Interpretive Publishing Services

In addition to bringing history directly to the public, Images from the Past also offers consulting and publishing services to help museums and historic sites develop site-specific products that meet interpretive, marketing, merchandising, and fund-raising objectives.

In a collaborative partnership, we can work with you both to extend visitors' experience and bring your interpretive message to armchair travelers.  We can help you develop income-generating products that interpret history to the public using information and images, perhaps from seldom accessed files and archives ... products that also increase the publicís awareness of the work you do.

In consultation with museum and historic site staff, Images from the Past's publisher, Tordis Ilg Isselhardt, can help bring an out-of-print classic back in print; chronicle a site's restoration; assemble oral histories, journals, diaries, and correspondence for publication; record special exhibits and collections; and create postcards and note cards based on print, photograph, and ephemera collections. She can work with you at the planning stage, as you decide on the best interpretive publication for your message, your audience, and your resources. She can suggest team members to supplement your in house capabilities for the editorial, design, and production stages, and can provide overall management until your project has been successfully completed.

Tordis Ilg Isselhardt has been an interpretive specialist since 1968 when she became the first director of the 35-room Second Empire Park-McCullough House in North Bennington, Vermont. She has served as planner and guide for interpretive tours in Vermont; has been publisher of Images from the Past since 1984; has served on numerous boards and commissions for Historic Preservation, Publishing, and Cultural Heritage Tourism; is a frequent presenter at professional conferences, and holds Certified Interpretive Guide credentials from the National Association for Interpretation. Past publishing clients include: Canterbury Shaker Village, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, Ashfield (Mass.) Historical Society, The Museum of the Confederacy, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Trapp Family Lodge, and Glacier Natural History Association.

Together we work to assure that history has its place and place has its history.

We would love to hear from you. Please contact us to discuss your needs, large and small.

Interpretation is a communication process
which forges emotional and intellectual connections
between the interests of the audience
and the meanings inherent in the resource.

(National Association for Interpretation)