Author & Editor
Historical books, research and narrative. Sixteen illustrated histories published, and a six-volume series under contract.
About
Author · AI systems designer · Data engineer · Publisher · Researcher
Who
In 1994, a year after the internet had gone commercial, 5 years after the invention of the World Wide Web, I had access to a Sun SPARC terminal at a job I worked at the National Institutes of Health. With that I had a connection to the internet few outside a university could reach. I built a restaurant guide to Washington DC with another researcher. It was a list of things, described well enough that a stranger could find the one they wanted. I have been doing some version of that ever since.
In 2001, at the height of the dot-com bust, several months before 9/11, I started an internet business with a credit card for capital and no plan, except to help pay the rent. I sold $10K in month one, and did 6 figures in the first year. For 2 years I worked out of my living room, 7 days a week. This was the same way eBay and others started. I went on to find business with the U.S. Capitol, the White House, Harvard, HBO and the Metropolitan Museum, hundreds of institutional clients as well as tens of thousands of internet customers (including someone in Greenland). Not one came from a structured marketing campaign. They came from 300,000 images and metadata cataloged carefully enough that somebody looking for exactly one of them could find it.
The analytics came last, and not by choice. For 20 years I was too busy shipping to look at what the shipping was telling me. That is now the most common thing I see in small businesses. What changed is that the tools and the science arrived. I put thousands of orders through AI and analytics software and got back patterns I had no way of seeing before. I have run consumer behavior analysis on my own business, and on others, and I see things I never thought about previously.
I went on to take apart the industry I sold into, home furnishings and decor, and then the platforms everybody now depends on. How Amazon decides which listing wins a search. How Google decides what a page is about. I sold on those platforms for years before I ever applied data science to how they work.
Two decades of running a business, the online economy taken apart, and the training to do it properly. That is what I bring when I look at your company.
On Nostalgia
Joining an established effort
“Established institutions like the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, websites like eBay and Ancestry, and initiatives like the Digital Library Program and the Google Books Library Project are all striving to preserve a national archive of culture and create a more developed and inclusive perspective on American history. Snapshots of the Past, a recent addition to this effort, hopes to continue and extend the archiving work of these companies, making historical images even more accessible to ordinary citizens around the country and around the globe. Founded in 2001, [Lantos’] company soon became one of the first to make available as prints some of the rare collections of images held at the Library of Congress.
Getting the images out of the vault
Early on, Snapshots of the Past recognized the huge interest in historical objects that might be available from source materials found in libraries. The ever expanding archives of the Library of Congress have long been inaccessible to ordinary citizens and restricted only to librarians, researchers and visitors with special permission. Snapshots came to understand how it could combine technological advances in offset printing in order to open up these materials to people who wished to own a copy of the Library’s rare maps, photos or other artwork. [He] and his company have joined a long line of innovators working to democratize nostalgia, and make it more accessible. In this way, the company’s mission is similar in scope to that of mass-production lithographers of the early 1800s.”
“On Nostalgia” · Michael J. Simpson, MA History, Brown University
Read the full article →
By the numbers
Who has bought
Twenty-five years selling historical imagery into museums, libraries, universities, government agencies and independent retail.
From customers
“It’s their high quality, high resolution printing process that makes each reproduction look like a true original. I was amazed at the clarity and how each and every little detail comes to life. Thank you for keeping history alive.”
“Only today I can see your fantastic prints of Prokofiev’s photos from the Bain Archive. Also thank you for refunding of overcharge by Amazon. This is very rare in actual life.”
“The seller holds history with the utmost integrity and respect, and that is something to be proud of.”
“The canvas is perfect. Colors and details are excellent. Thanks also for the cards — we shall make good use of them.”Gene PellFormer Boston television anchor“Whenever I am on the Library of Congress’ site, I always think of the volume of images, maps and documents they house and how limited their distribution seems to be. It is refreshing to see what you are working on.”
“I was very impressed by the quality of the photo print. Thomas J. Rusk was my father’s great grandfather. The photo I ordered was especially meaningful because it was taken from life, and he and my late father bear a remarkable resemblance.”A descendant of Thomas J. RuskRusk was the first Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas and later a United States Senator“Thank you for having this photo available. Anastasio Somoza was my maternal grandfather.”
