Posted on Jul 22, 2023
An antique fan collector is making these Kansas City artifacts cool again
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In the days before air conditioning, electric fans were how Midwesterners beat the heat. One local collector is restoring a rare set of antique fans that once cooled travelers in Kansas City’s Union Station.
Brett Vaughn couldn’t believe his luck last year when he heard about the impending sale of two antique fans that used to cool visitors at Kansas City's Union Station.
Vaughn is a member of the American Fan Collectors Association, and for weeks before the fans became available, collectors were lighting up online discussion boards with talk and photos of the rare machines.
“It's a once in a lifetime find,” he said.
Brett Vaughn couldn’t believe his luck last year when he heard about the impending sale of two antique fans that used to cool visitors at Kansas City's Union Station.
Vaughn is a member of the American Fan Collectors Association, and for weeks before the fans became available, collectors were lighting up online discussion boards with talk and photos of the rare machines.
“It's a once in a lifetime find,” he said.
An antique fan collector is making these Kansas City artifacts cool again
Posted from kcur.orgPosted in these groups: 
Antiques
Kansas City
Antiques Kansas City
Posted 10 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“You'd see Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, and Vivien Leigh,” Inman remembered with a laugh. “So people came to get a glimpse of stardom, celebrities. Of course, Harry Truman traveled by train from Washington, D.C., back here.”
Inman said fans would have been indispensable for Union Station travelers on the sweltering summer days locals are used to.
“I, of course, come from an era when there were very few air-conditioned homes. And on really, really hot days, my mom, dad and I would spend part of the day either in the movies or a Katz drugstore,” Inman said, to enjoy the cooled air that was available in select public places.
“So electric fans, I mean, that's how you survived,” he said.
Back in his Excelsior Springs workshop, Vaughn plans to continue to tinker with these hundred-year-old machines.
“Preservation is just appreciating something, and seeing the art in it — even though it may be mass-produced,” Vaughn said. “There is quality there, and it is worth keeping and preserving so future generations have an idea of the quality that we were pumping out at the beginning of the last century.”
Once he's finished restoring the Union Station fans, Vaughn said they’ll bring a cool breeze to Midwestern summers for many more years to come."
..."“You'd see Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, and Vivien Leigh,” Inman remembered with a laugh. “So people came to get a glimpse of stardom, celebrities. Of course, Harry Truman traveled by train from Washington, D.C., back here.”
Inman said fans would have been indispensable for Union Station travelers on the sweltering summer days locals are used to.
“I, of course, come from an era when there were very few air-conditioned homes. And on really, really hot days, my mom, dad and I would spend part of the day either in the movies or a Katz drugstore,” Inman said, to enjoy the cooled air that was available in select public places.
“So electric fans, I mean, that's how you survived,” he said.
Back in his Excelsior Springs workshop, Vaughn plans to continue to tinker with these hundred-year-old machines.
“Preservation is just appreciating something, and seeing the art in it — even though it may be mass-produced,” Vaughn said. “There is quality there, and it is worth keeping and preserving so future generations have an idea of the quality that we were pumping out at the beginning of the last century.”
Once he's finished restoring the Union Station fans, Vaughn said they’ll bring a cool breeze to Midwestern summers for many more years to come."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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