About Crowley Company History

Who We Are

The Crowley Company is a world leader in commercial imaging solutions and has been a major contributor to the digital document, micrographics and record reformatting industry since 1981. With manufacturing, distribution, imaging and technical support divisions, Crowley provides the most complete range of quality solutions for archival preservation, digitization and film processing in the industry.

Sales. Service. Manufacturing. Support.

Our History

Company founder,
Jerome (Jerry) Crowley

Privately-owned, the late Jerome F. (Jerry) Crowley, Jr. started the firm in 1981 under the name of J. F. Crowley, Inc. Representing manufacturers in the photographic, graphic arts and micrographics industries, Jerry was successful in hardware and software sales but chaffed against the downtime his equipment spent on the display floor. He decided to put the machines to work when not in demonstration and in 1986, changed the firm name to Crowley Micrographics, with offerings of both hardware/software sales and document conversion services to commercial clients and to federal, state and local governments. Within a few years, sons Christopher (Chris) and Patrick (Pat) Crowley joined the family business. As the company grew, it continued to diversify with a concentration in the areas of document conversion, reformatting and digital imaging services as a complement to the company’s strong position as a leading provider of document reformatting solutions (hardware/software).

In October of 1996, the company’s ownership and leadership was assumed by Chris, filling the role of company president, and Pat as vice president – titles that they still hold today. As client interest in digital technologies increased, Crowley Micrographics expanded product and services offerings to include digital scanning, including the hardware representation and in-house/service bureau use of premium digital and microfilm product lines.

Hardware Sales

Today the company, now known as The Crowley Company, is the owner, distributor or exclusive North American representative of:

Imaging Services

A service bureau with tens of millions of images digitized and decades of experience in digital imaging and micrographics, Crowley Imaging has in-depth experience with local, state and federal government records, as well with a wide variety of noted academic, publishing and commercial customers. In 2009, the bureau opened their second branch in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the heels of a multi-year contract with NA Publishing. The categories of records converted from paper, microfiche/microfilm and photographic negatives include:

Technical Documents: permits, reports, instrument readings, lab notebooks, and more
Vital Records: patient records, medical records and others
Land Records: deed books, tax records, etc.
Court Records: marriage, adoption, cemetery, census, military, docket, case, police and other records
Office Documents: invoices, payroll, personnel, minutes and more
Historical & Publishing Records/Archives: newspapers, periodicals, special collections, etc.
Engineering Records: maps, electrical, sewer, construction, schematics and others
Photographs: slides, film strips, medium format negatives and reflective prints

A partial list of service bureau clients includes: Time-Life; The U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum; the National Archives; the Library of Congress; Harvard University, Cengage Learning, Lexus Nexus and many others that represent a full spectrum of imaging needs.

Manufacturing

Over the past decade, the company’s technology and service offerings have continued to expand and now include the ownership of several leading hardware manufacturers.

In 2003, Mekel Technology, which introduced the first microfilm scanner to the world in 1989, became a part of the Crowley family of companies. Manufacturing the industry’s leading production Roll Film and Microfiche scanners in San Dimas, California, the marriage of these two companies enables The Crowley Company to sell direct to the market and to respond quickly to customer feedback with continuous improvement on existing and new equipment and systems. The high-end Mekel equipment is also a mainstay in the Crowley service bureau.

The firm continues to be a major supplier of micrographics and digital imaging systems and also owns and operates Houston Fearless (HF), which provides deep-tank film processing equipment for the microfilm and movie industry, and Extek Microsystems, which provides film duplicators for the micrographics industry including 16MM and 35MM Silver Halide duplicators and Diazo film duplicators.

Support

As a natural extension of the services above, The Crowley Company also provides technical hardware and software maintenance support for installed systems throughout the U.S. and in some foreign countries.

Our Mission

The Crowley Company’s mission is to promote the benefits of both image conversion and access and to offer customers a complete full-cycle solution to their digital imaging needs utilizing the different facets of the organization. With a greater capacity for decision-making and flexibility than the competition, we seek to provide a full range of conversion and reformatting solutions to all industries and institutions.

Location

The Crowley Company’s Frederick, Maryland headquarters includes an 18,000 SF conversion bureau, technical support and administrative offices. A second 32,000 SF imaging bureau is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company’s hardware manufacturing facility is in Compton, California. In addition to Frederick, Crowley provides sales support from offices in Los Angeles, California; Washington, D.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; and Toronto, Canada.

General inquiries & Suggestions:

Please send all general inquiries and suggestions to:
webrequest@thecrowleycompany.com.