Lafferty and Van Heest formed the partnership in June 2008 with the express purpose of providing primarily museums with the most engaging but intellectually rigorous exhibit or publication at the lowest price possible. Lafferty van Heest fully realizes the daunting economic challenges that the museum community faces today, and the firm is organized precisely to address those challenges. Lafferty van Heest has developed a network of skilled professional craftsmen and artisans, each chosen based upon the principals’ familiarity with his work and how his specific talents can mesh with the types of projects Lafferty van Heest seeks. In this manner overhead costs are held to an absolute minimum, allowing as many dollars as possible to flow into the project at hand.

William Lafferty, with degrees in both engineering and the humanities, has maintained a passion for Great Lakes maritime history since the age of ten, and has amassed a large collection of rare photographs and other material related to that history, several rare images from which grace this website. He is the winner of the 2007 Henry Barkhausen Award for Original Maritime Research, given by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History. In 2007 Valerie van Heest received an Historical Society of Michigan award for her efforts in promoting and preserving the maritime heritage the state, and has over twenty years of experience in architectural and graphic design.