How Geneva communicated is the subject of new exhibit

“Anxious 2 C U.”

The sender was trying to be quick and brief. But this wasn’t a text message over a cell phone; instead, it is at the bottom of a postcard from a century ago.

Communication — what Genevans have wanted to get out, and how they did it — is the subject of two exhibits opening Saturday at the Geneva History Center.

“In Other Words — A History of Communication in Geneva,” features interactive stations for adults and children age 5 and older, to learn about postcards, the post office, Morse code, old-time radio and moving pictures.

“We have quite a few artifacts that we have not displayed before. ... We said, ‘Let’s pull some of these out and exhibit older technology and show what was used way back when,’” said Jessica McTague, the center’s curator.

That will include a “Victorian laptop” — a lap desk that stored pen and paper and opened up to a flat writing surface; a Victrola player; postcards; typewriters; a sign from the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Co., which provided telephone service from 1903 to 1905; and the switchboard from the Hotel Geneva.

A lecture at 2 p.m. Saturday focuses on postcards. “Taking Postcards Seriously” will be presented by Christine Pyle of the Lake County Discovery Museum’s Curt Teich Postcard Archives, the world’s largest publicly held repository of postcards and the materials used to produce them. She will discuss the beginning of the postcard business in the United States and how postcards document late 19th- and 20th-century life and communication.

Also opening Saturday is “Every Story Counts: Everyday Stories from Everyday Genevans.”

Last fall, to celebrate Geneva’s 175th anniversary, the center partnered with the national StoryCorps program to collect oral histories from Genevans. Those histories are preserved at the American Folklore Center at the Library of Congress.

This exhibit features listening stations and touch screens to play audio clips from the interviews.

The exhibits will be open through May 7.

Admission to the exhibits is by donation. Admission to the postcard lecture is $7 for adults, $5 for center members and students.

The center is at 113 S. Third St. It is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.