Keeping the Faith—and Keeping Cool: Church Before Air Conditioning

Imagine a July Sunday morning in a rural Kentucky church in the 1930s. Despite the heat, women wear their best Sunday dresses, while many of the men have put on white shirts, dark suits, and ties. Farmers who own no suit may have donned freshly pressed overalls and a plaid shirt.

Through the large, open windows, flies and an occasional bee buzz in and out. The preacher’s booming voice competes with the chirping of birds and the occasional creaking of a passing wagon. The still air inside seems hotter than outside, heavy with the scent of perfume and sweat.

And above it all comes another sound—the soft, steady flutter of dozens of cardboard fans moving back and forth throughout the congregation.

Miller Funeral Home in Ashland, KY,
sponsored this church fan depicting
Christ on the Mount of Olives.

By the late nineteenth century, advertising fans had become a familiar sight in American churches, and they remained common well into the twentieth century—especially in churches without electricity or air conditioning. A flat wooden handle was glued or stapled to printed cardboard, allowing the user to wave the fan to provide a cooling breeze. Three-panel folding fans with no handle were also produced.

Although Carrier Air Conditioning, founded in 1915, offered cooling mechanisms for industry, it wasn’t until the 1930s that window air conditioners became available—for a steep price. Many rural churches, especially in the South, did not have electricity available until decades later, and when they did, less expensive ceiling fans were the first choice to provide relief from the heat.

Some church fans with an advertisement on the back
were made in a three-panel folding style without
a wooden handle, like this one picturing
The Last Supper.

But the humble cardboard fans remain a vivid reminder of Sunday mornings before air conditioning changed the church-going experience.

Many featured religious artwork—Jesus, the Good Shepherd, praying hands, biblical scenes, flowers, or inspirational sayings. Others carried scenic or patriotic images.

The most interesting aspect was who paid for them. Fans offered inexpensive, useful advertising that could remain in the church for a long time. Funeral homes became especially associated with them, but banks, insurance agents, drugstores, grocery stores and other businesses advertised on them as well.

The religious picture faced the worshipper while the business advertisement appeared on the reverse. The arrangement could produce an amusing contrast. A worshipper might gaze at Jesus the Good Shepherd while the person in the pew behind stared at the name of a nearby funeral director.

This fan advertised a funeral
home in Chattanooga, TN.

During World War II, insurance companies and
banks often promoted War Bonds on the backs
of handheld church fans.

Today, those advertisements can be more than curiosities. Surviving fans may preserve the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and proprietors of funeral homes and other businesses that received little attention in newspapers or official records, especially in Black communities. A humble piece of cardboard intended to keep worshippers cool can therefore become a small historical document.

When I started looking for a fun memento to promote my historical novel, Moonshine River, I wanted something that might have been familiar to people living in my characters' world. A church fan seemed perfect, especially since one was used in a scene in the novel.

The fan I used to promote my novel was
reminiscent of church fans from the early
20th Century.

Do you remember seeing these fans in church or at other locations, or have you actually used one? And do you remember what was advertised on the back? I’d love to hear your stories.

Sources:

Fisk, Sammy, "OH032 Bobby Allen Oral History" (2025). Land Between the Lakes. 2. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/oh-lbl/2

A time when hand fans cooled church-goers - Auction Finds

Holding on to Americana | Our State

Collection of church fans represents Southern hospitality

Air Conditioning History, Facts & Overview of Air Conditioners

Church Fans: Keeping It Cool Old School - WorthPoint

Curator's Corner - Preserving African American History and Material Culture: Church Fans

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. Moonshine River, the first book in her Between the Rivers Legacy series, released in September 2026. Learn more and sign up for a free historical short story at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.






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