”

Winthrop’s early intellectual contributions included monographs that George Smith and Neil Wasserman produced while consulting on antitrust issues at AT&T in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These were followed by an important book Davis Dyer coauthored with Paul Lawrence, Renewing American Industry (Harvard Business School Press) and a study of RCA’s failed videodisc venture by Graham RCA and the Videodisc: The Business of Research (Cambridge University Press). The 1981 article, “The Present Value of Corporate History,” by Smith and Lawrence Steadman (published in Harvard Business Review), became a manifesto of Winthrop’s new mission. It was widely reprinted in business and academic circles and still is cited frequently.

Nine months after its incorporation and following small projects for an electrical contractor and the Department of the Army, Alcoa engaged Winthrop to undertake a study of the company’s corporate strategy, technology and culture. From these beginnings, Winthrop historians attracted an impressive list of clients whom we served with a wide range of products: institutional histories published by scholarly and trade presses, consulting studies of corporate strategy, culture, and organization; educational and training tools for leveraging corporate experience; oral history and video documentary; and litigation support.

In the meantime, Linda Edgerly, formerly an archivist for the Rockefeller Family, had established archives at Weyerhaeuser Company and Chase Bank. Her work for businesses, organizations, and families focused on identifying, organizing, managing, and using historically significant information and documentation. By the mid-1980s, Edgerly’s work in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors had become well known and in 1987, Deborah Shea joined her for a project at United Parcel Service. The two businesses merged in 1989 and Winthrop opened a small office in Manhattan.

Winthrop grew steadily during the 1990s and early 2000s, building on its strengths in published institutional histories and historical films and traditional archival consulting. In the mid-2000s, with the emerging shift from print to digital formats, Winthrop began to embrace the digital technologies our clients needed. Our archivists designed state of the art digital asset management systems to preserve and present digitized and born-digital records. Our historians produced more historical content in digital form: e-books, interactive timelines and websites, tablet and smartphone apps, and social media tools. Returning to our roots as a consulting firm, we also began to do more consulting work in areas such as strategy, organizational development, branding, executive succession, and most recently, family history.

Today, Winthrop is busier than ever, with a reach far beyond our Massachusetts roots. Besides an office in the Boston area, we have our main business operations in New York and Seattle. We also have representatives or affiliates in Detroit, New Haven, Providence, Montreal, London and Munich. Three members of Winthrop’s founding generation—Dave Dyer, Linda Edgerly, George Smith—remain associated with the firm.  Sam Markham joined the firm in December of 2014 as managers of the Information & Archival Services division.  Stephen Chambers joined Winthrop in early 2016 as manager of the Histories Services division.

Working with professionalism, intellectual rigor, integrity, and dedication to our clients, Winthrop has earned and continues to expand its reputation as the world leader in what now is a well-established market for business and institutional history and archives.