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Lancater County has always had a refined taste for finely-crafted objects, despite our reputation for being plain and practical.
For generations, the Zahm family helped us indulge our appetite for fine jewelry and fancy baubles. (Except for my Amish relatives and other Plain People, who learned to just say, "No, thanks." to jewelry and other objects of dubious necessity.)
The Zahm store was located in the center of the action, on "Zahm's Corner," home to today's Fulton Bank on Penn Square.
Lancaster printers probably did not print the color images on these chromolithograph trade cards (business cards), although they did print the text. Trade cards were all the rage, here, in the last decades of the 19th century.
Above: A circa 1845 Clock sold by Zahm and Jackson. (And the print that inspired the clock painting.)
All roads lead to Lancaster's Centre Square (Penn Square) according to the clock by Michael Zahm and John W. Jackson.
The clock's reverse painting on glass depicts a Conestoga wagon heading south on Queen Street toward the courthouse, which held court in the center in today's Penn Square. (Where the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is today.)
The clock's painting is based on an illustration in the 1843 book Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, which I show here.
Lancaster City has always been the "county seat" of Lancaster County. So, for me, all roads really do lead to Lancaster City, the center of all known galaxies.
