Who We Are,
Where We Came From,
Friends We've Met
Along The Way
Who We Are
Pentacle Press is a nimble, small publisher always endeavoring to stay on the cutting edge with products that entertain and educate in a rapidly changing digital world. Our books and ancillary products have three things in common: they are image intense, rooted in history and tell fascinating stories.
View Images from Our Travels
Friends We've Met Along the Way
While Pentacle Press is the manifestation of the vision of David J. McLaughlin (an interesting fellow in his own right), it could not exist in its current form without the contributions of a diverse and talented group of professionals.
Les Campbell
Sky Meadow Studio & Photo Gallery
Belchertown, Massachusetts
Paul Rocheleau
Richmond Massachusetts
Kevin Sprague
Studio Two
Lenox Massachusetts
Kelly Lee
North Adams Massachusetts
Where We Came From
Our enterprise was founded in 1982 to serve the corporate community. Its first mission was to document the proceedings of several innovative business conferences organized by a San Francisco-based business research and consulting firm, The Pentacle Group. Our intention was to help participants understand the many ways their week in San Francisco was worth the expense.
David J. McLaughlin, a former partner of the general management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and founder of the Pentacle Group was also Executive Director of a Human Resource think tank The Senior Personnel Executives Forum. For twenty years this group, whose membership included 40 of the 200 largest U.S. companies, sponsored best practices research. Pentacle Press published many of its papers.
By 1993 Pentacle Press had expanded yet again and pioneered a quarterly, The Organization Frontier. This publication was created to identify, interpret and synthesize contemporary concepts and practices in the management of people and organizations.
Eight years later, Pentacle Press went through another metamorphosis and ventured away from its exclusive business product focus, Propelled in a new direction we began to generate the more diverse product offerings describe here.
Our initial focus was on California and its image rich Spanish era. Our offerings include a variety of classic studies of the region and its missions. We also began to publish original books on the Spanish era starting with Dr. Robert Jackson's monumental comparative study, which was released in June 2005.
After our first California books took form, we began planning a distinctive series of New England travel guides under the Pathways to the Past Series. In 2005 we released a pocket-sized (4" x 7.5") book Around the Quabbin, followed by Along the Mohawk Trail and Exploring the Upper Pioneer Valley in early 2006. In 2007 we expanded our New England offerings with a distinctive history book, The Unfolding History of the Berkshires. This generously illustrated timeline tells the four-hundred year history of this culturally rich, scenic area in a series of modules that literally "unfold" from 6" x 9" to 12" x 9" and ultimately a full 23.75" x 9." We followed this publication in 2008 with another Pathways to the Past book Inside the Berkshires expanding the format to a trade book size.
In 2009 we returned to focus on the appealing history of early California. November 4, 2009 will be the official release date for The California Missions Source Book: Key Information, Dramatic Images, and Fascinating Anecdotes Covering All 21 Missions, by David J. McLaughlin, with Dr. Rubén Mendoza. We are also releasing a companion product developed for schools, libraries and others who require durable and convenient reference material. Key Facts about The California Missions: A Complete Set of Laminated Pages consists of 22 laminated sheets packaged with a cloth dust cover for storage and preservation.
We consider Pentacle Press to be both a well defined business enterprise and, at the same time, an evolving work in progress. We are dedicated to producing products of quality and excellence.
David J. McLaughlin (an interesting fellow in his own right), it could not exist in its current form without the contributions of a diverse and talented group of professionals.
research and consulting firm, The Pentacle Group. Our intention was to help participants understand the many ways their week in San Francisco was worth the expense.
In 2005 we released a pocket-sized (4" x 7.5") book Around the Quabbin, followed by Along the Mohawk Trail and Exploring the Upper Pioneer Valley in early 2006. In 2007 we expanded our New England offerings with a distinctive history book, The Unfolding History of the Berkshires. This generously illustrated timeline tells the four-hundred year history of this culturally rich, scenic area in a series of modules that literally "unfold" from 6" x 9" to 12" x 9" and ultimately a full 23.75" x 9." We followed this publication in 2008 with another Pathways to the Past book Inside the Berkshires expanding the format to a trade book size.