The American Toy Marble Museum is a
chartered, non-profit organization of Ohio, but it does not compete for
non-profit foundation grants. It is a partner in Akron After School and
is working closely with The Akron History Exhibit, The Summit County
Historical Society, The University of Akron, Archives, The Akron/Summit
County Public Library, Special Collections Division, The Lighter Than
Air Society, and Akron's Christkindle Market.
In 1989, a group of interested citizens of Akron, Ohio
– including Michael Cohill, Steven Mills and Elizabeth McGrath –
recognized that their city’s role was significant as the birthplace of
the modern American toy industry. They began talking about creating a
museum, and in 1991 they founded the non-profit organization, The
American Toy Marble Museum. |
In 1991, the group
assembled large collections of old Akron marbles and set up an
exhibition, which they took on the road, visiting numerous cities all
over the United States. These visits involved an entering into a
partnership with the Hill Top Shopping Centers in the San Francisco Bay
Area to create the largest public exhibition of marbles ever assembled.
The title of the exhibition was “Putting A Spin On The Past,” and it
opened in May of 1991 in Richmond, California. For the next four years,
this exhibition traveled the country being viewed by hundreds of
thousands of visitors, until it finally came back home to Akron, where
it was shown in Akron’s State Office Building in 1995. |
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For the next seven years, they
focused their attentions upon discussions with City officials and
conducting museum activities without a home. These activities included
researching historic manufacturing techniques, discovering old marble
works sites, holding tournaments, providing school programs and creating
other children’s programs. In fact, the museum developed various
children’s programs for the Akron Public Schools, primarily serving
under-privileged students, and now, with an expanded interdisciplinary
curriculum based upon Texas State Proficiency Standards it is available
to schools throughout the United States.
In 2004, the museum acquired two large and very important archives on
the subject of marbles, assembled by mibologists (researchers of toy
marbles). These, in addition to the museum’s existing archives, now
comprise the largest archives of primary research materials on marbles
in existence. These archives will be transferred to the Special
Collections Division of the Akron/Summit County Public Library, where
brand new state-of-the-art archives for perpetual preservation have been
built. |
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Initially, the
museum’s home was at the sight of America’s first modern glass marble
factory, The M.F. Christensen & Son Company. While the museum took
occupancy of the building, negotiations proceeded toward purchasing it.
However, in 1995, while the negotiations to purchase Christensen’s old
marble works looked promising, architectural plans showed the costs of
restoration and conversion to public use at well over $1.75 million.
Additionally, there was only parking for eight cars. At this point, the
City of Akron, realizing the potential of attracting out-of-town
visitors to our museum, promised to work with the board to find a new
location. Disappointed, the group moved the museum out of the old marble
works. The City of Akron made storage available in the Akron Industrial
Incubator for displays; the University of Akron Archives stored other
holdings.
In the mid 1990s, the City of Akron remodeled the old, abandoned
O’Neil’s department store in the heart of its Downtown business district
into what is now the home of Roetzel & Andress, LPA. The adjacent, old
and dilapidated parking deck that once served the department store and
had to come down. They decided replace the parking deck with a new one,
and with the remaining grounds, they decided to build a new city park:
Lock 3 Park.
Lock 3 Park sits on the site of
the former American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company (founded by S.C.,
Dyke, 1884-1904). This was the place of the very first toy marble
company in the United States, and the first industrialized toy company
in the world. While raising the old deck and turning the exposed land
into a city park, many thousands of old marbles, toys and artifacts from
this once great toy company were discovered and preserved. (Many of
these are now on display at the museum.) The City of Akron, believing
this might be a good fit, offered the use of this space for The American
Toy Marble Museum. In May of 2002 the museum opened its doors to the
public: it is free and supported by a volunteer staff. The City of Akron
also built the museum a series of traditional, 15-foot, octagon shaped,
clay marbles ring in the park for our children’s programming, the Akron
District Marbles Tournament and the All-American Marbles Championship.
During the museum’s 2004-2005 open season they enjoyed over 24,000
visitors. |