In the summer of 1999, Kerri & I toured the rugged island of Vinalhaven off the coast of Maine. We learned all about its rich history as a granite source for the architecture boom of the early 20th century. We had been seeking out like histories for years and felt that they all deserved a wider audience. We decided then and there to start-up a “digitization service” for local / regional historical organizations. Our plan: create digital archives of local history collections and push it all online. Our goal: preservation and presentation. Kerri suggested a spot on name that would stick: “in heritage”—an inherited responsibility to preserve our past. On August 14, 1999, we purchased our domain name and InHeritage was born … We had also created a service years ahead of its time (back when hosting plans were measured in MBs) that was also beyond the financial reach of most small societies.
Luckily, our initial marketing drive uncovered an even greater need: web development geared for the historical and nonprofit communities, really any info-rich, info-driven public facing venture. From the beginning, our clients, their needs and budgets, arrived in all sizes. Key to our working across such a wide spectrum was our talented network of sole proprietor professionals and strategic small business partners, each partner added for a specific developmental role and their stand-out creative ability. InHeritage was a virtual business from day one.
We watched technologies deemed “revolutionary” in their day come-and-go. But the advent of open-source content-management website systems would have the greatest impact on our approach: viewing a website as not just a single entity, but the hub of a system. Investing significant resources in serving the whole of these “site operations” (including the universe of vital services + optimization tasks beyond design and development), we came to realize that our service model applied naturally to the needs of small- to mid-sized commercial ventures too. This allowed us to diversify our focus and include the commercial alongside our core roster of historical societies, nonprofits, and independent artisan clients. Redefining who and how we served brought us into the modern era of dynamic device-independent solutions. And though we watched technology and standards evolve at frenetic speeds, we were able at all points to wrap advancements in the industry around our core inspiration: custom development designed to showcase unique quality content.
Thanks to all our clients who helped make our 24 years in business—August 14, 1999 – August 14, 2023—the top-tier success that it was.
Dave Buckhout
