As you probably know, the Intelligencer Journal and New Era will merge on Monday.
You can read today’s story, with the details and historical context, by clicking here.
The Eras Past column will continue, under the new title Flashback Lancaster. It will draw on the archives of both newspapers and run on page B1 on Mondays.

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My, my, how the downtown Lancaster retail scene has changed in 75 years.
At right is a list of stores participating in “Lancaster Sales Day” in 1934. The list was published in the New Era on Jan. 22 of that year. It’s a nice Who’s Who from the retail landscape of that day.
But only a few of the […]

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Thanks to The Associated Press and General Motors, we present to you today some nostalgic photos from GM history. The captions are above the photos.
The 1977 Pontiac Ventura SJ:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The 1969 Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The 1965 Buick Riviera (note the car phones):

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The 1965 Pontiac GTO:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Chevrolet Corvair is displayed at the 46th Paris Auto Show at the Grand […]

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The Associated Press distributed an interesting story today recapping the history of nationalization efforts in the United States.
It provides some context to the General Motors situation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. assumption of a controlling interest in General Motors Corp. isn’t the first time the government has nationalized a company or an industry. It has taken […]

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Last week, I wrote about electric cars that were sold at a downtown Lancaster dealership in 1909.
Today, I learned that old electric cars will be a major feature of this year’s Kutztown Folk Festival in Berks County, from June 27 to July 5.
A number of early electric vehicles will be on display at the festival. Many […]

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Last year, the Lititz Car Co. began selling Zap brand electric cars and trucks that can travel up to 40 mph and go 25 miles between battery charges. It was a big new thing for Lancaster County…..sort of.
Turns out that 100 years ago, you could buy an electric car on East King Street that went about 15 mph […]

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Here’s an interesting little article that was published in the New Era on Dec. 12, 1958.
It’s an Associated Press piece reporting on predictions by America’s top industrial and business leaders on what life would be like in 1987.
Among the most accurate of the predictions is that everyone would have pocket telephones, although it took a little longer than […]

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This week marks the 79th anniversary of the great stock market crash of Oct. 28-29, 1929.
The Associated Press distributed some cool old photos from that time period (see below), and a story comparing the Great Crash of 1929 with the nation’s current financial  crisis. That prompted me to take a trip to our own archives to see how the Lancaster papers reported that historic event of nearly eight […]

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I haven’t heard of anyone proposing a “Prosperity Parade” to help combat the nation’s current economic woes. But that was exactly the approach Lancaster took 75 years ago in the midst of the Great Depression. 
On Monday, Oct. 16, 1933, an estimated 30,000 people took part in Lancaster’s “Prosperity Parade,” described as the biggest public pageant the city had ever seen. Nearly all business halted at noon, and […]

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Last year, I stumbled across an Aug. 20, 1907, article reporting on President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the laying the cornerstone for the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial in Provincetown, Mass.
The New Era ran a short story on the ceremony, under the provocative headlines at right, then printed the full text of Roosevelt’s speech.
I thought about that speech recently as critics blamed the excesses […]

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