Postcards were the “instant messages” of their day, a means of communicating hometown pride, civic identity, and a visitor’s curiosity. But where today’s electronic missives disappear with a click, the images and notes on vintage postcards endure – doorways to lost worlds.

Steve Noll, executive director of the Jackson County Historical Society and a postcard collector, leads an illustrated walk through Kansas City’s postcard history.

This event is keyed to the exhibit Greetings from Kansas City: Postcard Views of a Midwestern Metropolis, 1900-1950 currently on display at the Central Library. First shown in 2013, the exhibit is being reprised after earning the American Library Association’s Excellence in Library Programming Award.