Vantage Point Historical Services, Inc. is an award-winning, full service historical consulting firm that works across the United States and Canada.
At Vantage Point, we put the past to work. Whether you’re a large corporation looking to understand your company’s history, a small-town museum hoping to attract visitors to your community, or an individual with a good story worth telling, we’re here to harness your history.
Our team of experts will identify and collect a wide range of evidence – from documents hidden in warehouses or the National Archives to oral histories and cultural traditions – then analyze the story and tell it in a compelling, engaging, and useful way.
We can organize archives, design exhibits, produce research reports, or write full-length books. We can also design websites or produce films.
For more details, examples, and a complete description our services, clickhere.
Vantage Point’s History
Vantage Point traces its roots to 1985 when Eric Abrahamson founded The Prologue Group in San Francisco. In the early days, the company focused on communities and organizations harness their history, develop public policy, and refine their communications strategies.
Consulting for organizations like the Bay Area Council, Abrahamson drafted public policy reports and white papers on issues affecting the economy of the San Francisco Bay Area. He also wrote book-length corporate histories for the University of San Francisco’s School of Law (1987), Swinerton & Walberg Construction (1989), and Pacific Telesis Group (1993). Shorter histories told the story of the city of Monterey and historic sites in California. Meanwhile, The Prologue Group also began developing concepts and content for new historical museums in association with Santa Monica-based exhibition designers IQ Magic.
In 1994, Abrahamson and Glenn E. Bugos, a historian of science and technology, agreed to jointly market their services. After Abrahamson moved to Maryland, the two pursued independent projects but shared The Prologue Group name and a deep interest in organizational history. Over the next decade, Abrahamson wrote a history of S&W Fine Foods, researched the development of mortgage banking for Countrywide Home Loans, and collaborated with IQ Magic on the development of the innovative Hometown Perry, Iowa museum.
Abrahamson also co-wrote a history of cell phone pioneer AirTouch Communications with Louis Galambos of the Business History Group and developed the content for a CD-ROM on California History produced by Instructional Resources Corporation.
In 2005, Vantage Point Historical Services, Inc. replaced the Prologue Group. Under the leadership of Abrahamson and its COO Lois Facer, Vantage Point built a network of expert contractors and began managing a variety of historically-oriented projects. We also launched an independent publishing label, Vantage Point Press, in 2007.
Where Vantage Point once focused on matters of policy, our focus has shifted toward telling the stories that mattered to our clients and the publics they serve.
Vantage Point his grown tremendously in the last decade. After completing an award-winning, six-book series commemorating and analyzing the 100-year anniversary of the Rockefeller Foundation, we continued to expand our network of researchers, videographers, designers, and authors, adding Senior Historian Eric Zimmer to the team in 2016.
In the last couple of years, the Vantage Point team has written a variety of book-length biographies and corporate histories; conducted strategic planning and archival assessments for non-profit and for profit institutions; collected oral histories in the United States, Canada, and Europe; and produced a cultural and historical report that assisted an American Indian community in an effort at land reclamation; and recently revived our work in exhibit design by partnering with Split Rock Studios.
Vantage Point has been harnessing the power of the past for over thirty years. We offer a variety of historical consulting services to clients across North America, and can make the past an asset for anyone around the globe.
