Oddly, the best publisher of books about Cincinnati has its main business office in suburban Charleston, S.C., and its chief "local" editor in Chicago. But this isn't the only unusual thing about Arcadia Publishing.

Local author Carol McCleary Innerst uses her talents as writer and editor to put together one of the latest books in Arcadia Publishing's "Campus History Series."

VESTAL -- A new book on Vestal's history features images of a 1901 train wreck, a devastating 1927 fire and never-before-seen photographs from a prominent family's collection.

It was quite by accident — as can be the case with many a person’s hobby — that local educator and historian Susie Thurman came to own several hundred Henderson picture postcards, some dating back many decades.

Arcadia Publishing has a unique business model. The South Carolina-based book publisher has about 5,000 titles in print, all of them tightly focussed on historical subjects such as “Baseball in Baltimore,” “Akron Churches: Early Architecture,” and “Railroads of North Carolina.”

"Then & Now: Greeneville," a new book by Greenevillian Matilda B. Green, is being released today and introduced in a book signing from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 31, at Ella's, located at 1240 E. Andrew Johnson Highway.

BRISTOL — A few years ago, while involved with the Quota Club’s Holiday House Tour in Bristol, a once-a-year tour of the city’s older homes, Lynda J. Russell was bitten by the history bug.

History is in the soil of the land southwest of Santa Anita Avenue and Huntington Drive. In little more than a century, the land has been transformed from a ranch to a horse racing track to a military balloon reconnaissance training school to a lush green park.

Arcadia’s Images Of America series usually focuses on historic photographs of specific cities and regions. More of their books have a modern edge and, though this one’s first photo is from 1866, it continues right through to the grunge era.

EVERETT -- Everett has a book on the history of its fishing fleet just in time to help raise funds for a continuing tribute to the group that once traveled between Alaska and California to help feed the world.

Don Edgers, a third-generation Fox Island resident, recently published his third book on the island’s history.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Bristol Dragway is one of the most historic facilities in motorsports. Since the opening event in 1965, all the top stars and their cars have competed at the ear-popping track dubbed Thunder Valley.

LACONIA — For more than a decade Charlie St. Clair and Jennifer Anderson of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association have promoted and mothered Bike Week and this year, as the nation’s oldest motorcycle rally marks its 85th anniversary, they have captured its history in a book — “Laconia Motorcycle Week” in the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing.

A Chicago Writer Reported on eleven and a half decades of train riding history at the Chicago Cultural Center May 8.

It wasn't an idea that popped into his head in the middle of the night while sleeping or came to him while he was out driving a country road. There was no flashpoint moment, when Ivan Jurin said to himself, "Yeah, I'm writing a book about this.'

Ed Hooper, former television and newspaper journalist and one of East Tennessee's most prolific award-winning historians, has written his third book on Knoxville, this time concentrating on the city during the Vietnam era.

The town of Pomfret is currently celebrating its Bicentennial through a series of town-wide events, promotions and historical exhibits.

When postcards of the Black Hills were part of America’s fascination with its seemingly limitless frontiers, Bill Groethe, 11, was making three cents a photo.

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig came to Long Beach as part of a “barnstorming tour” in 1927, at the height of their fame as New York Yankees.

In 1945, Gwynn Ellis Norgaard, who now lives in Lemon Grove, led a march down Third Avenue in Chula Vista. Sixty-three years later, a photo of the then-17-year-old Norgaard is on the cover of a new book by Peter Watry, Jr. and Frank Roseman on the history of the city.

That’s what Kate Erstein and Stu Koblentz hope readers take away from their book, Images of America: Upper Arlington, which will be released in May.

Just in time for the 85th running of Laconia Motorcycle Week, the granddaddy of all American motorcycle events, two local residents have written a book richly illustrated with photos from many of the rally's memorable moments.

There's nothing quite like a late-afternoon cocktail gathering at the Columns Hotel on a pretty day, sitting outside and watching the streetcars go by on St. Charles Avenue.

Cecelia Svinth Carpenter began working on a pictorial history book about the Nisqually tribe, she didn't need to go very far for research.

Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre is blowing its own horn in a large-format paperback photo history, Images of America: Walnut Street Theatre (Arcadia Publishing. 128 pages, illustrated. $19.99), but it has every right to do so.

BRISTOL — - When the Lake Compounce amusement park opens for the season Saturday morning, the focus will be on the modern rides, new stage shows and maps showing plans for a future expansion of the water park.

Before roads were commonplace in our region, the steamboats that came to be known as The Mosquito Fleet played a key role in the development of Puget Sound. The Mosquito Fleet was a crucial piece of the transportation infrastructure for approximately 50 years starting in 1880. They began to fade out of relevance as cars, and by 1920 ferries would shuttle cars on the water, pushing them into retirement.

For George Stone, compiling a history of Bristol using old postcards meant largely paying tribute to his father.

Ann Harris Davidson, a native of Great Britain, immigrated to the United States in 1989 and bought a house in Berwyn Heights that year. She is well known throughout the county for her volunteer work, particularly on education issues.

Berwyn Heights resident Ann Harris Davidson was visiting the Marietta mansion in Glenn Dale with her daughter in the late 1990s when she wandered into the bookstore and began flipping through books about historic homes in Prince George's County.

HOPKINTON – A soft breeze drifted through the small towns of New England on the morning of Sept. 21, 1938. The sun smiled down brightly, deceiving the population. In just a matter of hours, the shoreline and the landscape would be unrecognizable. Hundreds of people who got out of bed that morning as if it would be just another autumn day, would be dead or missing. And history would write a major chapter in tragedy.

Huntington Beach’s waters have drawn beachgoers for more than a century, and the job of protecting those bathers from the dangers of the ocean has fallen on the shoulders of the Huntington Beach Lifeguards.

WAKEFIELD - Nearly 150 people gathered last week at the Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church for the first discussion in the 2008 Sweetser lecture series, featuring David Kruh’s discussion of “The Building of Route 128.”

Weaving long-buried historical photos of the California Highway Patrol with stories of officers and the agency, 28-year CHP Officer Rick Mattos' book gives an intimate insight into the world of the highway patrol.

Kenneth LaMaster, a Leavenworth resident, brought a special perspective to a book he completed recently.

Four local authors, Jena Ball, Scott Hettrick and Jack McCrea, historian Carol Libby and the Arcadia Historical Society helped bring "Arcadia" (Arcadia Publishing, $20) to life.

It's seems only natural that Rochester, a town that annually attracts thousands of visitors, would have been depicted on an equal number of postcards. The city's image has been mailed around the world.

Delray Beach - Dorothy "Dottie" Patterson was inspired to craft a book about the city when she designed the postcard exhibit for the Delray Beach Historical Society.

A year ago, Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske was rededicating a plot of grass the Rosie the Riveter Park.

When was the last time you visited Bear Mountain? Well, Bear Mountain by Ronnie Clark Coffey will certainly renew your interest in this Rockland County treasure. Few of us today can recall or even know that this public park was once threatened by quarrying operations and the relocation of Sing Sing prison.

For 100 years, Detroit’s Holy Family Church has been making history, which is now documented in a new book by local author Bonnie Leone titled Detroit’s Holy Family Church: 100 years of Sicilian Tradition.

About two-thirds of this installment of Arcadia’s “Images of Rail” photo-album series is devoted to the potst-1960 tourist –line era on the East Broad Top, the 3-foot-gauge pike in central Pennsylvania that ended regular freight operations in 1956.

Former, present and many future students of York College most likely will be interested in a recently published book about the school, "York College of Pennsylvania."

Historic Archaeologist and Amador County Archivist, Deborah Cook, presents a distinctive look at the history of the Ione and Jackson Valleys of Amador County in a unique and interesting manner. The story is told through a collection of images, chronicling over 100 years of history in the region, from its earliest days to the present.

Not only is the Aurora Farmers Fir celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but members of the Aurora Lions Club, which sponsors the fair, are celebration their club’s 60th anniversary.