BARNESVILLE — A local historian and retiree of the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office will present local postcard history at the Belmont Victorian Mansion Museum.

The mansion museum’s lecture series will feature Bruce Yarnall’s presentation titled “Through the Lens of History: Local Postcard History,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 532 N Chestnut St.

Public relations committee Lisa Gallagher said in a press release the postcard was the equivalent of today’s social media “instant messaging” and today’s social media photo posts.

Yarnall will present his postcard collection and stories, and the program will last about an hour.

Yarnall said the point of the presentation is twofold — to discuss the history of postcards and use local postcards to integrate that with local history.

Because people did not have cameras, YArnall said, only a few people after 1900 who were in upper echelons would have local photographers take photos and print them on the postcards so people could buy them at places like drug stores. Individuals would then send them to family and friends far away.

Yarnall said that, up until World War I, the best printed cards were from Germany, which had the best printing presses, making the printed cards almost match that of a real photo. He added the American companies were not as good with detail.

People can get local history through postal cards with people writing on the back of what the photo was or no one writing anything at all, so people wouldn’t know what is on the card unless it was postmarked, and if postmarked in Barnesville, one might assume it was from Barnesville.

Yarnall will also talk about the Freter Brothers, a traveling photo operation out of Bridgeport that created postcards, so the back of the cards were marked “Freter Brothers, Bridgeport, Ohio,” so if someone goes to eBay and sees a Freter Brothers card marked with Bridgeport, it actually might not be Bridgeport at all.

He added people don’t know many times where the postcards came from. However, some historians would know what building is in the photo, so they would know where the postcard is from.

“It’s a mystery to study all of this stuff,” Yarnall said.

He added it’s really interesting the history that someone can pick up on from postcards.

Yarnall will tell the story of the history of the development of postcards and then also use the postmark message on the back to tell a story.

“Sometimes the messages are just as entertaining as the photo itself,” he said.