San Diego County's first beach lifeguards came from the ranks of law enforcement in the early 1900s, an era when it was considered improper for men to swim bare-chested.

Words and pictures on old postcards can tell intriguing stories. In fact, Postcards can disclose much about the way things were decades, or even a century, ago.

“Mount Shasta” by Darla Greb Mazariegos was recently published under Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series, which documents local and regional history in the United States.

Rachel Smith always has been fascinated by postcards. "When I was younger, I used to collect postcards," says Smith, 24, of Greensburg. "Family and friends, whenever they went on trips, I'd ask them to send me cards from wherever."

How many times has someone said to you, "I remember that," or "When my grandmother was growing up, she did thus and so?"

The other night my newspaper pal, Victor (financial news), came over for dinner. As a hostess gift for my wife, Lois, he brought a copy of that new book, Ukrainians of Greater Philadelphia.

Arcadia Publishing specializes in creating high-quality historical publications in small local niches, of which there would seem to be no shortage. The company's catalog lists more than 4,000 titles in print and hundreds of new titles are released every year.

Victoria Christian had never considered herself a historian until a publisher called her and asked her to write a book about her town.

As a college student in the 1960s, June Morrall and friends would visit the Coastside and the funky ambience of Princeton.

While flipping through some books in a waiting room, Michelle Lovato came across an Arcadia history book, and became enthralled by the way the story was told through pictures.

HUNTINGTON PARK — A book recounting the 100-year history of the city, written by a member of the city’s police department, has been released and is available for sale at bookstores throughout the area and online, according to officials of the Arcadia Publishing Company.

Arcadia has been publishing a unique series of inexpensive books in their “Images of Rail” series that help bring many otherwise unseen and uncirculated images to light. One of their latest offerings in this series is “Railroad Depots of Northern Indiana” by David E. Longest.

EDISON - Firefighting is in Edison resident Eugene Enfield's blood - his grandfather was a firefighter in Iselin. His father was a volunteer firefighter in northern Edison. He, himself, became a volunteer firefighter at age 18 and a career firefighter four years later.

If it happened, it’s history. When I think about history, I think Abraham Lincoln, the sinking of the Lusitania and Nikita Khrushchev slamming the podium with his shoe. My childhood Boy Scout camp is not part of the black and white montage.

If history is any indication, many will have trouble finding the perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for people on their Christmas lists. Debbie J. Williams and Kimberly Barr Byrd hope history will also provide a solution to that problem.

CAMBRIDGE — Local author A.M. Foley is in the business of immortalizing life in Cambridge and Dorchester County.

Heroes of the sea are the subject of the new book "Lighthouses and Life-Saving on the Oregon Coast" by UO alum and adjunct instructor David Pinyerd. His book is part of the Images of America Series by Arcadia Publishing and features more than 180 historic photographs documenting the history of Oregon's lighthouses and life-saving stations.

This has been a big year for history buffs interested in eastern Baltimore County, as a quintet of books, all published this year, proved that the county's one-time rip-roaring industrial heartland was pretty fertile literary ground.

Worthington is home to the Historic Dayton House, the original abode of department store founder George Draper Dayton. So it follows that there might be local interest in this 127-page tome, an homage to his retail empire.

The long and storied history of two West towns has been recorded in a pair of pictorial books this year.

Arcadia Publishing, which has already released a series of books focusing on Marin's various municipalities, has released a new photographic history called "Images of America: Marin County." Branwell Fanning, who previously assembled books about Tiburon and Angel Island, tackled the new project. He discussed the process of compiling these historical tomes.

Where have you gone Ruth Lyons and Uncle Al?

MILLBRAE — Alma Massolo often surrounds herself in Millbrae's history, simply because she cherishes the past.

When you picture a historian, you probably don't think of Jeffrey Lawrence Cornejo Jr.

RACINE — On Sunday afternoon, Racine historian and author Gerald Karwowski took his audience at the Racine Heritage Museum on an armchair tour of their town.

As the public relations manager for the Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa in Litchfield Park, Lance Burton has quite a bit on his plate.

The other day in the mail we received a complimentary copy of a great new book published by Arcadia accompanied by a letter asking me if I would help spread the world and share the information with MRHS members So here goes…..

Of all the postcards in the new loose packets of Arcadia postcards-reprinted from old photographs-the one that surprised me most was of Jerry Springer. Known for his bawdy talk show and for serving as the mayor of Cincinnati, Springer according to this cards’ caption also “made several records in the 1970s.”

While we’re all being visually herded headlong into the future, it helps to take a moment to look back. That’s the idea behind Surfing in San Diego.

Exceptional book from Arcadia: our hometown, Portland, Oregon (& neighbor, Vancouver, Washington) surround the confluence of two large rivers: the Columbia and Willamette; many of the spans are, or were, records when built between 1887 and 1982. Bottenberg an engineer & bridge-lover has selected over 200 good to fine photos for esthetic appeal and engineering interest for which he's written solid captions.

In 1938 Frank Lloyd Wright received a cable from Dr. Ludd M. Spivey, president of Florida Southern college, a small Methodist school in Lakeland’s. Spivey’s message to Wright read: “Desire conference with you concerning plans for great education temple in Florida.”

Produced as a companion piece to the newly released book by the same title, the vintage-photograph postcards and accompanying captions present a condensed view of the Florida Southern College campus.

Following World War I, Taylor Street was the place where Italian bands and clubs thrived, and Italian was spoken on the streets.

French fur traders loved the natural abundance of Porter County in the mid 600s. So did tourists from big cities such as Chicago 300 years later.

These two books portray Gary as an industrial heavyweight. United States Steel was the biggest but not the only giant company that helped converted Gary from a swampy backwater into a world leader.

A source for local history buffs, this book celebrates Northern Indiana’s railroad heritage, as shown by a description of the Haskel & Barker Car Company in Michigan City.

The La Porte of 100 yeas ago was blessed with many cameras, and with residents who used them with skill.

Route 66 may stretch from Chicago to Los Angeles, but don’t tell that to Historian David G. Clark. In his opinion, without Chicago there wouldn’t be a Route 66. Perhaps this is why Clark has published Images of America: Route 66 in Chicago, a visually- oriented tour of the route on which many Americans have gotten their kicks.

In his sunny apartment near Lake Merritt, decorated with posters of Donna Summer and the Black Panther Party, Jerry Thompson is putting a Pointer Sisters album on the stereo. He still has three copies of That’s a Plenty, the record that changed his life. “Look how worn out it is,” he says.

During the first half of the twentieth century, some of Detroit’s larger hotels were architectural masterpieces, nationally known and the center of social activities.

The mid-20th century ushered in a new era for Turtle Bay, as the United Nations moved into its headquarters on the East River, and the Third Avenue El – last of Manhattan’s elevated rail lines – was demolished, mak¬ing way for one of the city’s biggest build¬ing booms.

Few Cities, and certainly few American cities, have had their center defined by rail transit more pointedly than that of Chicago, where “the Loop” transcends a physical structure to connote that city’s true center and sense of self. Greg Borzo, the former editor of Modern Railroad (which Railway Age parent Simmons-Boardman Publishing acquired in 1991), masterfully reconstructs how disparate, radial rail lines eventually fused into one construct of world renown, “The Chicago L,” beginning (at least by one measure) in 1892 and still ongoing.