The Crowley Company celebrates its 30th anniversary in micrographics

The founding family and employees of the Frederick, Md.-based Crowley Company, a micrographics producer, are celebrating 30 years of doing business. “To the best of my knowledge, we’re one of the few original micrographics companies that have successfully stood the tests of changing technologies, industry consolidation and a roller-coaster economy,” said Crowley Company Vice President Pat Crowley in a statement.

The firm has experienced positive growth in each of its 30 years. Pat Crowley and his brother Christopher Crowley, the company’s president, took the reins from their father, Jerry Crowley, who started the company in 1980. “One day you’re 20 and working for your dad, and the next minute you look up and 30 years have gone by,” Christopher Crowley said in a statement.

Jerry Crowley began the company in a leased showroom in Gaithersburg, Md., under the name J.F. Crowley, Inc. Pat and Chris Crowley — two of four Crowley siblings — spent summer vacations and college breaks working with their father, representing manufacturers in the photographic, graphic arts and micrographics industries, doing everything from sales to equipment repairs. They assumed leadership in 1996, after their father died.

Today, The Crowley Company has a manufacturing facility in San Dimas, Calif., and a second imaging facility in Saline, Mich., and employs approximately 150 workers. The firm specializes in archival preservation and imaging systems and serves clients that produce or protect any type of media or records. Notable clients have included The Smithsonian Institution, Getty Images, Time Inc., ProQuest and Harvard University.

When considering what the next 30 years might hold, Chris Crowley says it “will be a melding of our past with whatever the ‘next big thing’ is.” “There is still a need in countries that are just beginning to preserve their archives [on film]. We’re also seeing a resurgence in inquiries from the U.S. and the more developed countries for both micrographic equipment and services as the legal requirements to archive digital-borne media for permanent storage continue to grow,” Chris Crowley said. “I personally see distribution — the complete workflow from born record to archive to access — as our next big area of growth.”