Antique Tool Show & Sale returns to Garfield Farm Museum Aug. 2
Members of the Early American Industries Association (EAIA) and the Mid-West Tools Collectors Association (M-WTCA) will be holding their annual Antique Tool Show and Sale at the Garfield Farm Museum on Sunday, Aug. 2, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This is the only joint show by these two organizations in the mid-west open to the public. Typically, over 30 different collectors will have their tools on display and for sale.
Garfield Farm Museum established this annual show with tool club members, the late J. Francis Pfrank and the late Richard Chapman in 1993 to help educate the public with the realities of America’s founding.
Hand tools were what built and shaped America. In the 1840s as factories arose, handcrafted items became massed produced but not in the way mass production is envisioned today. The hand tools that individual craftsmen used simply transitioned to the early factories.
Waterpower might have made it possible for a number of lathes to be powered at once but hand tools were used to make any turnings. Blacksmiths were becoming old school in the mid-19th century, as the profession of mechanic became the high tech of its day.
Mechanics for the steam age to manufacture as well as maintain locomotives and lake and ocean-going steamers needed even more specialized hand tools to produce the precision needed.
Tool and die makers became the top hand tool workers of the 19th and early 20th century. Their inventiveness and skills would create the power tools that society depends upon today.
Appropriately, some of the most avid collectors one can meet at the Antique Tool Show are retired highly skilled tool and die makers. Many are the last generation to use hand tools and the first to use computerized machines to make the complex machines of mass production today.
The show also reflects the challenges America faces. Many of these hand tools would not be recognized by the average visitor. As industry and manufacturing have left the United States, our population is losing skilled knowledge for such production.
Tours of the 1846 teamster inn and tavern begin at 10 a.m. and continue after the show until 4 p.m. Light refreshments will be available.
Admission is $8 and $3 for children 12 years and under.
Garfield Farm Museum is a historically intact former prairie farmstead and teamster inn being restored by volunteers as a 1840s working farm. The museum is located on Garfield Road, off Route 38, 5 miles west of Geneva. For information, call (630) 584-8485. Email info@garfieldfarm.org or visit garfieldfarm.org.
33rd annual Antique Tool Show & Sale
When: Sunday Aug. 2, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Who: Mid-West Tool Collectors & Early American Industries Association
Cost: $8 ($3 for under 13)
Where: Garfield Farm Museum, 3N016 Garfield Road, Campton Hills, IL 60175
Contact: (630) 584-8485 or info@garfieldfarm.org