Twenty years in preparation, Antebellum Shelf Clock Making in Farmington & Unionville Villages, Connecticut, by Snowden Taylor and Mary Jane Dapkus documents the emergence of two distinct clock making branches in the subject villages, each with particular roots that remained discernible in its clocks and movements, and in those of its successors, over a chaotic period. The stories presented connect the clock makers with such varied topics in U.S. history as industrialization, child labor, the temperance movement, abolitionism, Westward migration, a mysterious Illinois clock factory, frontier medicine, and a young attorney named Abraham Lincoln as well as his early law partner, Stephen T. Logan. Abundantly illustrated, this book not only identifies many previously unknown clocks and makers, but also reaffirms the value of antique clocks, their movements, and their labels as primary sources of historical information.