Marble Stories

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

Wait a minute!  We have shared marble stories with you about playing in circles and with holes, but "triangles"? Did you play marbles as a child or do you still play?   Bet you played in circles.  Have you ever considered how children in different countries (or even on different continents) set up for a game of marbles? Look at our … [Read more...] about Circles, Triangles & Holes

Co-Author: Wendy Leyn, Zandvoorde (Zonnebeke), West Flanders, Belgium   This story is a companion to “Has Nikolai Lost His Marbles?”. In that first story we started a review of the literature about Russian marbles and we collected reports from a number of experts and university-based academicians in the fields of phonetics, … [Read more...] about Searching For Nikolai’s Marbles

Courtesy of Bart Hendrickx, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy – Ghent University,Ghent, Belgium 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 … [Read more...] about Has Nikolai Lost His Marbles?