Marble Stories

Most of us marble enthusiasts who have collected for a while, been to some marble shows, read marble posts, and made friends in the community, and who have bought, sold, bartered, and given away marbles for years, have at least a basic knowledge of Akron, Ohio, in the 1890s. This was a time of fevered industrial expansion and … [Read more...] about A.L. Dyke: Man of Mystery

“Moving On”[1] We moved house while we were writing our story about Canadian marbles (https://thesecretlifeofmarbles.com/the-history-of-marbles-in-canada/) and we could not locate these Halifax marbles in our collection. We wanted them for our Canada story. Well, we are in our new home, we have located them, and we decided to share … [Read more...] about American Marbles Hidden in Halifax

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Pellet Crossbow ca. 1550 – 1600, Probably Italian or French[1] Some of you may hunt with crossbows or may use them recreationally. Others may also use stone bows or pellet bows and you may know all about different type pellets, caliber, velocity, and overall firepower. Well, … [Read more...] about Stonebows Using Marbles?

Co-Author: Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium All photos by Dr. Maria Tendryakova Dr. Maria Tendryakova[1] sent our frequent co-author Wendy Leyn an amazing email and photographs after her recent visit to the toys exhibition in the Museum of Archeology of Moscow. Dr. Tendryakova is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and … [Read more...] about Dispatch From A Moscow Museum

Photo: Julie Toupin 2019, Creative Commons 4.0 (by-nc-nd) Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology & History Complex/CeEt-14 > Operation 2134-35 > Catalogue Number 13, Archéolab Quèbec La Collection Archéologique De Référence Du Québec[1] Principle Researchers Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium & Julia McIntosh, Library … [Read more...] about The History of Marbles in Canada

Co-author: Wendy Leyn, Zandvoorde (Zonnebeke), Belgium Around Christmas 2015 Larry was speaking with Dare Hawkins, a marble friend of ours in Weston, West Virginia, about some questions we had about marbles. Dare is semi-retired and volunteers at the American Museum of Glass in West Virginia which is located in Weston … [Read more...] about Funny Money: Playing Marbles on Notes & Coins

  For a very long time children had no role in archaeology. Child’s play, children’s toys, the life and health of children, and children’s roles in society were seldom mentioned in archaeological field dig reports. Children, toys, and games and children’s material cultures were almost never mentioned at learned meetings and … [Read more...] about Invisible Children

  Senior Author: Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium Deceased, 2024   In our October 2023 post “Circles, Triangles, & Holes” we described how children in different countries tend to draw different patterns on the ground, or in chalk or on cobbles, in which to set up their marble games.  In the Americas, for example, … [Read more...] about French Marble Triangles

Remember James Harvey Leighton?  Marble collectors everywhere and those who just have a love of marble history remember Leighton for his 1891 patent for the "manufacture of glass spheres".  This was the first U.S. patent issued to make toy glass marbles by machine instead of by hand. Double Dipping? As described in our recent post … [Read more...] about Mid-Western American Hot Glass

Smithsonian Open Access|Smithsonian Institution[1] Have you ever heard a story or read an anecdote in a book, magazine, or online which you then could not get off of your mind? Hopefully, that happened with one of our stories! While later searching or just browsing online or while working on a project with your marbles, have you … [Read more...] about Sand: Another Four Letter Word?

Joueur de Billes (Marble Player)[1] Co-Author: Wendy Leyn, Zandvoorde (Zonnebeke), West Flanders, Belgium Editors: It is with deep sadness that we tell you that our dear friend Wendy Leyn has died due to heart failure.  Wendy was a friend, a colleague, and one of the most dedicated and tenacious researchers that it has been our … [Read more...] about Marble Snippets From Afar