“This photo you sent is a real treat, since these are my grandparents. People considering buying this may appreciate the following. February 1927, Washington DC, issued with the announcement of the marriage of Francis and Laura. Laura Bryn: youngest child of the Norwegian Minister to the United States, who served 1910 to 1927.”
“The photos were of very good quality. I framed the two photos and used them for a historical presentation and tour of the Aknusti Mansion, which was the summer estate for the Robert L. Gerry family.”
What people say
“Jim brings much passion and expertise to this enterprise. His talents include an intuitive feel for marketing and business strategies, broad knowledge of American history and culture, an extensive skill set for computer systems and social media, and a dogged persistence to succeed in the face of obstacles he has faced. His curiosity about the world is boundless, as is his ability to multitask and draw on his experience in various disciplines.”Edward MoranAuthor, Editor“All of your printing thoughts seem like the right way to think through things, and I think you’ve got the right approach to the market.”
“I’ve known Jim for over 20 years, and worked with him in various capacities, helping him as a marketing consultant and also as an editor for the picture book series he created with Applewood Books.”
“I have seen him buy and read dozens of books on a subject so he could be better informed and understand a topic inside and out. He also likes to be of help to others who need help. He extends the hand of friendship to those who need it.”
“In 2002, the company was sold and it joined the Internet era, making its catalog of hundreds of thousands of photos and art prints available to Internet customers. For seven years, James was our main seller on Amazon, and he spent considerable time and money further developing systems to be able to automate the listing, order and transaction processing of our inventory on Amazon.”Tom NovellinoCEO, Liebermans / Metaverse“Just received the thumbs up to proceed with the Halloween film book.”
“His knowledge and command of technologies and mechanics of e-commerce are unparalleled… a prodigious talent who can add enormous value to any data-driven organization.”Mark R. AllioBusiness and Strategy Development, Entrepreneurship, Education“Your initiative is great.”Jim LecinskiClinical Professor of Marketing, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management · on CityNavigator“I am eager to connect with you on all of this.”
“What he brought with him was drive, curiosity, standards of excellence, and an exceptional conceptual ability.”Mark Schmidt, MDFormer Research Lead, NIMH · Senior Director, Janssen · Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson“Unusually bright and highly motivated, showing a talent and willingness to work on very complex and challenging projects relevant to novel applications of brain imaging to psychopharmacology research.”
“This is an exceptional analysis… thoughtful, applied, and executed at a very high level. Excellent, benchmark-level work!”Professor JoAnn BurnettLecturer in Marketing Technologies and Artificial Intelligence, University of Southern Maine School of Business“Exactly the kind of inquiry that thrives at the doctoral level.”
What I do
Each one came out of doing the work rather than studying it. Together they are what a client is actually hiring.
Historical books, research and narrative. Sixteen illustrated histories published, and a six-volume series under contract.
Using language models to produce high-quality content, systems and solutions — with a written standard for what is verified and what is not.
Datasets, automation and marketplace systems at scale. Python, APIs and feed systems across Amazon, Walmart and BigCommerce.
Data-driven strategy, modeling and performance work. Graduate training in digital analytics as well as computer science, statistics and data science.
Complex legal research, evidence analysis and document production. Federal filings, patent prosecution support, rights and permissions.
Brain imaging at NIMH with three peer-reviewed papers. Since then transportation, consumer behavior and applied AI.
Portfolio
The Halloween Library, six volumes. The Pictorial America series, sixteen volumes. A memoir from twelve years of rideshare journals.
28 complete curricula across 803 modules, including a ten-module program delivered with Southern Maine Community College.
286 customer categories, a 300,000-product catalog, and integrations across three platforms.
Eight full plans with proformas and investor decks — CityNavigator, MoveReady, Snapshots of the Past and others.
Federal complaints, motions, briefs and appeals. Evidence analysis. Patent prosecution support.
Nine graduate research papers at a 4.0. Ten-plus research projects in transportation, brain imaging and analytics.
I build knowledge, systems and businesses that preserve the past, solve real problems, and create value for the future.