News

Jul 05, 2023

Antique tools tell a story at Garfield Farm Museum's 30th annual show and sale on Aug. 6

Collectors will have their tools on display and for sale at the annual Antique Tool Show and Sale on Sunday, Aug. 6, at Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills. Courtesy of Garfield Farm Museum Members

Collectors will have their tools on display and for sale at the annual Antique Tool Show and Sale on Sunday, Aug. 6, at Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills. Courtesy of Garfield Farm Museum

Members of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association and the Early American Industries Association will be returning to Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills on Sunday, Aug. 6, to put on the 30th annual Antique Tool Show.

With all the dramatic events of the past four years, much public focus has been concentrated on the fear of change while peoples' ability to adapt and meet such challenges has been ignored.

Yet grasping a non-mechanized tool in hand, knowing for hundreds if not thousands of years humankind has ingeniously solved problems can reassure and inspire all ages for the future to come.

At Garfield Farm Museum Antique Tool Show, one can marvel at devices invented to solve problems of the past that took great craftsmanship just as engineers of today with great insight create computerized solutions to seemingly immense challenges.

Many of the exhibitors have career experience in working with hand tools and or their mechanized equivalents.

Show visitors include collectors but also a number of hobbyists and craftsman who are seeking tools they can use that are not available in today's market.

The late J. Francis Pfrank and the late Richard Chapman helped found the show in 1993.

It is the only Illinois show open to the public as all other meetings require membership in the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association or the Early American Industries Association.

It is an opportunity to learn about the organizations and introduce young budding collectors to the hobby.

For youthful visitors, it opens their eyes to methods of problem solving they could not imagine.

The show will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the museum on Garfield Road, off Route 38, five miles west of Geneva.

Admission is $8 or $3 for children under age 13.

At 10 a.m., tours of the 1846 brick tavern will be offered.

Garfield Farm Museum is a historically intact former prairie farmstead and teamster inn being restored by volunteers as an 1840s working farm.

For more information call (630)584-8485, email [email protected] or visit www.garfieldfarm.org.