Vaughn was born in the state of Kentucky on 6th October 1898, and pursued a successful career in the field of advertising in New York before retiring to Harford County, Maryland, to raise horses.
The X Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, U.S.A. from 30th July to 14th August 1932. Vaughan competed in the art competition to design the logo.
His interest in painting, which paralleled his love of horses and the turf, was instilled early in life at his childhood Kentucky home by his mother, an amateur artist. Most artists dealing with the racehorse confine themselves to portrait work, and those who commission this work want the traditionally stilted and "photographic" style. Vaughn painted portraits of racehorses, but his were somewhat revolutionary in that they were not formally posed. He painted his subject in his natural surroundings, being turned out in a paddock, loaded on a van, or being rubbed after a workout.
Vaughn once commented, "It is my observation that a painter always enjoys a conflict between logic and his instincts, and with me instinct always wins. It is much the same in breeding horses. There can be no doubt that the logic of the geneticists is the soundest foundation on which to proceed, but in the end your instinct tells you when you have a really good horse."
A good deal of Vaughn's work is owned by private art collectors, but his paintings hang also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Carnegie Institute, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, Baltimore Museum, Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C., Toledo Museum and the New Britain Institute, New Britain, Connecticut.
In his latter years, he was a familiar figure on the back stretch at Belmont Park, Saratoga, Pimlico (where he is credited with originating the idea of the Alibi Table at the clubhouse), the Aiken training track in South Carolina, clad in dungarees, a multi-pocketed field jacket and peaked fishing cap. He died in Philadelphia on 25th December 1955.
[his portrait is illustrated above; source unrecorded]