Twenty-eight years ago five historians in Cambridge, Massachusetts founded The Winthrop Group, Inc. on what their professional colleagues thought was a rather shaky premise. The founding group 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 Smith and Wasserman produced while consulting on antitrust issues at AT&T from 1978 to 1982. These were followed by an important book 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 the 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, the historians at Winthrop attracted an impressive list of clients, preparing analyses of corporate organization and processes, developing tools for drawing on corporate experience, supporting litigation, and writing books and articles.

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 profit, non-profit, and private 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.  In the years since the merger, Winthrop archivists, historians, and consultants have worked with nearly 200 clients and many archives, and have produced numerous proprietary reports and more than 70 important books and articles.

Today, Winthrop retains an office in Cambridge while its business operations are centered in New York in the old "Garment District."  The firm also has offices in Virginia and Seattle, an agency in the United Kingdom, and a representative in Germany.  Of the founders, Dave Dyer, Meg Graham, George Smith, and Linda Edgerly, remain with the firm, as do Deborah Shea and Timothy Jacobson.  Janine St. Germain continues development of the Information & Archival Services Division’s work with artists, artists’ estates, and private clients under the Winthrop+St.Germain banner.  John Seaman joined Winthrop in 2006 to manage Winthrop’s Historical Services Division and Robert Sink became the first outside Director in 2007.  Holding it all together is Jenny Beveridge, Winthrop’s Business Manager since 2001.